ABSTRACT
Building democracy and a market economy were assumed to be compatible and complementary processes which could be introduced to any country on the planet. One can argue that Russian democracy would have been better served by a parliamentary system, in which the executive and legislative branches of government are joined rather than separated. The non-emergence of an independent judiciary has been one of the weakest spots in Russia's attempted transition to democracy. Russia's democratization began with glasnost, and the country has acquired a combative and broadly independent press staffed by a core of dedicated journalists. During the elections of 1989 and 1990 a loose coalition of voters' clubs emerged, which came together as the Democratic Russia movement. The economics of transition is typically discussed in terms of a trade-off between social justice and economic growth, or even between democracy and economic development.
