Authoritarian politics of ideas, interests and policy change Finance and development in Putin's Russia

The thesis employs theories of authoritarian legitimation as well as of ideational and policy change to explain a gradual change in economic ideas and policy in Putin‘s Russia (2000-2018). Using cases of the Stabilization Fund and of industrial policy, it shows how re-industrialization of the Russian economy that was unthinkable in the 1990s and early 2000s becomes doable in the second half of the 2000s and is realized on a grand scale in Putin‘s third term, 2012-2018. The thesis explains this ideational and policy change by pointing to an initial tension between political ideas serving to legitimate Putin‘s regime and liberal economic ideas promoted by technocrats in ministries and think-tanks. In the course of Putin’s rule national conservative elites supporting Putin‘s regime in principle grow increasingly dissatisfied with its economic rationale and enforce a change towards state-led development. The thesis formulates several theoretical claims concerning the relevance of ideology in the policy process, the sort of ideas that constitute an ideational approach to economic policy, the effectiveness of elite versus popular pressure for policy change, the role of crisis in ideational and policy change and the role of institutions in the policy process.