As post-communist countries struggle to modernize and adopt democratic rule, Russia and China face obstacles specific to their political and historical contexts. The main findings of this article reveal that economic and political liberalism are closely linked and that economic liberalization facilitates democratization. Thus, the deficiency (rather than surplus) of economic liberalization has contributed to Russia's democracy deficit and has been one of the major obstacles to Russia's democratization. However, in China, under a total political dictatorship, only economic reform took place. Without political reforms, there would be no democracy, even if economic modernization prospered rapidly. Both nations stopped short of abandoning the bureaucratic communist regime and instead incorporated the market economy with heavy bureaucratic control. This persistence of bureaucratic control over the economy hinders democracy in both countries. One of the most controversial and politically significant debates in the social sciences focuses on the relationship between economic policy and political regime. Political scientists still continue to debate whether measures that increase the freedom of private economic actors promote democracy or not. This debate is immediately relevant to Russia's post-communist experience. As we discussed in class, there is evidence that economic freedom and democracy go hand in hand. This makes sense if we consider the market as an ally of open politics. Autonomous economic activity serves as a bulwark against despotism. This perspective is consistent with the idea that both capitalism and democracy are based on free choice and that capitalism separates economic power from political and therefore… middle of paper… itic power. Control and governance of a nation as large as Russia would require authoritarian control. This created a forced economic modernization, a half-hearted political reform towards democracy. From this we can conclude that, after all, Russian democracy today is a semi-democracy. Much like in China, economic reform was carried out under a total political dictatorship. Perhaps the Chinese learned from the Soviet Union and its semi-democracy, and saw that economic reform could be carried out without political reform. However, there is evidence of development in both nations. Over the past decade, China has become the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing economy. This allows for a greater degree of freedom and freedom in their economic, social and private lives. These new developments indicate that the transition towards political liberalization has begun in China.