Responsiveness in Autocracies: Municipal Responsiveness in the Soviet Union and Putin's Russia

• In Event: Governance in Russia and USSR: National and Subnational Perspectives

Abstract

This study shows that both the Soviet Union and contemporary Russian municipal councils play an important role in maintaining the regime's support. Moreover, women play a special role in this due to their responsiveness to the everyday needs of their constituencies. Using archival data, interviews with the Soviet and Russian municipal deputies, and fieldwork observations, I provide evidence that Soviet councils were not just a facade but played an important role in dealing with everyday issues. Second, I show that their responsiveness varied by the gender of the deputy. Specifically, women appeared to be responsive to their communities despite the absence of electoral incentives and career-based incentives. Finally, I demonstrate that women’s responsiveness to their constituencies at the municipal level did not vanish in the chaos of the 1990s. Female representatives in Russia today continue to show a sense of responsibility to their voters that motivates them to participate. My analysis reveals the local foundations of authoritarian regime endurance and stability, rooted in the state's utilization of women's responsiveness in delivering essential welfare services to citizens and women's dependence on the state.

Author

• Valeria Umanets, U of Pittsburgh / Tulane U