ABSTRACT
This chapter analysis of the peculiar legal environment of Russian capitalism. The context of this analysis is not only the familiar military and cultural conflicts between Russia and the West but also recurrent confrontations over economic issues, which have received less scrutiny. The chapter offers brief definitions of autocracy and the rule of law in their historical contexts. It analyzes the persistence of the Russian autocratic tradition, during which occasional episodes of reform from alternated with long periods of bureaucratic resistance to reform. The chapter examines some crucial episodes in the late nineteenth century, when major economic reforms based on the rule of law seemed possible: the era of the Great Reforms and the period of rapid industrial development under Minister of Finance Sergei Iu. Witte. After consideration of why these reforms failed, the discussion concludes with some thoughts on the prospects for the rule of law in the post-Soviet economy.
