Conflicting patterns of thought in the Russian debate on transition: 1992 – 2002

After a paradigm shift in Russian economics around 1990, in the period 1992 – 2002 Russian economists increasingly returned to the path-dependent shared mental models that had prevailed earlier in their country. In particular, after the liberal reform concept seemed to have failed to solve the socio-economic problems of transition, the old debate between ‘Westernisers’ and Slavophiles was forcefully revived. The conflict between these camps has not yet been settled. This makes it difficult to predict the further development of Russia's economic and political order.