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Autocratic Policy and the Accumulation of Social Capital: The Moscow Housing Renovation Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2023

EKATERINA BORISOVA Open the ORCID record for EKATERINA BORISOVA [Opens in a new window] ,
REGINA SMYTH  and
ALEXEI ZAKHAROV Open the ORCID record for ALEXEI ZAKHAROV [Opens in a new window]
EKATERINA BORISOVA*
Affiliation:
Université de Lille, France, and CESifo, Germany
REGINA SMYTH*
Affiliation:
Indiana University Bloomington, United States
ALEXEI ZAKHAROV*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago, United States, and HSE University, Russia
*
Ekaterina Borisova, Research Fellow, Univ. Lille, CNRS, IESEG School of Management, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Économie Management, France, and Research Network Affiliate, CESifo, Germany, ekaterina.borisova@univ-lille.fr.
Regina Smyth, Professor, Department of Political Science, Indiana University Bloomington, United States, rsmyth@indiana.edu.
Corresponding author: Alexei Zakharov, Visiting Associate Professor, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, United States, and Associate Professor (on leave), Faculty of Economics, HSE University, Russia, al.v.zakharov@gmail.com.
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Abstract

Can autocratic policy generate incentives for the accumulation of social capital and political engagement? This question is important to understand stability in authoritarian regimes that increasingly rely on governance to build legitimacy and social support. While existing research shows that the incentives for societal interaction embedded in policies can yield new forms of social capital and political engagement in democratic regimes, the top-down nature of policy and the corrupt and information-poor context of policy implementation could undermine this mechanism in authoritarian regimes. We explore this question by examining the effect of the Moscow Housing Renovation Program, a massive urban renewal project, that required residents to organize to obtain new housing. Comparing a matched sample of 1,300 residents living in buildings included and excluded from the program, we find that interactions induced by the program led to changes in the level of social capital among residents in included buildings. We also find spillover effects on political engagement and collective action against pension reform.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , First View , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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