Presentation of a book by Dr Abel Polese

It is our honour to invite you to the presentation of the book Limits of a Post-Soviet State: How Informality Replaces, Renegotiates, and Reshapes Governance in Contemporary Ukraine by Dr Abel Polese (senior researcher at Dublin City University and Tallinn University). The book is published by Columbia university press with a foreword by Colin Williams.  The presentation will be held  at 5 pm on  October 24. 

 

Though informed by case studies conducted in Ukraine, this book transcends its country-specific scope. It explains why informality in governance is not necessarily transitory or temporary but a constant in most political systems. The book discusses self-protective mechanisms, responses to incomplete or unfocused policy making, and strategies employed by individuals, classes, and communities to respond to unusual demands. The book argues that when state or company expectations exceed normative behavior, informal behavior continues to thrive. New tactics help cope with the reality of governance. Informality also challenges the values imposed by power through attitudes and behaviors that take place "beyond" or "in spite of" the state.

 

Address:  Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Building 1, Room 305.