Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Perspectives on postcommunist democratization
- 2 Democratization and political participation: research concepts and methodologies
- The Russian Federation
- 3 Democratization and the new political order in Russia
- 4 Democratization and political participation in Russia's regions
- 5 The development of political parties in Russia
- Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine
- Appendix
- Index
4 - Democratization and political participation in Russia's regions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Perspectives on postcommunist democratization
- 2 Democratization and political participation: research concepts and methodologies
- The Russian Federation
- 3 Democratization and the new political order in Russia
- 4 Democratization and political participation in Russia's regions
- 5 The development of political parties in Russia
- Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine
- Appendix
- Index
Summary
The problem: regional politics and democratization in Russia
Broadly speaking, the literature on transitions to democracy suggests three phases: the breakdown of the old authoritarian regime, the introduction of transitional democratic institutions, and a period of democratic consolidation. However, the level of analysis used almost exclusively in this literature is the national state or comparisons between states. Such analysis rarely deals with how transitions are realized at the sub-national level of politics. Yet it is hard to imagine a successful transition to democracy taking place only at the national level. Indeed, it seems more reasonable to argue that the democratization of national political institutions without corresponding changes taking place locally would be a prescription for political instability. What this chapter proposes to do is to examine how the phases of transition noted here have been implemented in Russian regional politics and to draw some conclusions about the underlying factors that will help determine whether Russia will become a stable democracy.
What do we mean by regional politics? According to the Constitution adopted in December 1993, Russia is formally a federation comprised of eighty-nine sub-national members (in Russian, sub″ekty). Among these members are forty-nine oblasts, twenty-one republics, ten okrugs (national districts), six krais (territories), two large cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and the Jewish autonomous oblast. The term “regional” is most accurately used to refer to politics and government in the oblasts, krais and two largest cities of the Russian Federation (all of which have the administrative status of an oblast), although it is commonly extended to cover the republics as well.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova , pp. 130 - 174Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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