ABSTRACT
New schemes for fairly generous unemployment benefits were enacted in most countries, including Russia. An extended debate emerged about what actually was developing in the region's labour markets, especially marked in relation to Russia, where predictions ranged from dangerous collapse, to sustained boom. In the event the collapse of industrial production in the Russian case, together with a chaotic transition to the political management of routine domestic mechanisms such as the collection of taxes with which to fund social expenditures, meant that residualism in welfare was inevitable. The difficulty with such general comparisons is whether they hold right across a society, or even across its welfare system. If the meagre resources of the poorest are exhausted, then growing anomie, social tension and social exclusion in Russian society will be unavoidable. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
