ABSTRACT

A strong leader – i.e. an individual who concentrates great power in his hands and uses it to solve the country’s problems – is often considered a good thing in contemporary politics. Vladimir Putin has always presented himself as precisely this kind of leader. This article considers whether Putin actually is a strong leader who has used his powers to do great things for Russia. The analysis begins by considering whether Putin is a strong leader in terms of the powers that he holds. It then assesses whether Putin has used these powers to solve Russia’s problems in terms of economic development, order, and national standing. Russia here is compared to the other states of the Former Soviet Union, as they all share a common Soviet heritage and have been subject to comparable structural forces. The study utilizes the data (arguably underused in the field) provided by institutions such as the World Bank to examine a large number of socio-economic factors. If Putin really is a strong leader who has transformed Russia, we would expect performance in Russia to be better than in these other countries. The article finds that Russia’s record is average at best and that Putin is an unexceptional leader.

摘要

强大的领导者-即将强大的力量掌握在手中并用来解决国家问题的个人-在当代政治中通常被视为一件好事。弗拉基米尔·普京（Vladimir Putin）始终把自己打扮成这种领导人。本文考虑普京是否真的是一个强大的领导人，曾利用自己的力量为俄罗斯做大事。分析从考虑普京是否拥有强大的领导能力开始。然后评估普京是否利用这些权力来解决俄罗斯的经济发展，秩序和国家地位问题。这里的俄罗斯与前苏联的其他州相比，因为它们都具有共同的苏联遗产，并受到可比的结构力量的影响。这项研究利用了世界银行等机构提供的数据（可能在该领域未得到充分利用）来研究大量的社会经济因素。如果普京真的是改变俄罗斯的强大领导人，那么我们希望俄罗斯的表现会好于其他国家。文章发现，俄罗斯的记录充其量只能算是平均水平，普京是一位无与伦比的领导人。