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Figure 9.7. Michael Gorbachev
WHAT IS LIFE LIKE IN THE NEW RUSSIA?
When Europe's Communist regimes started to collapse, at least two enormous problems
confronted those seeking the regimes' replacement: how to guide an authoritarian society
toward democracy and how to replace a command economy with a market economy. Both
problems intertwine. Modern market economies (capitalism) operate within an elaborate
framework of government controls: contract laws, stock market and banking regulations,
laws that protect workers' and consumers' safety and health, and a judicial system that
oversees the intricate network of the market's operation. Most important, the judicial sys-
tem itself is regulated by traditions and laws that embrace the rule of law. All people, no
matter what their wealth or social standing, are presumed within the law's control and are
presumed equally treated by the law.
Within the traditions of a market economy, each person is reasonably free to buy, sell,
enter into contracts, control one's entry or exit from employment, choose one's own vo-
cation, live where one chooses, and marry whomever one chooses. Under this umbrella of
freedom, democracies and market societies evolve interactively.
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