Candidate Strategies and Electoral Competition in the Russian Federation: Democracy without Foundation

ISBN-13: 9780521846905 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 260 str.

Regina Smyth (Pennsylvania State University)

Opis

In the early 1990s, competitive elections in the Russian Federation signaled the end to the authoritarian political system dominated by a single political party. More than ten years and many elections later, a single party led by Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to end Russia's democratic experiment. Russia's experience with new elections is not unique but it does challenge existing theories of democratic consolidation by showing that competitive elections cannot guarantee successful democratic consolidation. This book explores the conditions under which electoral competition contributes to democratic development by examining impact of elections on democratic consolidation.

Recenzje

"Regina Smyth in her book, Candidate Strategies and Electoral Competition in the Russian Federation, provides a sophisticated explanation of why elections failed democracy in Russia. In a closely argued and empirically convincing account, she shows how candidate behavior undermined, rather than promoted, the growth of a competitive party system and democratic infrastructure. Smyth's book makes a significant contribution to the theoretical literature on how political parties develop and their role in the process of political transition as well as to our understanding of the specific Russian case."
-Cynthia S. Kaplan, Review of Politics

Spis treści

1. Elections and the development of democratic capacity; 2. One step forward, two steps back: Russia's failed consolidation in comparative context; 3. The micro-foundations of democratic responsiveness: candidate strategies and electoral infrastructure; 4. Many candidates, few choices; 5. To join or not to join: candidate affiliation in transitional Russia; 6. Finding fit: candidates and their districts; 7. Campaigning for the Duma: mixed markets, mixed messages; 8. Democrats, democratic transitions, and Russian democracy.