In a relevant and cutting edge analysis, this book examines policy-making in Russia as a process of social learning, using the case of housing policy.

Centering its study around three explanatory variables - actors, institutions and ideas - it argues that Russia's hybrid institutional environment reduces the competition of policy ideas, both at the stage of policy elaboration by the community of state and non-state policy experts, and also at the stage of policy adoption by parliament. Consequently policies only partially satisfy key societal needs, and require frequent revisions of the paradigmatic basis of policy.

The book also highlights the importance of gradual institutional evolution, as a mode of policy development that produces fundamental transformation of policy over time and changes in government which can result in abrupt shift in policy.