The unintended consequences of gubernatorial appointments in Russia, 2005-6

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics

Volumn 22, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 457-484

  Chebankova, Elena ^a  

^a KING'S COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DECENTRALIZATION; ELECTION; ELECTORAL GEOGRAPHY; POLITICAL CHANGE; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

EURASIA; RUSSIAN FEDERATION;

EID: 33845322334     PISSN: 13523279     EISSN: 17439116     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13523270601017619     Document Type: Article

References (130)

1. William H. Riker, Federalism: Origins, Operation, Significance (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1964), p.11; Preston King, Federalism and Federation (London and Canberra: Croom Helm, 1982), p.77
2. Robert Dahl, Democracy, Liberty and Equality (Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1986), p.114; Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), p.186-8.
3. Kenneth C. Wheare, Federal Government, 4th edn (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p.10.
4. Donald Smiley, Canada in Question: Federalism in the Seventies (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1972)
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6. Anthony H. Birch, Federalism, Finance, and Social Legislation in Canada, Australia, and the United States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957), pp.291-304
7. Ralph Chapman, 'Structure, Process and the Federal Factor: Complexity and Entanglement in Federations', in Michael Borgess and Alain-G. Gagnon, Comparative Federalism and Federation: Competing Traditions and Future Directions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), pp.69-94
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11. Ann L. Griffiths, Handbook of Federal Countries 2002 (Montreal and Kingston, Ont.: McGill University Press, 2002), pp.358-72 (p.361).
12. J. Isawa Elaigwu, 'Federalism in Nigeria's New Democratic Polity', Publius, Vol.32, No.2 (2002), pp.73-95 (p.75).
13. Mehrunnisa Ali, Politics of Federalismin Pakistan (Karachi: Royal Book Company, 1996), p.i.
14. Wheare, for example, famously refused to call India a federal polity because of the establishment of the gubernatorial appointment system and the constitutional right of the central 480 JOURNAL OF COMMUNIST STUDIES AND TRANSITION POLITICS government to dismiss state governments and to replace them with direct rule from the centre for the purpose of dealing with grave emergencies: See
15. Wheare, Federal Government, p.28, quoted in Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, p.190.
16. Steven L. Solnick, 'Gubernatorial Elections in Russia, 1996-1997', Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.14, No.1 (1998), pp.48-80 (p.50).
17. Vladimir Lysenko, 'Razvitie federal'nykh okrugov i budushchee federativnogo ustroistva Rossii', Kazanskii federalist, No.2 (2002), pp.38-50 (p.40).
18. Peter Reddaway and Robert Orttung, The Dynamics of Russian Politics (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), Vol.1
19. Cameron Ross, Federalism and Democratisation in Russia (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), pp.139-45.
20. Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia's Choice (London: Routledge, 2004), pp.151-2.
21. Gordon M. Hahn, 'The Impact of Putin's Federative Reforms on Democratization in Russia', Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.19, No.2 (2003), pp.114-53.
22. Elaigwu, 'Federalism in Nigeria's New Democratic Polity', p.76.
23. Samuels, 'Federalism and Democratic Transitions', pp.48-50.
24. Ali, Politics of Federalism in Pakistan, p.17.
25. This statement could initially seem to overstretch the point. Indeed, given the federation president's right to nominate gubernatorial candidates, the parliaments cannot select an executive on the basis of inter-party bargaining or a party commanding a majority on the legislature's floor. Moreover, regional executives have retained the right to form their cabinets without parliamentary approval.
26. For differing definitional criteria see Mathew Shugart and John Carey, Presidents and Assemblies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.18-22
27. Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, pp.117-24; Douglas V. Verney, The Analysis of Political Systems (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965), pp.17-56
28. Mathew Shugart and Scott Mainwaring, Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p.15.
29. Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, p.117.
30. By the time of the reform, the only region that had never had a directly elected executive was Dagestan. Instead, it had a collective presidency named the State Council, composed of the representatives of the republic's ethnic groups and elected by the Constitutional Assembly, composed of the republic's legislatures and the delegates of municipal assemblies: See Grigorii Golosov, Political Parties in the Regions of Russia: Democracy Unclaimed (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), p.64.
31. Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, pp.154-7; Shugart and Carey, Presidents and Assemblies, pp.226-8, 167; G. Bingham Powell, Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, Violence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), p.57
32. see also Gary Cox, The Efficient Secret (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
33. This thesis was first introduced by Maurice Duverger, Political Parties: Their Organisation and Activity in the Modern State, 3rd edn (London: Methuen, 1964), pp.217-26; it was subsequently deployed by many scholars: See Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, p.165
34. Shugart and Carey, Presidents and Assemblies, pp.206-8; Powell, Contemporary Democracies, pp.82-3.
35. Federal'nyi zakon 'Ob osnovnykh garantiyakh izbiratel'nykh prav i prava na uchastie v referendume grazhdan Rossiiskoi Federatsii', Moscow, available at .
36. The theoretical literature classifies this system as a subdivision of proportional representation: See Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, pp.145-8.
37. Derek Urwin and Stein Rokkan, The Politics of Territorial Identity (London: Sage, 1982), pp.435-6.
38. Ibid., p.433.
39. Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Tradition in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), p.19.
40. Urwin and Rokkan, The Politics of Territorial Identity, p.432;
41. see also Derek Urwin and Stein Rokkan, Economy, Territory, Identity (London: Sage, 1983), pp.148-9.
42. Carl J. Friedrich, Trends of Federalism in Theory and Practice (London: Pall Mall Press, 1968), pp.63-5.
43. Ibid.
44. Stuart Corbridge, 'Federalism, Hindu Nationalism and Mythologies of Governance in Modern India', in Graham Smith (ed.), Federalism: The Multiethnic Challenge (London: Longman, 1995), pp.101-27 (pp.110-11).
45. Charlie Jeffery and Dan Hough, 'Regional Elections in Multi-Level Systems', European Urban and Regional Studies, Vol.10, No.3 (2003), pp.199-212 (pp.201-2).
46. Ibid., pp.209-10.
47. Richard Sakwa, 'Elections and National Integration in Russia', in Vicky Helsi and William Reisinger (eds.), The 1999-2000 Elections in Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp.121-42 (pp.121-3).
48. Ukaz Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii No.1603 'O Poryadke rassmotreniya kandidatur na dolzhnost' vysshego dolzhnostnogo litsa (Rukovoditelya vysshego ispolnitel'nogo organa gosudarstvennoi vlasti) sub-ekta Rossiiskoi Federatsii', 27 Dec. 2004, available at .
49. Anastasiya Kornya, Ivan Rodin and Natal'ya Melikova, 'President budet vybirat' v obstanovke sekretnosti', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 17 Jan. 2005.
50. Alla Barakhova, 'V ocheredi k izbiratelyu No. 1', Kommersant vlast', No.6 (609), 14 Feb. 2005.
51. Sakwa, 'Elections and National Integration in Russia', p.133.
52. Il'ya Barabanov, 'Men nezavisimosti', gazeta.ru, 18 Nov. 2005, available at, shttp://www.open.ge/el/?base=&view=0&url='www.gazeta.ru/ 2005/11/18/oa_178380.shtm.
53. Of the 27 meetings Putin held with regional governors between January and May 2005, 11 resulted in a request for a statement of the president's confidence and subsequent reappointment: 'Kremlevskie vstrechi s gubernatorskimi posledstviyami', Kommersant Daily, 13 May 2005.
54. Anna Nikolaeva, 'Titov poprosil doveriya', Vedomosti, 21 April 2005.
