A framework for analyzing the post-Soviet economic elite

A threefold change (economic reform, democratization and a redefinition of the state's role) characterizes the post-Soviet transition. The post-Soviet economic elite should be studied by using various approaches proposed by economists, political scientists and sociologists. The one best suited to current conditions is the institutional approach, which considers the elite to be made up of individuals holding strategic positions in the country's major economic organizations. This approach needs to be completed with "qualitative" analyses (for example, in terms of a "social project") if we are to better understand actors' strategies in the post-Soviet economy, which is paradoxically both fluid and rigid. Ultimately, a multidisciplinary inquiry is needed, since the subject of the post-Soviet economic elite cannot be separated from the political, economic and institutional processes now under way in the ex-USSR and in most of its former satellites.