ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I provide the theoretical foundations of my study. I will start by clarifying what I understand under the term transition throughout this book. Thereafter, I will provide a brief introduction into the recent discussion on ideas and institutional change. This overview is not meant to be complete and highlights those aspects that are relevant for my case. In a third step, I discuss three features I believe to be specific for the case of post-Soviet Russia, namely the lack of liberal underground discourses, the ideological divide between the two strands of economic thought and the role that deep background ideas have been playing in the Russian debates over economic reforms in the last thirty years.
