Multiple Trajectories, New Debates

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the dilution of frontiers between private interests and public policies has attracted growing attention in the literature on post-soviet states. Conversely, in Africa, the related concept of neopatrimonial state is challenged by the continent’s unprecedented economic growth and the related images of an emerging region. This special issue is the result of a dialogue between Africanists and specialists of post-soviet states who review and compare the use of emblematic notions or concepts such state ‘capture’, neopatrimonial rule, ‘patronal presidentialism’, ‘pockets of effectiveness’, ‘market socialism’ and developmental state. The outcome is a series of innovative cross-regional contributions on the substance and implications of interactions between personal rule, business and market economies.