Political Attitudes of Local Elites in Contemporary Russia (Cases of Municipalities of the Perm Territory)

Political Attitudes of Local Elites in Contemporary Russia (Cases of Municipalities of the Perm Territory)


Shkel S.N.,

National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia, stas-polit@yandex.ru


elibrary_id: 482517 |


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2020.06.09
Rubric: Russia Today

For citation:

Shkel S.N. Political Attitudes of Local Elites in Contemporary Russia (Cases of Municipalities of the Perm Territory). – Polis. Political Studies. 2020. No. 6. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2020.06.09


This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) “Political and Institutional Characteristics of Municipalities and the Quality of the Distribution of Public Goods at the Local Level: the Experience of the Perm Territory”, grant number 18-411-590012. The author expresses his great appreciation to the Development Partnership Program run by the European University at St. Petersburg.


Abstract

The article studies the factors that shape the political attitudes of the elites. Using data from semi-formalized interviews with municipal deputies and heads of administrations in cities and regions of the Perm Territory, the author identifies the reasons for the different positions held by politicians about the issue of canceling direct elections for mayors and municipal heads. The results of this analysis showed that the successful experience of the electoral struggle has not affected political attitudes, and does not provide a sufficient basis for the formation of democratic values. Calculation of data by the Fisher exact test method showed a statistically significant relationship between political status (whether insider or outsider) and the political attitudes of the local elites. A substantive analysis of the collected interviews made it possible not only to systematize the main arguments for legitimizing authoritarian and democratic practices, but also to clarify the role the legacy of the past plays in the successful installation of undemocratic orders. Negative experiences of direct elections, associated with conflict between elites and general managerial inefficiency, is a significant argument for simplifying authoritarian legitimation. 

Keywords
elections, political elites, local politics, democracy, authoritarianism, municipalities, Russian politics, Perm Territory.


References

Alvarez M., Cheibub J., Limongi F., Przeworski A. 1996. Classifying Political Regimes. – Studies in Comparative International Development. Vol. 31. No. 2. P. 3-36.

Brown A. 2001. From Democratization to “Guided Democracy”. – Journal of Democracy. Vol. 12. No. 4. P. 35-41.

Buckley N., Reuter O., Shubenkova A., Garifullina G. 2014. Elections, Appointments, and Human Capital: The Case of Russian Mayors. – Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization. Vol. 22. No. 1. P. 87-116.

Buckley N., Tucker J. 2019. Staring at the West through Kremlin-Tinted Glasses: Russian Mass and Elite Divergence in Attitudes toward the United States, European Union, and Ukraine before and after Crimea. – Post-Soviet Affairs. https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2019.1660491

Bueno De Mesquita B., Smith A., Siverson R., Morrow J. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4292.001.0001

Burton M., Higley J. 2001. The Study of Political Elite Transformations. – International Review of Sociology / Revue Internationale de Sociologie. Vol. 11. No. 2. P. 181-199. https://doi.org/10.1080/713674040

Collier D., Levitsky S. 1997. Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research. – World Politics. Vol. 49. No. 3. P. 430−451.

Dahl R. 1989. Democracy and its Critics, Yale: Yale University Press. Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition. 2006. Ed. by A. Schedler. Boulder, CO, and London, UK: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Gel’man V., Tarusina I. 2000. Studies of Political Elites in Russia: Issues and Alternatives. – Communist and Post-Communist Studies. Vol. 33. No. 3. P. 311-329. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0967-067x(00)00009-x

Howard M., Roessler Ph. 2006. Liberalizing Electoral Outcomes in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes. – American Journal of Political Science. Vol. 50. No. 2. P. 365−381.

Huntington S. 1991. Democracy’s Third Wave. – Journal of Democracy. Vol. 2. No. 2. P. 12-34.

Kullberg J., Zimmerman W. 1999. Liberal Elites, Socialist Masses, and Problems of Russian Democracy. – World Politics. Vol. 51. No. 3. P. 323-358. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0043887100009102

Levitsky S., Way L. 2010. Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781353

Miller A., Hesli V., Reisinger W. 1997. Conceptions of Democracy among Mass and Elite in Post-Soviet Societies. – British Journal of Political Science. Vol. 27. No. 2. P. 159-190. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123497000100

Munck G., Verkuilen J. 2002. Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices. – Comparative Political Studies. Vol. 35. No. 1. P. 5−34.

