National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER) is a non-profit organization created in 1978 to develop and sustain long-term, high-quality programs for post-doctoral research on the social, political, economic, environmental, and historical development of Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe.   More

New Working Papers Released

Serbia between East and West: Bratstvo, Balancing, and Business on Europe's Frontier

Andrew Konitzer, Samford University

This article critically examines contemporary narratives which frame Serbian politics as a conflict between supporters of a pro-European Union (EU) policy and supporters of closer ties with Russia. Contrary to this narrative, contemporary Serbian political actors increasingly present policies and platforms oriented towards both the European Union and Russia. These developments reflect the contradictory legacies arising from the history of Serbian and Russian diplomatic relations along with the sometimes ambivalent implications of Russia's stance on the issue of Kosovo's independence, Serbian public attitudes towards Russia and recent developments in Serbian-Russian economic relations.

Given the long time frame for EU membership and the current impasse over issues like Kosovo and Serbia's potential NATO membership, Serbia's leaders currently enjoy the luxury of simultaneously deepening ties with both the EU and Russia. However, future developments regarding Serbia's EU membership and the possibility of Serbia's joining NATO will likely present Serbian political elites with mutually-exclusive choices bearing important implications for their relations with either Russia or the EU.

To Owe is Not to Own: Why Russians Reject Mortgages (and Why Americans Accept Them)

Jane Zavisca, University of Arizona

This study traces the cultural consequences of transplanting the American model of housing markets to Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian government, with the assistance of USAID, attempted to establish a system of mortgage lending. Imported foreign institutions, unadapted to the Russian context, produced what legal scholars call a "transplant effect," a transfer of rules from one culture to another that slows economic development and provokes cultural resistance.

In the US a mortgage provides a sense of ownership, but in Russia, mortgages are labeled "debt bondage" and Russians insist that the bank, not the borrower, owns the home. Whereas borrowing to buy a home is seen in the US as a virtuous investment compared to credit cards, in Russia, a mortgage represents unconscionable hubris, while small-scale credit is considered banal. And to Americans, paying interest on loans spanning decades is a taken-for-granted condition of ownership; Russians, by contrast, are outraged by interest payments and uncertain ownership of a commodity they consider to be a basic right. In short, even if mortgages become more affordable in Russia, the market will not emerge until mortgages gain cultural legitimacy.