Electoral Politics in Putin’s Russia

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Under what conditions do citizens support regime-backed parties and candidates in authoritarian elections? What explains the election of women and minorities to national legislatures in these regimes? Why do dictatorships adjust their strategies in the electoral arena and what are the effects of those strategic adjustments? This panel will explore these and related questions of elections under authoritarianism by examining Putin’s Russia—one of the most prominent dictatorships in the world. Through investigations of local, regional, and national elections across the Putin era, the papers focus on the complex dynamics between voters and the regime in this country. Collectively, the papers leverage a variety of methods, including qualitative approaches, statistical techniques, and spatial analyses. The authors use Russian elections to challenge and refine conventional explanations of how authoritarian regimes reward and punish both voters and regime elites. The panel will be of interest to scholars specializing in authoritarianism, elections at varying levels of administration, voting behavior, as well as ethnicity and gender.

Sub Unit

• Division 13: Politics of Communist and Former Communist Countries

Individual Presentations

• Asymmetrical Effects: Subnational Authoritarian Regime Stability - Allison C. White, Colorado State University; Inga A-L Saikkonen, Åbo Akademi University

• Representation of Women and Ethnic Minorities in the Russian State Duma - Robert G. Moser, University of Texas at Austin

• Citizens’ Bureaucratic Interactions and Voting Behavior in Russia - William M. Reisinger, University of Iowa; Marina Zaloznaya, The University of Iowa; Haofeng Ma, The University of Iowa

• Why Allow Local Elections? Fraud and the Abolition of Russian Mayoral Elections - Cole J Harvey, Oklahoma State University

Chair

• Allison C. White Colorado State University

Discussants

• Tomila Lankina London School of Economics and Political Science

• Ora John Reuter University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee