A Deficit of the Law

(A Critical Political Economy of Private Protection) Market reforms of the 1990s in Russia were thought as a way to overcome a shortage of goods and services. Author argues that the reforms gave rise to another type of shortage, the deficit of universal and acceptable for all economic actors norms - the Law. Two periods of the reforms, teleological and genetic (W. Andreff), are considered. During the genetic period of the reforms (the second half of the 1980s) the deficit of the Law resulted from a lack of official justice. The teleological reforms lead to a situation where the costs of the Law start playing a key role. The author shows that reducing the costs of the Law abiding behavior is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition of successful market reforms. Issues of the justice should be taken into consideration as well. Economic actors will refer to the Law only if it is not prohibitively expensive and if they believe in justice of legal decision. Last condition could be attained only in the framework of a democratic state.