Russian Federation: Background
Notes
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Population 146.9 million
Size 6,592,735 sq. mi.
Head of State: Vladimir Putin
People
Nationality: Noun and
adjective--Russian(s).
Annual growth rate:
Negative.
Ethnic groups: Russian 81%,
Tatar 4%, Ukrainian 3%, other
12%.
• Religion: Russian Orthodox,
Islam, Judaism, Roman
Catholicism, Protestant,
Buddhist, other.
Political System
• Current system “transitioning democracy”
• Results from:
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Thousand years of statehood
70 years of communist rule
One decade of democratic reform
Cultural structure
• Deeply authoritarian
Importance
• Post communist Russia the inheritor of the
Soviet military industrial complex
• Geo-political location
• Size and natural resources
• Enduring international alliances
New system versus old system
• New political system has inherited the
baggage of the past
• Tax collection difficult
• Governmental orientation attempting to
move from Soviet military emphasis to
democratic, socio-economic, civic
orientation
Changing Institutions
• 9th century onward Russia ruled by
hereditary monarch
• 20th century tsar agreed to a constitution
calling for legislature – authoritarian
orientation remained
• Peter the Great (1682-1725)
• Catherine the Great (1762-1796)
Revolution
• 1917 Russian Revolution
• Create a socialist society and spread revolutionary
socialism throughout the world
– Lenin (1917-1924)
– Stalin (1924-1953)
• Tsarist order collapses unable to deal with modern
world (WWI)
– Left a legacy of absolute rule
– Separation of state from society
Communist Leaders
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Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1917-1924)
Joseph Stalin (1924-1953)
Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964)
Lenoid Brezhnev (1964-1982)
Yuri Andropov (1982-1984)
Konstantin Chernenko (1984-1985)
Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1990)
Gorbachev
• Glastnost – need for greater openness
within the political system
• Overcentralization had stymied the exercise
of political power at lower levels of
government
– Resistance to orders
– Distortion of information
– Bureaucratic immobilism
Gorbachev
• Wanted to reform the economic system
• Citizen well-being the ultimate test of a
successful system
– Market relations
– Pragmatism in economic policy
– Less secrecy
Gorbachev’s Reforms
• Law-governed state
– Even the communist party
• International arms control treaties
– USA, arms reduction agreements
• Free elections
– Citizens began to organize into groups
• Working parliament
1989
• Eastern European satellites comprising the
“Soviet Bloc” collapsed
– At least in part due to loss of economic support
• Multiparty parliamentary regimes emerged
• Elaborate ties to the Soviets in all areas
vanished
• Reunified Germany remains a member of
NATO (Gorbachev agrees in 1990)
1989 and consequences for
Soviet Union
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Popular hostility
Loss of authority
power transferred to elected bodies
Private property and free markets emerge
Rise of an economic system that begins in a state
of chaos.
• National republics (15) with new legislatures
began to declare their independence
Collapse
• 1990 elections stimulated political discourse on
democracy
• Boris Yeltsin wins election to the Russian
Supreme Soviet
• Spring 1991 Gorbachev begins negotiations on
new political structures; confederal union between
9 of the 15 republics
• At the signing ceremony Gorbachev is placed
under house arrest and by his own vice-president,
KGB chief, and other officials
Citizen Response
• Citizens take to the street to protest the coup;
Yeltsin calls for Gorbachev’s return to office
• Coup collapses after three days…Gorbachev is
returned to office -- powerless
• Confederal arrangement (union) is taken over by
the Russian government throughout Fall of 1991
• November 1991 President Yeltsin decrees that the
Communist party is illegal
• December 25, 1991 Gorbachev resigns turns
power over to Yeltsin
Explanation for Eastern European
Collapse?
• Reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev
– But what made these reforms necessary?
• Dependence on the Red Army and Soviet money
– What about governmental structures?
• Economic Crisis
– Fails to account for timing – economic crisis the norm
• New Social movements
– Long march of the opposition
Democratic Transition: Russia
• Questions raised about democracy:
– Can we simply set institutions, laws and leaders
into place?
– Does democracy require something more?
Social identification or economic conditions?
– Does democracy emerge only from within or
can it be imposed from without?
Transition: 1990-1993
• June 1991 Yeltsin elected president of the
Russian Federation
• Direct popular election
• Yeltsin demands extraordinary powers to
deal with economic problems
• January 1992 new economic reforms took
effect
Transition: 1990-1993
• January 1992:
– Prices skyrocketed
• Mid-1992:
– Opposition to shock therapy approach grows
– Yeltsin and reformers versus opponents of radical
reform
– Yeltsin exceeds constitutional power to carry out
reforms
– Parliament refuses to adopt a new constitution giving
him greater powers.
Transition: 1990-1993
• http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/cons
t/constit.html
• March 1993: a motion to impeach the president
introduced in Congress
• September 1993 Yeltsin dissolves parliament –
December elections
• Opponents barricade themselves in parliament
building
• Army launches an attack on the building killing
several.
Yeltsin constitution of 1993
• December 1993 elections to approve the old and
new constitutions
• New constitution created a “presidential republic”
– Combined presidential/parliamentary regime
– Dual executive, popularly elected president
– President appoints a government that must sustain the
confidence of parliament to remain in power
– President has power to issue decrees with force of law
w/parliamentary override
– President appoints the Prime Minister
Yeltsin constitution of 1993
• President appoints the Prime Minister with approval
of parliament
– Duma can refuse to confirm
– After three attempts if Duma still refuses to confirm a
presidential nominee, the President may dissolve the Duma
and call for new elections
• Duma may hold vote of no confidence in the
government
– First time a motion of no confidence carries, the president
may ignore it.
