Decentralization and Ethnic Voting: Evidence from the Russian Elections of 1917

• In Event: Poster Session: Comparative Politics I

Abstract

The existing literature provides conflicting results about decentralization’s impact on ethnic voting. This paper examines the persistent effect of 1864 Zemstvo Reform on ethnic voting at the Russian governorates (gubernii) in 1917. This reform introduced legislative and executive institutions at the local level and created a platform for effective self-governance. It did not provide full autonomy to the territories but made local population more integrated in the policy-making process. I claim that the existence of the local self-governance within a decentralized administration makes ethnic attachments less salient for the local population, whereas the absence of the local autonomy emphasizes the problems of the ethnic identity representation, which drives people to vote more for their local ethnic parties. Using the original 1917 data on elections to the temporary representative institution that was formed after the 1917 Revolution, Uchreditelnoe Sobranie, the paper shows that areas with existing self-governance institutions (decentralized administration) voted less for ethnic parties than places without such institutions.

Author

• Olga Gasparyan, University of Rochester