Why Not Parties in Russia Democracy, Federalism, and the State [Hardcover]

This book looks at theories of party development from the perspective of Russia.This book brings the case of Russia to bear on theories of party development. Whereas virtually every classic work takes political parties to be inevitable and essential to democracy, Russia has been dominated by nonpartisan politicians ever since communism collapsed. This book demonstrates why Russia stands out as a preserve of nonpartisanship.This book brings the case of Russia to bear on theories of party development. Whereas virtually every classic work takes political parties to be inevitable and essential to democracy, Russia has been dominated by nonpartisan politicians ever since communism collapsed. This book demonstrates why Russia stands out as a preserve of nonpartisanship.Russia poses a major puzzle for theorists of party development. Virtually every classic work takes parties to be inevitable and essential to electoral competition, but Russia remains highly nonpartisan more than fifteen years after Gorbachev first launched his democratizing reforms. The problem is that theories of party development lack a control case, almost always focusing on cases where parties have already developed and almost never examining countries where independent politicians are the norm. This book focuses on Russia as just such a control case. It mobilizes fresh public opinion surveys, interviews with leading Russian politicians, careful tracking of multiple campaigns, and analysis of national and regional voting patterns to show why Russia stands out. Russia's historically influenced combination of federalism and superpresidentialism, coupled with a postcommunist redistribution of resources to regional political machines and oligarchic financial-industrial groups, produced and sustained powerful party substitutes that have largely squeezed Russia's real parties out of the electoral market, damaging Russias democratic development.1. Electoral markets and Russia's political smorglÓ,