Party and power: between representation and mobilisation in contemporary Russia

The reasons for the under-development of the Russian party system remain contested, yet significant changes took place in the 2000s. The system became more regulated and streamlined. There were far fewer parties, but the rights of those that survived were consolidated. Above all, the regime identified itself with a single major party, United Russia, although the relationship between the regime and the party was problematical. Russia practises a heavily presidential model of executive dominance, but the polity is characterised by a dominant power system. This system was careful to preserve its autonomy, and thus guarded against the emergence of a dominant party system. The regime party and its allies acted less as instruments of representation than as tools to achieve political mobilisation, and by the same token the role of political opposition was marginalised. However, the dual state character of the political order allowed contradictions to develop that made possible the strengthening of the constitutional state, and with it a greater autonomous representative role for political parties. The accelerated political reforms following the flawed December 2011 parliamentary elections sought to limit the arbitrariness of the administrative regime to permit the emergence of a more genuinely competitive political environment.