Russia Flashcards
Russia Legislative Executive System
Semi-presidential (in practice very presidential)
- 1993: New constitution; strong presidency
- President directly elected (6 year terms)
- Parliament (Duma) directly elected
- Government depends on parliamentary majority
- In practice
o Prime minister and ministers appointed by president
o Parliamentary control is nearly absent
o Reality is very different from constitution (see Putin-Medvedev swap)
Type of democracy / authoritarianism Russia
Authoritarian despite formal democratic institutionsU
Unitary of Federal Russia
Federal
Asymmetric Federalism
Centralisation of power increasing lately (8 new districts)
Head of State Russia
President
President
Nominates PM, ministers, governor, judges
Commander-in-chief
Can dissolve parliament
Veto powers (can be overruled by 2/3 Duma majority)
Central figure in domestic and foreign affairs
Head of Government Russia
Prime Minister
Lower House Russia
State Duma
- 450 members, elected for 5 year term
- On paper has several important powers
o The right to improve the prime-minister
o No confidence vote against the president
President can ignore
The second one he cannot ignore, but he can dissolve the duma
- Nowadays not a lot of power
Mixed Member Majoritarian
o Also called: parallel voting
o Two votes: one national, one district (like in Germany)
Both 225 seats
o District seats added to national seat
o Result is majoritarian (non-proportional)
o 5% threshold (national votes
Upper House Russia
Federation Council
Geographic representation. Even weaker than the Duma
Judiciary Russia
Constitutuional Court
Politicised Judiciary
Legal Nihilism (laws are just a facade + constitution is meaningless)
Electoral system Russia
Mixed member Majoritarian (parallel voting) for Duma
Federation council appointed by legislative and executive
Two-round majoritarian for president
Political Economy Russia
Schock Therapy
Double Shock
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Euroasian Economic Union (EAEU)
Insider Privatisation
Nomenklatura
Resource trap
Insider Privatisation
A process in Russia whereby the former nomenklatura directors of firms were able to acquire the largest
share when those firms were privatized.
Nomenklatura
Politically sensitive or influential jobs in the state, society, or economy that were staffed by people
chosen or approved by the Communist Party.
Important political functions in the party are distributed on the basis of loyalty and not merit.
Resource Trap
The argument is that where natural resources are a major part of the economy and owned by the state,
they run the risk of giving the state and government too much economic power while stifling other forms
of economic development.
Examples: Russia / Iran
Regime Legitimisation
How to legitimise your reign
Output Legitimacy
legitimising power through the output of your reign
Parties
Parties of power: United Russia
Systemic Opposition: CPRF, LDPR
Liberal / Anti-System parties: Yabloko / Russia of the Future
Snow Revolution
Spontaneous large-scale protests emerge during times of economic uncertainty (a common trait in
authoritarian regimes is a real fear of sudden popular uprisings)
Enormous masses of people protested after 2011 Duma Elections which were widely seen as
corrupt.
Large-scale protests increasingly common
Suppression of protest leaders also increasingly common
Russia’s Special Path
Resembles American Exceptionalism (that Russia has a rightful place as a superpower among nations),
and used by political elites to legitimise political system and foreign policy.
Emphasis on Russian exceptionalism and morality (the russian bear that cannot be tamed by
foreign powers)
Sovereign democracy - focus on order
Restoration of superpower status
Re-orientation towards (Central) Asia (such as Kazakhstan, Iran and China) - A shift from Yeltsin’s
focus on Western powers
Glasnost
Political Openness
Perestroika
economic Restructuring
Siloviki
Men of power who have their origins in the security agencies and are close to President Putin. People Putin relies on for keeping power
Three Russian Revolution
1905 Revolution - Over the (difficult and losing) war with Japan
1917 February Revolution - After WW1: Tsar replaced by a non-communist republican
government, which continued the war resulting in…
1917 October Revolution - Bolsheviks (under Lenin and Trotsky) took power and abolished the
previous government
Party of Power
Russian parties created by political elites to support their political aspirations; typically lacking any
ideological orientation.
Example: United Russia Party
Systemic Opposition Parties
Parties which participate in the Duma and therefore legitimise the regime, but rarely (if ever) votes
against the ruling party.
Example: Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
