Re-conceptualising Russian party politics

During the 1990s, studies of Russian party politics were largely based on the expectation that parties would provide the integrative and intermediary functions that political parties were expected to perform in established democratic systems. Scholarly attention focused on the role of parties as aggregators of societal interests and the impact of presidentialism on party development. With the entrenchment of electoral authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin, the focus of analysis must change. What matters much more than parties’ societal links are parties’ relationships with the state and the specific role each plays in sustaining the regime.