I. The politics of transition: A changing Russian political culture? The social bases for reform and anti-reform. The Russian parliament. The state bureaucracy. Political parties and elections. The role of the media; `Women of Russia' and women's representation in Russian politics.
II: Social Classes and Inequalities: Politics and class in the privatisation process. Privatisation and the new business class. The working class in post-communist Russia. The position of women in post-Soviet Russia. Interaction of political and national-ethnic conflicts in contemporary Russia. The changing welfare state. Poverty.