Electoral Thresholds at the Regional Parliamentary Elections in Russia: Explaining the Variations

Authors

Keywords:

regional elections, Russia, regional legislation, electoral thresholds, effective thresholds

Abstract

After the 2002-2003 electoral reform the vast majority of Russian regions had to elaborate new regional electoral regulations from scratch. There was a stark contrast among them in such a dimension of the electoral systems as electoral threshold. The present essay analyses the causes of this cross-regional variations over the period from 2003 to 2013. It is shown that there were three main causes of these variations: structural characteristics of the regional political and societal systems, the influence of the Federal Center and the regional political regimesDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2015-1-68-83

Author Biography

Михаил Турченко / Mikhail Turchenko, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Sankt-Petersburg)

Lecturer, postgraduate student

References

Al’tova E. The Political Factors of Formation of Mixed Electoral Systems in Russian Regions // POLITEKS. 2007. vol.3, № 2. P. 188-199. (In Rus.).

The Russian Electoral Statistics Database [Electronic resource]. URL: http://db.geliks.org/ (accessed 05.01.14). (In Rus.).

The Database of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation [Electronic resource]. URL: http://www.vybory.izbirkom.ru/region/izbirkom (accessed 05.01.14). (In Rus.).

The 2002 Russian National Census [Electronic resource]. URL: http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=11 (accessed 05.01.14). (In Rus.).

Garant. Informational and Legal Database [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ivo.garant.ru/SESSION/PILOT/main.htm (accessed 14.03.14). (In Rus.).

Glubotskij A., Kynev A. The Experience of Mixed Elections in Russian Regions // Polis. 2003. № 2. P. 124-142. (In Rus.).

Glubotskij A., Kynev A. The Proportional Component of Russian Regional Legislatures // Polis. 2003. № 6. P. 71-87. (In Rus.).

Revisiting the Number of Voters and Referendum Participants in the Russian Federation [Electronic resource]. URL: http://www.cikrf.ru/news/relevant/2010/07/13/chislennost.html (accessed 05.01.14). (In Rus.).

Kononenko P. B. The Political Factors of Constitutional Building in Republics of the Russian Federation // Polis. 2003. № 6. P. 135-143. (In Rus.).

Kynev A. In Anticipation of the New Electoral Proposal: The Elections of Regional Legislatures during the Period of late 2004 – early 2005 // Polis. 2005. № 3. P. 116-130. (In Rus.).

Kynev A. Regional Parliamentary Elections 2003-2009: The First Cycle of Adoption of the Proportional Electoral System. М.: Panorama, 2009. (In Rus.).

Panov P. The Change of Electoral Institutions in Russia (Cross-regional Comparative Analysis) // Polis. 2004. № 6. P. 16-28. (In Rus.).

Petrov N., Titkov A. The Rating of Regional Democratic Development of the Moscow Carnegie Center: 10 Years in Service. M.: Moscow Carnegie Center, 2013. (In Rus.).

Smorgunov L. New Electoral Institutions and Russian Regional Legislatures: Pluralization vs. Monopolization // POLITEKS. 2006. vol.2, № 2. P. 6-24. (In Rus.).

The Social Atlas of Russian Regions. Interactive Indices: Democratization Index [Electronic resource]. URL: http://atlas.socpol.ru/indexes/index_democr.shtml (accessed 15.05.14). (In Rus.).

Golosov G. V. Regional Roots of Electoral Authoritarianism in Russia // Europe-Asia Studies. 2011. № 4(63). P. 623-639. (In English).

Golosov G. V. Russia’s Regional Legislative Elections, 2003-2007: Authoritarianism Incorporated // Europe-Asia Studies. 2011. № 3(63). P. 397414. (In English).

Hale H. E. Why Not Parties in Russia? Democracy, Federalism, and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. (In English).

Konitzer A., Wegren S. K. Federalism and Political Recentralization in the Russian Federation: United Russia as the Party of Power // Publius: The Journal of Federalism. 2006. № 4(36). P. 503-522. (In English).

Laakso M., Taagepera R. “Effective” Number of Parties: A Measure with Application to West Europe // Comparative Political Studies. 1979. № 1(12). P. 3-27. (In English).

Lijphart A. Electoral Systems and Party Systems: A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies, 1945-1990. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. (In English).

Lyubarev A. Electoral Legislation in Russian Regions // Europe-Asia Studies. 2011. № 3(63). P. 415-427. (In English).

Ordeshook P. C., Shvetsova O. V. Ethnic Heterogeneity, District Magnitude, and the Number of Parties // American Journal of Political Science. 1994. № 1(38). P. 100-123. (In English).

Peters G. B. Institutional Theory in Political Science: The “New Institutionalism”. 2nd ed. New York, London: Continuum, 2005. (In English).

Reuter O. J. Regional Patrons and Hegemonic Party Electoral Performance in Russia // Post-Soviet Affairs. 2013. № 2(29). P. 101-135. (In English).

Reuter O. J. The Politics of Dominant Party Formation: United Russia and Russia’s Governors // Europe-Asia Studies. 2010. № 2(62). P. 293-327. (In English).

Shugart M. S. Comparative Electoral Systems Research: The Maturation of a Field and New Challenges Ahead // Gallagher M. and Mitchell P. (eds.), The Politics of Electoral Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. P. 25-56. (In English).

White H. A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity // Econometrica. 1980. № 4(48). P. 817-838. (In English).

Published

2018-11-15

How to Cite

Mikhail Turchenko М. Т. /. (2018). Electoral Thresholds at the Regional Parliamentary Elections in Russia: Explaining the Variations. Bulletin of Perm University. Political Science, (1), 68–83. Retrieved from http://press.psu.ru/index.php/polit/article/view/1959