Russia's Political Parties

By: Ahnaf, Jamie, Mobasher, David X. Montes

Brief History of the "Evolution" of Russian Political Parties

-In 1991 the Commonwealth of Independent States was established and voted to dissolve the USSR, becoming plain old Russia. - Transition to a democratic regime was tough, the only real party at the time was the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), and this party was forced to reorganize.- Tentative government formed with legislature made from quick elections from the newly forming and unstable parties.

Boris Yeltsin Declaration of Constitution

Brief History of the "Evolution" of Russian Political Parties Part Deux

- President elected is Boris Yeltsin, he asks for higher executive powers to implement his liberal economic reforms. He's given it.- During the time of these economic reforms, legislative powers start to question the unfair power sharing and start to hassle Yeltsin. Political parties were too weak and did not have a strong enough base in the populous to oppose Yeltsin.- Yeltsin soon decrees that he will create a "special regime." It is announced as unconstitutional by the legislative. Yeltsin surprisingly agrees....

Brief History of the "Evolution" of Russian Political Parties Part Trois

....Yeltsin roles into Moscow with tanks pointed at the legislature and starts denouncing it. He dissolves the legislature and drafts his own constitution.-New constitution places immense power in presidential hands. One political party that wins has so much power that it can tamper enough to stay in power, regression back to the USSR days under the guise of “guided democracy.

Video

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14589691

Problems with Political Parties-Russia still has not saw the institutionalization of political parties with clear ideologies and political platforms.

-Large disparity in power, the presidency is separated to certain extent from the rest of the government and has much power. System resembles the old Communist Party System.

-Early problems with political parties included lack of faith by the people (due to negative connotations back from the Communist days) as well as lack of money.

The Parties

● UN (United Russia): Pro Putin● CPRF (Communist Party of the

Russian Federation): Old Regime● A Just Russia: Social Democracy● LDPR Liberal Democratic Party of

Russia: extreme nationalist ● Yabloko: Social Liberal

The Parties: United Russia● April 2001 as a merger of

Fatherland All-Russia Party and the Unity Party of Russia. Unity Party started by oligarch Boris Berezovsky to support Prime Minister Vladmir Putin in the presidential election of 2000.

● Dmitri Medvedev won presidential election of 2008 with 70% of the vote.

● Ideologically: Pro-Putin

Oh, we're really Putin on a show now...

Parties: Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)

● Second strongest party in the Duma. 1995 157 of 450 seats. Party support drops in 2003 (51) and 2007 (57) parliamentary elections.

● Gennady Zyuganov, the party leader, came in second in 1996 and 2000 elections but his percentage fell from 40.3% to 29.21%.

● Dropped out in 2004 and a breakaway faction led by Vladimir Tikhonov weakened the party. 2008, Zyuganov returns 18% of vote second to Medvedev.

● Ideology: Centralized planning and nationalism, regain territories lost when the S.U. broke apart. Opposed to Gorbachev reforms. Old regime.

The Parties: A Just Russia● 2006 by merger of Motherland

People’s Patriotic Union (nationalist) with the Party of Pensioners and the Party of Life (social-democratic). Led by the Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov. Motherland formed in 2003 with merger of 30 organizations, but the leaders quarreled over whether or not to challenge Putin in 2004 presidential race. Party split in 2, one forming Fair Russia.

The Parties: A Just Russia

● Passed 7% threshold in the Duma election of 2007 with 7.74% of the vote, 38 seats.

● Ideology: Social Democracy

Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR)

● Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Extreme nationalist, attacks reformist leaders. Anti-semitic, sexist, nuclear warfare. Reformulated as “Zhirinovsky’s block” for the 2000 presidential election

● 2.7% vote. 11% of total vote in 2003 duma election 37 seats. 2007 40 seats.

Parties: Yabloko

● Ideology: Social liberal. Greater freedom and civil liberties, western integration, relations with USA and EU.

● 2003: Barely passed 5% threshold for seats in the Duma. 2007, lost representations in the Duma. 2011 won a few places in regional parliaments of Russia.

