This paper tests whether politically connected firms in Putin’s Russia are a channel for the political business cycle. Given the widespread corruption and crony capitalism that exists in Russia, it is likely that federal and regional politicians may need to buy the electoral support of powerful, connected firms in order to win elections. Using panel data of approximately 60,000 Russian firms comprising an estimated 62 percent of GDP per year from 2003-2011, I find that federally connected firms are significantly more productive in federal election years. If these cycles in firm productivity are caused by electoral favors from politicians, this not only further corrupts Russia’s political landscape, but it also may induce powerful firms to engage in costly political bidding wars for these connections, thus inhibiting their productivity and the overall productivity of the Russian economy.

Quel est le modèle politique de la Russie de Vladimir Poutine ? Ce travail de thèse propose une analyse compréhensive du cas russe grâce au concept de néopatrimonialisme. En s’inspirant de la sociologie politique des élites, de la sociologie historique de l’Etat et de l’économie politique nous proposons de reconstruire les logiques d’actions des acteurs dans le cadre d’un système d’interaction dont l’Etat néopatrimonial est un idéaltype. Celui-ci tient à deux dimensions essentielles qui légitiment sa domination : l’autocratie institutionnalisée renvoie aux rouages politiques, tandis que le capitalisme de connivence illustre le rôle de l’entreprise néopatrimoniale et des réseaux politico-économiques dans la redistribution des ressources. Malgré sa stabilité, ce modèle produit des effets émergeants dont la « dépolitisation institutionnelle » qui rend impossible l’institutionnalisation du pluralisme politique tandis que la confusion des sphères politique et économique participe à l’émergence d’une classe dirigeante qui verrouille les espaces de renouvellement élitaire. / What is the nature of the political model in Vladimir Putin’s Russia ? This work aims at making sense of the Russian case through a comprehensive approach and the concept of neopatrimonialism. Inspired by the sociology of elites, the historical sociology and the political economy our work presents the logic of actors acting in an interdependence system which tends to the idealtype of a Neoparimonial State. It is structured through two dimensions that legitimate its domination: institutionalized autocracy reflects the political side of it while crony capitalism illustrate the role of the State-enterprise and the business-politics networks in the redistribution of resources process. Despite its stability, this model creates emerging effects such as “institutional depoliticization” that prevents political pluralism to institutionalize while the political-economic nexus creates a new ruling class which dominant position locks elite renewal.

Reference 1 Abstract The aim of this Master Thesis is to present annotated translation of the chapter Nord-Ost. Noveyshaya istoriya unichtozheniya (Istoriya pervaya. Pyatyi; Istoriya vtoraya. No. 2551 - neizvestnyi; Istoriya tretya. Siradzhi, Yacha i vsye-vsye-vsye). The first part of the commentary focuses on analysis of the author's life and work, current political and social situation in the Russian Federation and the position of Russian opposition journalists and organisations. The next part presents comparative analysis of the original and also translation solutions, which were created with emphasis on the functional equivalence. In this part the translation method is presented. The closing part discusses translation solutions of the difficult parts of the text.