Russian Federation: Background
Notes
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Population 146.9 million
Size 6,592,735 sq. mi.
Head of State: Vladimir Putin
Prime Minister: Mikhail
Fradkov (3/04-present)
• People
Nationality: Noun and
adjective--Russian(s).
Annual growth rate: Negative.
Ethnic groups: Russian 81%,
Tatar 4%, Ukrainian 3%, other
12%.
• Religions: Russian Orthodox,
Islam, Judaism, Roman
Catholicism, Protestant,
Buddhist, other.
Political System
• Current system “transitioning democracy”
– Intense conflict over power and property (1991-00)
• 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/russia
n/const/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.
“Shock Therapy”
• The sudden release of price and currency
controls, withdrawal of state subsidies, and
immediate trade liberalization within a
country.
– Roots in the 1947-48 withdrawal of government
support and price controls in post war Germany –
which had the effect of jump starting the economy
– basis of modern day economic neo-liberalism
Neo-liberalism
• The political-economic philosophy deemphasizing/rejecting government intervention in
the domestic economy.
• Domestic focus is on free-market methods, fewer
restrictions on business operations, and property
rights.
• International focus is on opening foreign markets
by political means, using economic pressure,
diplomacy, and/or military intervention.
Domestic Consequences?
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Short-term unemployment rates 20-40%
Increased crime rates
Increased social tensions between the poor and the rich.
Some argue these consequences reflect poor implementation.
Sudden changes to economic structure and incentives require
changes to behavior, financial flows and the structure of the
economy that CANNOT occur QUICKLY.
– Firms must be founded and build up
– Human capital – skill acquisition
– Establishing legal frameworks for regulation and established practices
(including coordination between domestic and international spheres)
not automatic.
– Property law and rights must be redefined (simultaneous with political
redefinition)
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 1993 Constitution
• Makeup of government not directly determined by party
composition of Parliament
– Most members of government career managers.
– Government is not party government.
– Focuses power in hands of the president.
• President appoints Prime Minister with parliamentary
approval
– Duma can refuse to confirm
– After three refusals 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 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
Federal Assembly
• State Duma (450)
– 1993 election reform 225 single member district and 225 party lists
with 5% of “valid party list vote”
• Form of proportional representation
– each citizen can vote in one single member district and cast one
party list ballot
– Party factions important in internal organization
• Council of the Duma – The steering body which has one
representative from each party
– Sets legislative agenda, proceedings, brokers compromises
• Duma uses 28 committees to organize internally
– Originates most legislation
– Power to override President and Federation Council
Federal Assembly
• Federation Council (178)
– Two representatives from each constituent unit (89) of the
federation
– Indirectly selected by governors (one appointment) and state
legislatures (one elected)
• Because constitution requires executive/legislative representation of
the subunits.
– Not organized along party lines.
• 40 members elected to lead the body
• 11 committees
• Mostly majority rule (90) but occasionally various supermajorities
required.
– Powers:
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Less legislative power than Duma (reactive)
Approves presidential nominees to courts
Approves presidential decrees (martial law, emergency)
Taxes, budget, financial policy, war, treaties, customs
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
Presidential Election Results (3/14/04)
Candidates
Nominating parties
Vote - %
V Putin
Supported by United Russia 48,931,376 -71.2
N Kharitonov Communist Pty, Agrarian P 9,440,860 - 13.7
S Glazyev
Rodina
2,826,641 - 4.1
I Khakamada
2,644,644 - 3.8
O Malyshkin Liberal Democratic
1,394,070 - 2.0
S Mironov
518,893
Against All
Total:
Russian Pty of Life
- 0.8
2,319,056 - 3.5
66,307,156 -100
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?
2008 Elections
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_presid
ential_election,_2008
Russian presidential election
results (March 2008)
Candidates
Party
Votes
%
Dmitry Medvedev
United Russia, Agrarian Party,
Fair Russia, Russian Ecological
Party and Civilian Power
52,530,712
70.28%
Gennady Zyuganov
Communist Party
13,243,550
17.72%
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Liberal Democratic Party
6,988,510
9.35%
Andrei Bogdanov
Democratic Party
968,344
1.30%
Invalid Ballots
1,015,533
1.35%
Total
73,731,116
100%