Managed Competition and Voting Stability: Evidence from Russian Legislative Elections (2003-2011)

Abstract

Does limited competition promote voting stability and party system institutionalization? Since Russian political parties face administrative impediments to participating in elections, only those who adapt to the changing rules remain in the game. Thus, voters have a limited number of parties to support and with no alternatives they might tend to stick to their choice. In this paper, I take stability in electoral support as an indicator of party system institutionalization and test whether limited competition in non-democratic Russia leads to voting stability and party system institutionalization. Empirical evidence is taken from the Russian State Duma elections in 2003-2011.

Keywords: institutionalization, Russian parties, elections, voting geography.

JEL Classification: D72