CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Paustyan, Ekaterina |
|---|---|
| Title | The Political Economy of the Territorial Regime in Post-Soviet Russia |
| Summary | This dissertation studies the dynamics of the territorial regime in post-Soviet Russia. It consists of three separate studies that employ Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The first study investigates the factors accounting for the signing of bilateral treaties between Moscow and the Russian regions in the period of 1994-1998. The results of the analysis suggest that President Yeltsin formed a broad coalition with both authoritarian and democratic regional heads by negotiating bilateral agreements with them. This strategy allowed Yeltsin to win the 1996 presidential election, yet in the long run, it had contributed to the preservation of authoritarian enclaves in Russia. These findings demonstrate that in a situation of high political polarization a multi-level territorial setting can push the national executive to interfere with a democratic process. The second study concerns gubernatorial incumbency and analyzes the factors accounting for the reappointment of incumbent governors by President Medvedev between 2008 and 2012. The results support the argument that the incumbents remain in office as long as they fulfill the main "federal priorities," that is, high electoral results and political stability. These findings suggest that being dependent on electoral results, the regional executives not only in the ethnic regions but also in the regions with a predominantly ethnic Russian population have influenced electoral outcomes mobilizing voters on behalf of the regime. Finally, the third study deals with politically sensitive transfers in Russia focusing on the case of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The results of the analysis indicate that the distribution of federal transfers that are sensitive to political bargaining is highly dependent on the political connections of regional elites rather than driven by the consistent strategy of the federal government. This finding is consistent with previous studies demonstrating that the regional governments in Russia play an important role in directing the flows of federal transfers. These results suggest that the move towards authoritarian federalism happened in Russia without fully sacrificing political authority of the regional governments. As a result, the multi-level territorial structure even in the authoritarian context causes some uncertainty, engenders certain flexibilities, and provides the power-sharing mechanisms that political actors can exploit. |
| Supervisor | Horvath, Julius |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/paustyan_ekaterina.pdf |
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