The Decline of a Dominant Party and the Destabilization of Electoral Authoritarianism?

Federalism, gubernatorial power and the incorporation of subnational authoritarianism in Russia: A theory-testing empirical inquiry

“…This tendency is quite evident in the recent trajectory of Russia's federal arrangements. After the political turmoil caused by the public discontent with the conduct of the 2011 national legislative elections (Gill, 2012), the Russian authorities once again reshuffled the federal model of the country by reinstating direct gubernatorial elections, even if in a form severely circumscribed in comparison with the previous phase of Russia's political development, and then proceeded to gradually reduce the role of proportional representation in Russia's elections, national and regional alike. From this perspective of this study, it is highly indicative that the measures currently taken by the Russian authorities are consistent with our expectations regarding the institutional preferences of Russia's governors.…”

The Stabilization of Authoritarian Rule in Russia?

“…The failure of UR to satisfactorily perform the role of a ruling party (Gill, 2012) has created a major problem. Such a party is needed, inter alia, to crowd out the opposition at election time, prevent the legislature from becoming a site of opposition activity by maintaining a dominant place in it, and act as an effective mechanism for the elite to ensure central control in the regions.…”

Growing Old Without Grace: Electoral Authoritarianism and the Age Composition of Russia's Regional Legislative Assemblies

“…As follows from the table, United Russia gradually consolidated its hold over regional legislative assemblies in 2003 -06, but the shares of seats gained by other parties remained substantial. In 2007 -10, the domination of United Russia reached its apex, and even in 2011, when its performance in national legislative elections was less than impressive (Gill 2012;Golosov 2012), United Russia retained its ability to reach two-third majorities in nearly all regional legislative assemblies.…”

“…The process of Russia's transition to electoral authoritarianism is well documented in the literature (Gel'man 2012;Gill 2012;Golosov 2012;Petrov et al 2014;Smyth et al 2007), yet some background information is in order. In the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, Russia's political order at large could be described as a 'managed' or 'manipulated', deficient democracy (Colton and McFaul 2003).…”