IMF and socio-political processes in the post-soviet space

2017

Vestnik RUDN. International Relations, Vol 17, Iss 1, Pp 22-33 (2017)

The article shows that the practice of the International Monetary Fund to provide loans to countries in need starts an unexplored chain reaction of changes in the socio-political processes. As a working hypothesis, the author proposes the following assumption: functioning in the conditions of post-Soviet societies, where for a long time a key role in the economy and politics was played by the state, the IMF had underestimated the strong request of the local population to support the social sector by the government, which led to two consequences of his consulting activities - fund recommendations actually led to the stabilization of financial systems in the region, but on the other hand - to the inconsistency and incompleteness of the modernization of the structural reforms. Citizens criticized the reduction of subsidies for social segments, so the post-Soviet elites constantly fluctuated in relation to the full implementation of the recommendations of the IMF package. The author is of the opinion that the post-Soviet government in fact limited the maneuver of the fund, hence in some cases, even an international organization had to make concessions and indulgence of their original demands. The lack of a unified approach and long-term lending between the post-Soviet elite and the IMF provoked disappointment of the population of the need for liberalization and weakening of the state institution, as well as create conditions for social instability up to the “color revolutions”. The study is based on data of sociological surveys of the population.

article

English
Russian

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 2017.

МВФ, постсоветское пространство, СНГ, международные организации, международные финансовые институты, геополитика, глобализация, International relations, JZ2-6530, Political science (General), JA1-92