Changes in the Social Structure of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region in 1994–2020

The relevance of studying the evolvement history of state and municipal authorities in modern Russia occupies an increasingly important place in the Russian historical science. At the same time, it should be noted that the historical research approach to the study of the causes and regional features of evolvement and functioning of the legislative bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation is insufficient. At the same time, the relevance of this kind of scientific search is dictated by the use of previous experience in modern management practice. The experience of regional parliaments of these years in finding solutions to overcome the deepest socio-economic and political crisis that broke out in the country is unique. It was the regional legislative bodies that developed the legal basis for anti-crisis management, laid the foundation for a new modern Russian lawmaking. In line with this issue, an important and very relevant topic is the analysis of the social structure of the deputy corpus. Purpose of the study. This article reconstructs the creation of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod region and the deputy corpus formation. It aims to analyze the social structure of the deputy corpus of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod region since its creation (1994) for thirty years. It involves studying the mechanism of forming the regional parliament, the professional, age, and educational image of deputies. The results of the study will help to identify trends characteristic for the functioning of the regional representative authority. Materials and methods. This article is based on the study of the complex of archival materials kept in the Central Archive of Nizhny Novgorod region. The Fund of the Legislative Assembly contains a variety of materials on the activities of the regional parliament. When writing this article, the protocols and verbatim reports of the meetings of the regional Legislative Assembly, the materials of the mandate commission were of particular importance. In preparing the article, first of all, specific historical and statistical methods of scientific research were used; mathematical processing of quantitative data was carried out. In the historiographical aspect, the article is notable for its novelty and has practically no predecessors. Research results. The article is devoted to the analysis of the social structure of the deputy corpus of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod region for almost 30 years. In 1994, regional legislative bodies were formed on the basis of the Constitution of the Russian Federation during democratic elections. For several years, the search for the optimal formula for the electoral process was underway, the constitutional and legal framework was transformed; regional parliaments were formed on the basis of a majority, proportional, mixed system. These changes had a direct impact on the election results, on the election of candidates having various social statuses, professional belonging and managerial experience. The study of changes in the social structure of the deputy corpus is aimed at understanding the processes and their main trends in the tideway of development of the Russian state political system, clarifying the content of the main stages in the formation of new government bodies at the regional level. Conclusions. As a result of studying the changes in the social structure of the deputy corpus of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod region, several generalizing conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, throughout the entire period of activity of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod region, the proportion of the real economy representatives was high in the deputy corpus. It should be noted that these were, as a rule, the heads of enterprises and organizations in industry, transport, banking and trade. Secondly, the changes in the deputy structure reflected those processes in the country’s socio-economic life that transformed the social strata of society themselves. Thirdly, changes related to the formation and stability of the country’s political system and the creation of a multi-party system also played an important role. The political landscape could not but be reflected in the composition of state and municipal government. Of particular note is the elitism of the legislative regional authority. The new regional bodies consisted mainly of representatives of the highest social stratum – heads of organizations and institutions of diversiform ownership, large businesses, leaders of regional branches of political parties. There are practically no representatives of working professions, the peasantry, teachers, doctors, and “ordinary” people in them.