ABSTRACT
Modernizing regimes such as those of the Soviet Union, Mexico, and India that have to a significant degree been successful in modernizing their societies, have, as a result, undergone profound changes in the final decades of the twentieth century. The social and political developments in Russia may in some ways be similar to certain developments in other societies now evolving after the decline of modernizing regimes. To the extent that modernizing regimes created similar conditions, post-modernizing regimes are likely to have to adopt and follow similar policies, while the ability of even powerful leaders to depart from them is limited. The situation commonly evolves after regimes of revolutionary modernizers have come to an end, because under modernizing regimes a variety of organized interest groups that are independent of the regime and strong enough to check each other are not likely to have developed.
