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White Chapter Copyright material – 9781137392138 Contents List of Illustrative Material ix Preface xi Notes on the Contributors xiii List of Abbreviations xvii Map of the Russian Federation under the 1993 Constitution xviii Glossary xx 1 Politics in Russia 1 Richard Sakwa The Soviet system 2 Perestroika: from rationalization to disintegration 4 Post-communist Russia: the Yeltsin years 8 Putin: the politics of stability 1 Conclusion 16 2 The Hegemonic Executive 19 John P. Willerton A paramount leader and the strong presidency 21 Institutions of the federal executive 24 The governing Putin team 32 Complexities of a hegemonic executive 35 3 Parliamentary Politics in Russia 42 Thomas F. Remington Boris Yeltsin and the crisis of 1993 44 The Federation Council 52 The legislative process in the Federal Assembly 54 The Federal Assembly in perspective 58 4 The Electoral Process 60 Stephen White Towards authoritarian elections 64 Free and fair? 71 Some conclusions 74 v Copyright material – 9781137392138 vi Contents 5 Russia’s Political Parties and their Substitutes 77 Henry E. Hale The building blocks of Russian parties 78 The veteran parties: those first emerging in the early 1990s 79 Party substitutes 85 Parties originating in the Putin era: United Russia and A Just Russia 87 United Russia beyond the 2011–12 political crisis 93 Conclusion 95 6 Voting Behaviour 97 Ian McAllister Electoral participation and dissent 97 The burden of history 100 Socio-economic status and the vote 102 Performance and partisanship 105 Political leadership 109 Conclusion 112 7 Civil Society and Contentious Politics in Russia 117 Graeme B. Robertson Political protest and contentious politics in Russian history 116 Contentious politics and writing the Russian constitution 117 Economic crisis, protest and society 118 Ethnic and regional politics and contention 119 Putin and protest 120 The protest cycle of 2011–12 124 Protest, civil society and politics since 2012 125 Conclusion 128 8 Russia’s Media and Political Communication in the Digital Age 130 Sarah Oates The history of the Russian media 131 The Russian media landscape today: one nation, two audiences 133 Media freedom 136 The reputation of the Russian media abroad 137 Journalists and self-censorship 139 The 2011–12 protests and the Russian mass media 140 Conclusions 142 Copyright material – 9781137392138 Contents vii 9 Assessing the Rule of Law in Russia 145 Kathryn Hendley The heritage of Soviet law 145 The institutional structure of the Russian legal system 147 The Russian legal system in action 149 Russians’ expectations of the legal system 151 Prospects for the rule of law in Russia 154 10 A Federal State? 157 Darrell Slider Putin’s vertical of power 159 Interactions between governors and the president 165 Federal agencies in the regions and the problem of decentralization 169 11 Managing the Economy 173 Philip Hanson The changing environment of Russian economic policy 175 Economic policies and policy-making, 2000–13 180 Conclusions 190 12 Society and Social Divisions in Russia 192 Svetlana Stephenson Rise in inequalities 193 New consumerism and social distinctions 195 Social divisions, the welfare state and pathologization of the poor 199 Social networks and patrimonial structures 201 Exclusionary processes 203 Social divisions and civil society: towards new civic solidarity? 207 13 Foreign Policy 211 Margot Light The domestic context of Russian foreign policy 211 Russian policy towards the ‘near abroad’ 217 Russian policy towards the ‘far abroad’ 224 Future prospects 230 Copyright material – 9781137392138 viii Contents 14 The Military, Security and Politics 231 Jennifer G. Mathers The Russian military in the twenty-first century 231 Defence budgets and military spending 237 The military and politics 239 Civilian control of the armed forces 242 The militarization of state and society 244 Conclusion 245 15 Trajectories of Russian Politics: An Interpretation 247 Vladimir Gel’man Explaining Russian politics: optimism, pessimism, and realism 248 Out of the frying pan into the fire 251 Making autocracy work: foundations and pillars 253 The problem of the institutional trap 256 ‘Institutional decay’: towards a new stagnation? 258 ‘Iron fist’: a dictator’s solution? 259 Regime collapse: a horrible end v. endless horror? 260 ‘Creeping democratization’: opportunities and risks? 261 Concluding remarks: Russia will be free 262 Guide to Further Reading 264 References 271 Index 297 Copyright material – 9781137392138 Chapter 1 Politics in Russia RICHARD SAKWA Russia re-emerged as an independent state in 1991, yet even to this day some basic issues about its national identity and political character remain deeply contested. It was certainly not going to be easy to create a capitalist democracy from scratch, but few could have predicted quite how dramatic and contradictory the whole process would be. Everything had to be created anew, including the party and parliamentary systems, legally defensible property rights, a new class of entrepreneurs, and espe- cially the constitutional framework and the rule of law. Above all, the balance of power between the executive (president) and parliament provoked violent conflict. In addition, Russia needed to find a new role in the international system, one that corresponded to its own vision of itself as a great power but which also took into account the concerns of its new neighbours, the former Soviet republics that were now independent states, as well as the existing balance of power at the global level. In the years since the collapse of communism there have been enor- mous achievements, yet the process remains incomplete and contradic- tory. The Soviet legacy of an enormous security apparatus, a vast dependent bureaucracy and an over-extended welfare system remains a potent force in politics, as do the rather more intangible factors of atti- tudes and political culture. The new Russian political elite remain steeped in the mores and prejudices of the Soviet era. This is coming up against an increasingly impatient younger generation, a growing proportion of whom have grown up in the post-Soviet years and for whom communism is something to be read about in the history books. The transformation of the economy and polity, moreover, has spawned new interests and concerns, demanding a more open political system and genuine accountability by the authorities towards the institutions of representative democracy and subordination not only to the black letter but also to the spirit of the constitution. These demands spilled out into the streets in December 2011, in protest against the widespread fraud in the parliamentary elections in that month. The rebirth of an active oppo- sition in turn revived competitive politics. The regime could no longer rule 1 Copyright material – 9781137392138 2 Politics in Russia on its own. It was clear that the tortuous development of Russian politics and society had entered a new stage, the features of which will be analysed in this book. The Soviet system It is impossible to understand contemporary Russia without some under- standing of what went before. In particular, in the space of less than a century two major political systems collapsed. The Russian Empire, ruled by the Romanov dynasty from 1613, was unable to withstand the strains of the Great War, which Russia entered in July 1914 in alliance with France and Great Britain. The abdication of Nicholas II, in February 1917, brought to an end the Romanov dynasty after 300 years in power. During the next eight months Russia tried to fight a war while making a revolution, and while it was notably unsuccessful in the first endeavour it shocked the world with the second. The Provisional Government in 1917 at last began to fulfil the potential of the long-gathering Russian revolu- tion. Since at least 1825 and the Decembrist movement there had been growing pressure for the introduction of limited and accountable govern- ment, and now genuine constitutionalism had finally arrived. (The entire sequence of leadership from Nicholas II to the present is set out in Table 1.1.) Only six months after the fall of the autocracy, on 7 November (25 October in the Old Style calendar), the radical Bolshevik Party under the uncompromising leadership of Vladimir Il’ich Lenin came to power. It was too late for the new authorities to stop the planned elections to the Constituent Assembly and the Bolsheviks found themselves in a minority in the new body. This was the first genuinely democratically elected legis- lature in Russian history, with 370 seats to the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and 175 for the Bolsheviks. The Assembly met for 13 hours, from 4 pm to 5 am, on 18–19 January 1918 (5–6 January, Old Style). Early in the morning, when the guard was ‘tired’, the Assembly was dissolved never to meet again. Thus Russia’s first major experiment in democracy ended in a dismal failure. Three years of brutal Civil War ended in a Bolshevik victory, and the stage was set for one of the greatest experiments in polit- ical and social engineering in history. The dominant rule of the Communist Party was now established by Lenin, and once victory in the Civil War of 1918–20 was assured, development became the priority of Soviet power rather than more general emancipatory goals. For Joseph Stalin, who after a struggle following Lenin’s death in 1924 achieved dictatorial power, accelerated industrialization became the over-riding aim, accompanied by the intensification of coercion that peaked in the Copyright material – 9781137392138 Richard Sakwa 3 Table 1.1 Tsarist, Soviet and Russian leaders Date Name of leader 1894–17 Nicholas II 1917–24 Vladimir Il’ich Lenin 1924–53 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin 1953–64 Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev 1964–82 Leonid Il’ich Brezhnev 1982–84 Yurii Vladimirovich Andropov 1984–85 Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko 1985–91 Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev 1991–99 Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin 2000–08 Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin 2008–12 Dmitry Anatolevich Medvedev 2012– Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin terror of the 1930s.
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