Political Geographies and Cleavages in the Russian Parliamentary Elections

THEFIRSTDECADE OFPOST-COMMUNISTELECTIONS ANDVOTING: What Have We Studied, and How Have We Studied It?

“…20 Many have chosen to look toward traditional socioeconomic cleavages such as urban/rural splits, generational effects, and class (Kopstein & Richter 1992;Clem & Craumer 1995cWyman et al 1995;Szelenyi et al 1997;Moser 1999b). Other scholars have looked beyond socioeconomic considerations to cleavages based on factors such as geography (Wade et al 1995, Hough 1998, ethnicity (Birch 1995), center-periphery conflict (Wyman et al 1995, O'Loughlin et al 1996, degree of religiosity (Jasiewicz 1993), and a contemporary-versus-traditional conflict (Gershanok 1996). Some studies have also addressed a cleavage that may be peculiar to transition countries, which is the attitude of voters toward political and economic reform , Powers & Cox 1997, Shabad & Slomczynski 1999.…”

“…Two other studies use turnout as an independent variable for explaining the party vote in Poland in 1991 (Heyns & Bialecki 1991, Wade et al 1995. Finally, a number of interesting articles have explored geographic influences on election results , 1995aO'Loughlin et al 1996, O'Loughlin & Kolossov 1997, Hough 1998, Hinich et al 1999.…”

A Survey of Democracy in Russia's Regions

“…Unfortunately, the cost and time requirements of such an endeavor are prohibitive, because of the large number (89) of regions in Russia. Common proxies for 6 See , 1995a, 1995b, 1995c, Hough (1998), McFaul and Petrov (1997), O'Loughlin et al (1996), and Solnick (1998 Her conclusions concern the consequences of local government being more or less democratic during the final years of the Soviet regime. 8 democracy, including turnover at elections and competition per seat, do not reflect a theoretical understanding of democracy, because it is not clear how particular levels of electoral turnover or competition lead to responsive government.…”

Understanding regional patterns of economic change in Russia: An introduction

“…All of these events have generated a wealth of information on the voting habits of the Russian electorate. Political geographers and political scientists have produced a substantial literature analysing those patterns (Gimpelson et al, 1994;Helf, 1994;Clem & Craumer, 1995O'Loughlin et al, 1996;DeBardeleben & Galkin, 1997;White et al, 1997). The electoral geography of national voting seems to have become relatively stable and the literature talks of a 'red belt'.…”