Shock-Resistant Authoritarianism: Teachers and Regime’s Electoral Support in Putin’s Russia

• In Event: 278 - Regular Session. Building and Transforming Civil Society

Abstract

The paper explores the role of the infrastructural state power in authoritarian resilience. Using the regional level data on the presidential elections in Russia in 2008 and 2012, I show that the regions with the highest administrative leverage over secondary school teachers, rather than the ones spending more on education, were best able to withstand the challenge of dropped regime legitimacy. School teachers in Russia are frequently the members of local electoral commissions, and the ability to put pressure on them was widely utilized by the state bureaucratic hierarchies in 2012. The finding has implications for our understanding of the state power, sources of authoritarian resilience, and the role of social policy in the authoritarian context.

Author

• Natalia Forrat, Northwestern University