– A second motion of no confidence means the president
must either dissolve the parliament or dismiss the
government
Institutions
• President – head of state and guarantor of the
constitution, not chief executive – foreign/security policy
• Prime Minister – oversees economy
• Parliament – Federal Assembly
– State Duma (lower house)
• Originates legislation
– Federation Council (upper house)
• Duma has override ability in relationship between two houses
• Executive-Legislative Relations
– Strong executive with legislative checks
– Parliamentary approval required for legislation
– Constitutional requirement of parliamentary confidence in
government
Executive
• Federation with 89 subunits
– 21 republics, 55 provinces, 11
autonomous districts, 2 federal
cities
• Dual Executive
• Directly elected president
• Presidential appointment of
Prime Minister
– With approval of the lower
house of parliament the State
Duma
• President is strongest
figure in the system
• Semi-presidential system
• Complicated impeachment
process
• Commander-in-chief
• Power to declare state of
emergency; Impose
martial law; Grant
pardons; Call referendums
• Temporarily suspend
action of other state
organs
Elections
• 1995 parliamentary elections free and fair
• 1996 presidential elections free and fair
• Political parties – proliferation of parties has been
widespread, opening the possibility (but not yet) of
political fragmentation
• Yeltsin’s “Ring” –
– August 9, 1999 names Putin acting Prime Minister
– Resigns Dec 31, 1999
• 1999 parliamentary elections free and fair
• 2000 presidential elections free and fair
• Yeltsin Timeline
Vladimir Putin
• http://www.npr.org/news/specials/putin/bioti
meline.html
• 9/4/2004 Putin admits weakness in face of
Beslan terror attack (hundreds killed at
school in North Ossetia)
• 9/7/2004 Putin criticizes U.S. officials for
negotiations with Chechens.
• Reforms proposed early October 1004
Putin’s Proposed Reforms
• Regional governor’s to be nominated by the head of state
rather than elected.
• Federal commission to study the North Caucasus region
(political violence)
• Election district changes for the Duma. From half- first
past the post/half party list to all party list.
• International cooperation by domestic security forces.
• Harsher punishment for terrorism
• Public Chamber initiative – giving citizens a forum to
debate governmental decisions
• Putin also plans policy of pre-emption.
North Caucasus Region
Constitutional Court
• 19 members
• Nominated by President, confirmed by
Federation Council
• Judicial Review of acts of President,
Parliament and lower level governments
• Through 1999 no decisions rendering
Yeltsin’s activities unconstitutional
Elite Recruitment
• Corporatist style approach to interest articulation under
Soviet system
• Nomenklatura
– Regime channeled citizen efforts into officially approved
organizations
– Political leaders recruited through such systems – “the
nomenklatura” – ruling class
• Democratic reforms
– Ended nomenklatura system
– Elites adapted but new infusion of people did occur
Interest Articulation
• Social interests re-organizing in past ten years
• Range and intensity of ideas has been startling
• Gorbachev unable to control political expression
when it went too far
• Four groups as examples (1-3 tied to soviet era orgs)
– Industrial managers: recipients of property in privatization
transition
– Women’s groups: motherhood, voting and elections
– Organized labor: wage arrears stimulated some protest-why
not more? Co-option, disunity, worker dependency on
– New oligarchs: elites who survived and prospered in
transition
Interest Aggregation
• Electoral Rules are a combination of party lists
and single-member districts
• Parties (26)
– Opposition: Community Party, Liberal Democratic
Party, Agrarian Party
– Democratic Parties: Russia’s Choice, Yabloko, Our
Home is Russia
– Parliamentary Center: Women of Russia, Regions of
Russia
• Fragmentation and Consolidation
Political Parties
• The 1999 elections were contested by: Conservative
Movement of Russia, Russian All-Peoples Union, Women
of Russia, Stalin Bloc-For the USSR, Yabloko, Working
Russia, Peace-Labor-May, Bloc of Nikolayev and Federov,
Spiritual Heritage, Congress of Russian Communities,
Peace and Unity Party, Party for the Protection of Women,
Unity Interregional Movement, Social Democrats,
Movement in Support of the Army, Zhirinovskiy's Bloc, For
Civic Dignity, Fatherland-All Russia, Communist Party,
Russian Cause, All-Russian Political Party of the People,
Union of Right Forces, Our Home is Russia, Socialist Party
of Russia, Party of Pensioners and the Russian Socialist
Party. (26)
Political Culture and Public
Opinion
• Values reflect gulf between state and society
– High values on democracy
– Higher values on democracy among younger
cohorts
– Democratic values higher for ‘self’ than ‘other’
– Problem of mix of ‘order’ and ‘democracy’
Cultural Summary
• Extensive support in Russia for democratic
institutions and processes if people see these as
rights for themselves.
• Support lessens for extending rights to minorities.
• Segments of the population most exposed to
modern civilization are most likely to support
democratic values.
• Implications of these research findings for the
preceeding 1,070 years of authoritarian rule?
Commitment to Democratic
Values?
• Core of commitment to democratic values
exists
• Levels of satisfaction with the current
system are low
• Levels of confidence in existing political
institutions are low
• Implications?