*Les Russes d’en bas. Enquête sur la Russie post-communiste*, Berelowitch y Wieviorka
Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders examines the strategies employed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to build leadership authority. Political leaders often use a combination of coercion, material reward, and persuasion, but Professor Breslauer focuses on the power of ideas, as leaders use them to mobilize support and to craft an image as effective problem solvers, indispensable consensus builders, and symbols of national unity. In Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in Soviet Politics (1982), he documented Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's domestic policy strategies; this book handles domestic and foreign policies. All chapters compare Gorbachev and Yeltsin and Khrushchev and Brezhnev, mostly analyzing the changes in policy, the strategies, and the political dilemmas that are common to all four administrations. The book discusses the ways in which authority building was affected by political constraints unique to each of the stages.
Reviews & endorsements
'George Breslauer's Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders is the most insightful analysis of recent Russian statecraft yet to appear. Unlike many scholars who treat Gorbachev and Yeltsin as either heroes or failures, Breslauer carefully balances their successes and their shortcomings, examines conflicting interpretations of events, and offers a fascinating comparison of their respective styles of leadership. The book is a landmark in the study of political leadership and of Russian politics. It cannot be ignored by anyone seriously interested in present-day Russia.' Jack F. Matlock, Jr, Princeton University (Former US Ambassador to the Soviet Union)