ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF FAILURE: RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE FOR THE COMPARATIVE FEDERALISM RESEARCH

Authors

Keywords:

comparative federalism, Russia, institutions, asymmetry, pathology

Abstract

In the 1990s, Russian federalism was the pride of Russian reforms, a convincing proof of the irreversibility of democratization. Today, only the formal shells of federal institutions remain. However, the lessons of Russian federalism have greatly enriched research on comparative federalism: for the first time, a country of such territorial scale and diversity consciously built federal relations, while in the conditions of an extremely unfavorable heritage, the presence of an ethnic "component" and pronounced asymmetries. The Russian case showed that federalism significantly complicates the transition to democracy if democratic and federal institution-building develop simultaneously. In addition, the case of Russia once again confirmed that federalism could not survive without being supported by other institutions; a necessary condition for the survival of federalism is the development of democratic competition in the direction of strengthening the role of political parties interested in federalism. The lessons of the 90s in Russia may prove useful both to other countries that have chosen federalism and to Russia itself, since any significant reforms will inevitably lead to a change in the nature of relations between the center and the regions. DOI: 10.17072/2218-1067-2020-3-6-19

Author Biographies

Ирина Бусыгина / Irina Busygina, National Research University Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg)

Doctor of Political Science, Professor at the Department of Applied Political Science, Director of the Center for Comparative Studies of Power and Governance

Михаил Филиппов / Mikhail Filippov, State University of New York at Binghamton

Professor

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Published

2020-10-20

How to Cite

Irina Busygina И. Б. /, & Mikhail Filippov М. Ф. /. (2020). ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF FAILURE: RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE FOR THE COMPARATIVE FEDERALISM RESEARCH. Bulletin of Perm University. Political Science, 14(3), 6–19. Retrieved from http://press.psu.ru/index.php/polit/article/view/3834