Yeltsin's decisions or non-decisions regarding the construction of a new Russian polity and a market economy after the abrupt collapse of the Soviet Union greatly influenced the reorganization of societal interest groups. The transition to a market economy based on private property stimulated the emergence of a whole new set of economic interests. In parallel, the economic hardship and disorientation that followed from reform initiatives combined to demobilize mass-based political groups. The power and organization of a particular kind of 'economic society' grew at the same time that the influence and privilege of 'political society' and 'civil society' were on the wane.