55. Nikolai Yablonskii, 'Dmitrii Medvedev sovmeshchaet priyatnoe s sekretnym', Kommersant Daily, 8 April 2005.
56. Anna Nikolaeva, 'Sobyanin prosit Doveriya', Vedomosti, 4 Feb. 2005.
57. 'Izderzhki Vertikali', Profil', No.7, 28 Feb. 2005.
58. Anna Nikolaeva, 'Gubernator - eto nadolgo', Vedomosti, 21 Feb. 2005.
59. Sergei Kocherov, 'Shantsev otsidel sto dnei a Kirienko vyshel na svobodu', Nezavisimoe obozrenie (Nizhnii Novgorod), 15 Nov. 2005.
60. Federal'nyi Zakon No. 159-FZ, at .
61. Fedor Rumyantsev, 'Pervyi Atomnyi', gazeta.ru, 3 March 2005, available at .
62. Anna Nikolaeva, 'Neelov ostanetsya na yamale', Vedomosti, 18 Feb. 2005.
63. Ukaz Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii No. 1603.
64. Liliya Abdullina, 'Kandidatov v Samarskie gubernatory stanovitsya vse bol'she', Kommersant Daily, 5 April 2005, and Anna Nikolaeva, 'Titov poprosil doveriya'.
65. 'U Putina net drugikh gubernatorov', gazeta.ru, 24 Feb. 2005, available at .
66. Yuliya Fedorina, 'Loyal'nost' v mode', Vedomosti, 1 April 2005.
67. For example, the plenipotentiary representative to the Ural federal district, Petr Latyshev, openly declared that by enacting the new appointment system the centre did not intend to embark on reshuffling the composition of regional elites: See 'Petr Latyshev: Smena regionalnykh elit - eto uzhe revolyutsiya', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 28 April 2005.
68. 'Chelovek iz Yukosa ostalsya v dolzhnosti', gazeta.ru, 3 March 2005, available at . Zolotarev helped the nomination of Yukos's former executive Vasillii Shakhnovskii to the Federation Council in order to grant Shakhnovskii the parliamentary immunity that could prevent his prosecution. Similarly, it has become known that Mikhail Khodorkovskii planned to become a Federation Council deputy from Evenkiya a few weeks before his arrest.
69. President Shaimiev interview with Nikolai Svanidze, 'Zerkalo' programme, Channel 1 RTR, at .
70. Nikolaeva, 'Neelov ostanetsya na yamale', and Anna Nikolaeva, 'Filipenko ostanetsya', Vedomosti, 8 Feb 2005.
71. Il'ya Barabanov, 'Mukhu bei', gazeta.ru, 20 Feb. 2006, available at .
72. Sakwa, 'Elections and National Integration in Russia', p.137.
73. 'Gubernatory starozhily', gazeta.ru, 25 April 2005, at .
74. Dar'ya Guseva, 'Mikhail Yevdokimov za god sobral protiv sebya Anshlag', Vremya Novostei, 20 March 2005.
75. Valentin Romanov, 'Mikhail Lapshin otbilsya ot impichmenta', Kommersant Daily, 1 April 2005.
76. Liliya Abdullina, 'Konstantina Titova khvatit na udar', Kommersant Daily, 18 April 2005.
77. Andrei Riskin, 'Regional'nye elity pereshli v kontrataku', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 17 March 2005.
78. 'Dagestanskie SMI o smene vlasti v respublike', Regnum, 27 Feb. 2006, at .
79. The 1995-99 electoral cycle scored 7.3 because of a number of outliers such as Krasnoyarsk krai, where as many as 40 parties formed 25 electoral blocs in the 1997 regional legislative election, and Moscow federal city, in which 29 parties belonging to 20 blocs contested 35 seats in the city soviet
80. see Golosov, Political Parties in the Regions of Russia, p.75.
81. Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, 'Central Governing Incapacity and the Weakness of Political Parties: Russian Democracy in Disarray', Publius, Vol.32, No.2 (2002), pp.125-46 (p.136).
82. Nezavisimyi institut vyborov, available at .
83. Stoner-Weiss, 'Central Governing Incapacity', p.137.
84. Author's interviews with Alexei Zudin, Natalya Zubarevich and Yakov Pappe, July-Aug. 2005.
85. Chukotka, with its two parties in parliament, represents an outlier. However, given Chukotka's unusual political situation dominated by the governorship of Russia's richest man, Roman Abramovich, and his personal financial contributions towards the region's wealth, I excluded this region from the main count. The effective number of parliamentary parties falls to 4, while accounting for Chukotka's two-party parliament.
86. Powell, Contemporary Democracies, p.80.
87. Anfisa Voronina, 'Voronezh ne stal Stalingradom', Vedomosti, 22 March 2005.
88. Maksim Glikin, 'Krasnyi poyas raskalilsya dobela', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 21 March 2005.
89. Rostislav Turovskii and Alexei Titkov, 'Liberal'nyi populizm zavoevyvaet krasnye regiony', gazeta.ru, available at .
