Russia’s post-Soviet development has been marked by recurring economic reforms of varying scale and nature. Economic policy is often grounded in ideological justifications conveyed through theoretical narratives that explain its direction. Drawing on transcripts of 35 in-depth interviews and three focus groups with Russian academic economists, we use thematic and narrative analysis to identify five key themes and the theoretical narratives they contain: the crisis of Russian economics and economists’ self-identification; “scientific neoliberalism” or the supposed “ideological neutrality” of economic policy; economic sovereignty and identity; state intervention in the name of justice; and institutions and economic policy. We then systematize these narratives against previously identified ideal types of economic ideology, showing that each appears in the scholarly literature and that a single narrative may align with several ideal types. Finally, we classify the narratives on a trichotomous scale – destructiveness, neutrality, constructiveness – with respect to economic policy and reforms in Russia. We argue that a constructive ideology of economic reform should emerge evolutionarily through the pragmatic adaptation of contemporary science to current challenges, taking into account historical development, culture, and existing institutions. The findings will be of interest to researchers studying ideology in economics and to those involved in designing reforms and implementing economic policy
Keywords
economic ideologies, thematic analysis, theoretical narrative, economic policy, reforms