Parties: Yabloko

● Oppose Putin for authoritarianism and called for his removal by constitutional means.

● Founded by Grigory Yavlinsky and currently led by Sergey Mitrokhin.

● "R" Ya for Yavlinsky, "B" for Yuri Boldyrev, and "L" for Vladmir Lukin. The name means apple in Russian.

Parties of Power

Defined as those parties created by political elites to support their political aspirations

Parties of power have consistently represented the largest segments of parties in the Duma

Traits:Highly personalizedLack specific ideologies or clear organizational qualitiesCreated by prime ministers during or after their time in office

Example Party of Power

The Our Home is Russia Party was created before the 1995 Duma elections to bolster support for prime minister Victor Chernomyrdin and President Yeltsin

Party lacked any specific ideology but took the second largest share of seats

Party then rapidly declined after Chernomyrdin left office

United Russia as a Party of Power

United Russia is Vladimir Putin’s party, headed by him

Members advance the cause of the party and harass its opponents

United Russia will be in power as long as V. Putin will

Power shown by Putin picking his successor in 2007 elections

Party of power, United Russia, remains voters top choice

Russia Party System v. Other Countries

Britain: Labour, Conservative, Liberal DemocratsMexico: PRD, PRI, PANNigeria: PDP, APP, AD

Russian party system is less ideologically based as compared to other party systems. Parties of power may indeed lack a clear platform.

How does United Russia maintain control of national and local politics?● After Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin stepped down

in 1998, during the 1999 elections two parties began to compete.

● Fatherland – All Russia (Former PM Yevgeny Primakov and Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov) and Unity (Putin’s party)

● Unity won in the Duma elections and then FAR withdrew from the Presidential elections.

● In 2002: Unity and FAR merged to form United Russia○ United Russia swept the elections in 2003 due to

electoral control and Putin’s popularity

United Russia

● Components:○ Cult of personality around Putin with a

youth wing to harass opponents○ There is clientelism and corporatism○ United Russia has had 10 years to gain

control of parts of state and economy and remove rivals

○ Can shut out parties and media control (2007 Duma elections)

United Russia's Control● United Russia can control regional and local politics

because they are the dominant party and the regime in Russia is built around the power of one figure, the President.

● After the USSR was dissolved, Boris Yeltsin and the parliament clashed, leading to parliament’s dissolution in September 1993.

● With the army’s support Yeltsin made a new constitution which removed the old legislative order and give the president a lot of power.

Presidential Powers● Presidential Powers:

○ can go forward with economic and political changes without approval

○ can dissolve the Duma and dismiss the PM and the cabinet

○ can propose and veto bills, and also pass decrees (not public, without approval, cannot be challenged in court)

○ controls Foreign, Defense, and Interior Ministries, armed forces, FSB

● the President chooses the PM and Cabinet so only the party in power really matters

Role of Legislature and Judiciary

● Role of the Legislature and Judiciary:

○ the Duma can accept or reject legislation, and override vetoes, but can be dissolved!

○ Federation Council represents local interests, guarantees constitution, and looks over court appointments, war declarations, and international treaties

○ President still has control over both○ Judiciary was originally for USSR persecution and

has rating of 2.2 (super corrupt)

National and Local Control

● National Elections in Russia:○ Direct elections. Bars candidates and controls

media. ○ The Duma normally has mixed elections with SMDP

and PR (PR barely works since parties are weakly institutionalized and focus on leader’s authority)■ In 2007, since SMDP allowed independent

candidates to win seats, Putin had entirely PR elections.

■ He raised the party threshold to 7% from 5% and prevented the formation of electoral blocs that could overcome the threshold

National and Local Control

● Local Governments In Russia○ There are 89 regional bodies under

asymmetric federalism.○ Each has a local governor and Duma○ Putin began to reduce regional power

■ He made regional bodies comply with laws and legislation

■ government were changed or annulled to reduce local power and bring regional bodies under Putin’s control (sometimes unconstitutionally)