90. 'Chelyabinskie demokraty ob-edinyayutsya po moskovskoi skheme', Kommersant Daily, 4 Oct. 2005.
91. Dar'ya Sobakina, 'Yedinyi den' regional'nykh vyborov', Vremya novostei, 13 March 2006.
92. 'Vosem' parlamentov vyberut po yedinomu stsenariyu', Kommersant Vlast', 10 March 2006.
93. Alexandra Samarina, 'Skromnoe obayanie zaksobranii', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 7 Oct. 2004.
94. Syuzana Farizova, 'Pravye reshili uiti podal'she ot kremlya', Kommersant Daily, 26 Dec. 2005.
95. Party's official electoral report, available at .
96. Natal'ya Kostenko, 'Vybory na grani vozmozhnogo', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 13 March 2006.
97. Marina Il'yushenko, 'Partiya pensionerov vzyala Magadan', Kommersant Daily, 23 May 2005.
98. 'Voskresnyi anshlyus Yedinoi Rossii', gazeta.ru, 11 March 2006, available at .
99. Kostenko, 'Vybory na grani vozmozhnogo'.
100. Yelena Rotkevich, 'Gubernator Peterburga izbavit gorod ot provinstyal'nykh kompleksov', Izvestiya, 1 April 2005.
101. Leonid Novikov, 'Yaroslavskie deputaty otkazalis' naznachat' gubernatora', Izvestiya, 22 April 2005.
102. Shaimiev: 'Zerkalo' interview.
103. Dmitrii Badovskii and Andrei Shutov, 'Regional'nye elity v postsovetskoi Rossii: Osobennosti politicheskogo uchastiya', Kentavr, No.6 (1995), pp.3-23 104 Martin Nicholson, Towards a Russia of the Regions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1999).
104. Alla Chirikova, 'Regional'naya vlast' v Rossii: Top-menedzhery kompanii kak vlastnye aktory', in Yakob Frukhtman (ed.), Regional'naya elita v sovremennoi Rossii (Moscow: Fond Liberal'naya missiya, 2005), pp.195-210 (p.204).
105. Yuliya Zheleznova, 'Irkutskie deputaty razocharovalis' v novom gubernatore', Kommersant Daily, 23 Sept. 2005.
106. Chirikova, 'Regional'naya vlast' v Rossii', pp.204-7.
107. Aleksandr Kynev, 'Vybory regional'nykh zakonodatel'nykh sobranii oseni 2004 goda: Izbiratel' ishchet novykh geroev', Fund Indem Publications, Autumn 2005, available at .
108. Yelena Rudneva, 'Uslovnaya pobeda. Yedinoi Rossii nuzhen sparring-partner', Vedomosti, 14 March 2006.
109. Jeffery and Hough, 'Regional Elections in Multi-Level Systems', p.202.
110. 'Nizhegorodskie kommunisty mitinguyut', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 4 March 2006.
111. 'U Permskogo kraya poyavilsya novyi gubernator', Kommersant Daily, 11 Oct. 2005.
112. 'Ocherednaya aktsiya protesta v preddverii perenaznacheniya Eduarda Rosselya', Obshchaya gazeta Ural, 25 Nov. 2005.
113. Aleksandr Kynev, 'Nachalo poslednei volny?', Politicheskii zhurnal, No.39, 5 Oct. 2004.
114. Petr Nefedov, 'Vybory s izyuminkoi', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 5 Nov. 2004.
115. Kynev, 'Vybory regional'nykh zakonodatel'nykh sobranii'.
116. Ibid.
117. Federal'nyi Zakon No. 159-FZ.
118. Svetlana Bocharova, 'Polpredy uglubilis' v kadrovyi vopros', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 13 Jan. 2005.
119. RL/RFE Report, 15 July 2005.
120. Ol'ga Morozova, 'Nizhegorodskomu gubernatoru predlozhili uiti po-khoroshemu', Kommersant Daily, 25 April 2005.
121. 'Nizhegorodskii parlament utverdil Shantseva', Vedomosti, 8 Aug. 2005.
122. 109. Irina Mironova, 'Mikhail Men' prorabotaet v Ivanovo po-Luzhkovski', Kommersant Daily, 30 Sept. 2005.
123. Dmitrii Kobzev, 'Mikhail Lapshin trebuet ukhoda', Kommersant Daily, 5 Oct. 2005.
124. Riskin, 'Regional'nye elity'.
125. Sergei Migalin, 'Murtazu - v otstavku, 'Boing' - k pod-ezdu', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 7 April 2005.
126. Daniel Elazar, Exploring Federalism (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1987), p.198.
127. Nikolai Petro, Crafting Democracy: How Novgorod Has Coped with Rapid Social Change (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004), pp.57-61.
128. Vladimir Gel'man and Grigorii Golosov, 'Regional Party Formation in Russia: The Deviant Case of Sverdlovsk Oblast', in John Löwenhardt (ed.), Party Politics in Post-Communist Russia (London: Cass, 1998), pp.31-54 (p.48)
129. Dmitrii Ol'shanskii, 'Dizintegratsiya: Novye simptomy staroi bolezni', Pro et Contra (Winter 2000), pp.34-62 (pp.45-6)
130. Stoner-Weiss, 'Central Governing Incapacity', pp.141-3.