What role do businesspeople play in Russian politics? Answers to this question are plagued by speculation and exaggeration. Journalistic accounts highlight extensive corruption and boastful claims by businesspeople about their sway in political life. In this masterful book, David Szakonyi provides us with the best of the social sciences, with astute analysis of exactly how and why businesspeople in Russia run for office, what they do when they win, and what happens as a result. His conclusions travel far beyond Russia’s borders, offering lessons for business-state relations around the world.

A central feature of Politics for Profit is impressive and extensive original data about businesspeople candidates in Russia. Using a Python algorithm, Szakonyi mines public databases on candidates in regional elections in 83 regions from 2004 to 2011, resulting in a detailed data set of 17,105 candidates and 9,475 firms. A separate original data set tracks 68,169 businessperson candidates for mayoral positions from 2007 to 2016. Although there are limits to what the data can tell us given the time period and the exclusion of some self-described candidates who could not be matched with firms, the breadth and detail of the data are largely unprecedente