Drawing on research based on access to recently-opened Soviet archives, this revised edition provides a thematic account of the nature of Stalinism. The book surveys the arguments about the origins of the Stalinist phenomenon and discusses the way in which the different faces of Stalinism (economic, social, cultural and political) changed over time. It concludes that the fall of the USSR was connected to the nature of Stalinism.

The author assesses the main theories developed to account for and explain why and how authoritarian regimes give way to democratic ones. The book takes issue with the predominantly elite-centred focus of much of the literature, and illustrates how an understanding of democratization can be gained only if the role of civil society is taken into account.

During the Soviet period, political symbolism developed into a coherent narrative that underpinned Soviet political development. Following the collapse of the Soviet regime and its widespread rejection by the Russian people, a new form of narrative was needed, one which both explained the state of existing society and gave a sense of its direction. By examining the imagery contained in presidential addresses, the political system, the public sphere and the urban development of Moscow, Graeme Gill shows how no single coherent symbolic programme has emerged to replace that of the Soviet period....

Despite the increasing globalization of many aspects of social, economic and political life, the state remains the fundamental element of contemporary governance. This fully revised and extended new edition provides a broad-ranging introduction to the origins, role and future of the modern state tracing out how significant shifts in state capacity came about in relation to developments in economic, political and ideological power.