The Politics of Russia's Regions: A Geographical Analysis of the Russian Election and Constitutional Plebiscite of December 1993

A Rayon-Level Analysis of the Russian Election and Constitutional Plebiscite of December 1993

“…al., 1994). Work by the present authors substantiates this characterization of Russian regional politics Craumer, 1993, 1995). In analyzing the results of the April 1993 referendum and the December 1993 elections and constitutional plebiscite, we found wide variations among regions in the degree of support for Yel'tsin and the reform parties, as evidenced by votes favoring Yel'tsin on the referendum, votes in support of the constitution, and votes for the reform bloc of parties in the Duma elections (principally the distribution of votes by party on the national list).…”

“…Subsequently, studies by the present authors of the April 1993 referendum and the December 1993 election and plebiscite Craumer, 1993, 1995) and by Slider and his colleagues (1994) of the December 1993 election have by now delimited the new regional political configuration of the country. Combined with a number of excellent nationallevel analyses of Russian politics, including some based on survey results, it now is possible to compile a reasonably accurate portrayal of the Russian electorate and its behavior (Brovkin, 1990;Colton, 1990;Kiernan and Aistrup, 1991;Helf and Hahn, 1992;Urban, 1992Urban, , 1994Corning, 1993;Slater, 1993;CSCE, 1994;Hough, 1994;McFaul, 1994;Mikhailovskaia and Kuzminskii, 1994;Rahr, 1994;Wymanet.…”

“…On the national party-list vote for the Duma, the oblast electorate gave roughly equal shares to the reform parties (29.1%), the Agrarian/Communist parties (22.8%), and the LDPR (26.6%). A slight majority in Saratov Oblast (51.1%), but below the national average (58.4%) of 462 POST-SOVIET GEOGRAPHY those voting, favored the constitutional question (Clem and Craumer, 1995).…”

“…As in our previous study of the December 1993 election and constitutional plebiscite (Clem and Craumer, 1995), we grouped the main parties into three categories:…”

“…Previous work by the authors at the oblast scale of analysis brought out the strong statistical relationship between urbanization and political behavior; generally, more urbanized areas supported Yel'tsin and the reform parties, whereas more rural areas tended to be anti-Yel'tsin and favored anti-reform parties Craumer, 1993, 1995). Likewise, based on their extensive pre-election survey in 1993, Hough and his colleagues (1994) found rural and small town dwellers to be more hostile to the reform parties, and urban populations to be more positively inclined toward the democrats.…”