Reisinger W., Melville A., Miller A., Hesli V. 1996. Mass and Elite Political Outlooks in Post-Soviet Russia: How Congruent? – Political Research Quarterly. Vol. 49. No 1. P. 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1177/106591299604900105

Rivera S., Zimmerman W. 2019. Introduction: New Directions in Survey Research on Russian Elites. – Post-Soviet Affairs. https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2019.1660482

Steen A. 2002. The Post-Communist Transformation: Elite Orientations and the Emerging Russian State. – Perspective on European Politics and Society. Vol. 3. No. 1. P. 93-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/15705850208438830

Zimmerman W. 2002. The Russian People and Foreign Policy: Russian Elite and Mass Perspectives, 1993-2000. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592703870421

Zimmerman W., Rivera S., Kalinin K. 2019. Survey of Russian Elites, Moscow, Russia, 1993-2016. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03724.v6

 

Chirikova A.Ye. 2008. The Power Vertical in the Estimation of Regional Elites: Dynamics of Changes. – Polis. Political Studies. No. 6. P. 99-112. (In Russ.) URL: https://www.politstudies.ru/en/article/4064 (accessed 10.03.2020).

Chirikova A.Ye., Lapina N.Yu. 1999. Regional’nye elity v RF: modeli povedeniya i politicheskie orientacii. [Regional Elites in the Russian Federation: Models of Behavior and Political Orientations]. Moscow: INION RAS. (In Russ.)

Chirikova A.Ye., Ledyaev V.G., Selzer D.G. 2014. Power in a Small Russian Town: Configuration and Interaction of Major Local Actors. – Polis. Political Studies. No. 2. P. 88-105. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2014.02.07

Ershova N. 1994. Transformatsiya pravyashchei elity v usloviyakh sotsial’nogo pereloma [The Transformation of the Ruling Elite In a Social Turning Point]. – Kuda idet Rossia? Alternativi obshesvennogo razvitiya [Where is Russia Going? Alternatives to Community Development]. Ed. by T.I. Zaslavskaya, L.A. Arutynan. Moscow: Inerpraks. P. 151-155. (In Russ.)

Golovachev B.V., Kosova L.B. 1995. Tsennostnye orientatsii sovetskikh i postsovetskikh elit [Value Orientations of Soviet and Post-Soviet Elites]. – Kuda idet Rossia? Alternativi obshesvennogo razvitiya [Where is Russia Going? Alternatives to Community Development]. Ed. by T.I. Zaslavskaya. Moscow: Interpraks. Vol. 2. P. 183-187. (In Russ.)

Kryshtanovskaya O. 2005. Anatomiya rossijskoj elity [Anatomy of the Russian Elite]. Moscow: Zaharov. (In Russ.)

Pustovoit Yu.A. 2019. How the Regime is Created: Power Coalitions in Siberian Cities. – Polis. Political Studies. No. 4. P. 104-118. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2019.04.08

Rossijskaya elita: opyt sociologicheskogo analiza [Russian Elite: the Experience of Sociological Analysis]. 1995. Ed. by K.N. Mikul’skyi. Moscow: Nauka. (In Russ.)

Safronov V. 2008. The Political Culture of St. Petersburg: Support for Democracy by the Elite and the Mass Public. – Telescope: Journal of Sociological and Marketing Research. No. 6. P. 16-29. (In Russ.)

Shkel S.N. 2018. Why Deputies Do Not Rebel: Political Potential of Assemblies in Small Cities of the Republic of Bashkortostan. – Ars Administrandi. Vol. 10. No. 4. P. 667-686. (In Russ.)

Tarusina I.G. 2002. Dynamics of Political Predispositions of Russia’s Regional Elites (With Saratov Region as Example). – Polis. Political Studies. No. 2. P. 133-140. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2002.01.11 

Content No. 6, 2020

See also:


Samarkina I.V., Bashmakov I.S.,
Local Identity and Mechanisms of its Conversion into Constructive Socio-Political Practices of Youth. – Polis. Political Studies. 2021. No2

Shaparov A.Ye.,
The granting of suffrage to aliens: tendencies and practices. – Polis. Political Studies. 2011. No1

Miryasova O.A.,
Russian opposition as actor of institutional transformation. – Polis. Political Studies. 2013. No5

Turchenko M.S.,
Electoral Malpractices around the World. – Polis. Political Studies. 2020. No5

Tomashov I.A.,
The year of 2012: russian politics and political professions. – Polis. Political Studies. 2012. No3

 

   

Introducing an article



Polis. Political Studies
1 2015


Yanitsky O.N.
Humanitarian catastrophe

  The article text
 

Archive

   2024      2023      2022      2021   
   2020      2019      2018      2017      2016   
   2015      2014      2013      2012      2011   
   2010      2009      2008      2007      2006   
   2005      2004      2003      2002      2001   
   2000      1999      1998      1997      1996   
   1995      1994      1993      1992      1991