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Abstract
There is sharp controversy over the pros and cons of federalism as a means of regulating or escalating conflicts in deeply divided societies. Successful conflict regulation depends on the institutional minutiae of a given federation and its interdependence with other parts of the political regime. The various guises assumed by federalism in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 demonstrate that the survival of a federation, particularly one based on ethnic principles, depends on the adherence to federal norms, the functioning of democratic institutions, effective conflict-regulation devices, and political parties that reflect federal cleavages.
Notes
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However, the specifics of democratic and federal rule – majoritarianism or consociationalism, presidentialism or parliamentarism – seem to inform the capacity to constrain the opportunities for ethnocracy.
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Available at <www.levada.ru/press/2006082500.html>, accessed 10 Feb. 2010.
Interfax, 17 Nov. 2006.
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Seppo Lallukka, ‘Finno-Ugrians of Russia: Vanishing Cultural Communities?’, Nationalities Papers, Vol.29, No.1 (2001), pp.9–39 (p.16).
On 16 April 2009, Russia's President Medvedev officially declared the abolition of Chechnya's status as a ‘Zone for the implementation of anti-terrorist operations’.
Paul Goble, ‘Russia Needs New Approach on Ethnic and Civic Identities, Tishkov Says’. Georgian Daily, 16 April 2009, available at <http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11133&Itemid=69>, accessed 3 Feb. 2010.
See, for instance, Boris Nemtsov, ‘War Clouds in the Caucasus’, Wall Street Journal, 8 Aug. 2009, p.A13.
John Kincaid, ‘Federalism, The Highest Stage of Democracy?’, in Jose V. Ciprut (ed.), Democratizations: Comparisons, Confrontations, and Contrasts (Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, 2008), pp.93–117.
Jörn Grävingholt, Pseudodemokratie in Rußland: Der Fall Baschkortostan [Pseudodemocracy in Russia: The Case of Bashkortostan] (Bonn: German Development Institute, 2005).
Federal Law No. 5242-1, ‘O prave grazhdan RF na svobodu peredvizheniya’ [On the right of citizens of the RF to freedom of movement], 25 June 1993.
An overview of minority rights legislation is provided by Doris Widra, ‘Legislation of the Russian Federation Concerning Ethnic Minorities and its Shortcomings’, available at <http://www.eawarn.ru/EN/pub/Projects/TacisProject/Widra.htm>, accessed 3 Feb. 2010.
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Peter Söderlund, The Dynamics of Federalism in Russia (Åbo: Åbo Akademi Press, 2005).
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‘Postanovlenie Konstitutsionnogo Suda RF po delu proverki konstitutsionnosti otdel'nykh polozhenii Federal'nogo Zakona “Ob obshchikh printsipakh organizatsii zakonodatel'nykh i ispolnitel'nykh organov vlasti sub”ektov RF”, 4.4.2002’ [Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the RF in the matter of testing the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Federal Law “On the general principles of organizing the legislative and executive organs of power of the subjects of the RF”, 4 April 2002], available at <http://www.akdi.ru/ks/post/post02.HTM>, accessed 10 Feb. 2010.
Angelika Nußberger, ‘Verfassungsmäßigkeit der jüngsten Rechtsreformen in Russland’ [Constitutional weakness of the recent legal reforms in Russia], Russland-Analysen, No.57, 25 Feb. (2005), pp.2–5; Angelika Nußberger, ‘Das Russische Verfassungsgericht zwischen Recht und Politik’ [Russian Constitutional Court between law and politics], in Matthes Buhbe and Gabriele Gorzka (eds.), Russland heute. Rezentralisierung des Staates unter Putin [Russia today: recentralization of the state under Putin] (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2007), pp.215–33. The decision of the Constitutional Court was published in Sobranie zakonodatel'stva RF [Collected legislation of the RF], 2006/3, Pos.336.
Essentialization refers to the sociological assumption that a group is an already constituted, homogeneous, coherent and exclusive collective actor with identical interests, historical memories, cognitive properties and political preferences, which are based on a common descent.
Richard Skawa, Russian Politics and Society, 4th edn. (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp.201ff.
Interview with utro.ru 13 May 2004.
Personal interview with M. Stolyarov, deputy head of the Permanent Mission of Tatarstan. Moscow, 7 Dec. 2005.
Personal interview with A.I. Grigor'ev, deputy head of the Permanent Mission of Chuvashia. Moscow, 8 Dec. 2005.
Institut gosudarstva i prava RAN, Konstitutsiya Rossiiskoi Federatsii, pp.464f.
Andreas Heinemann-Grüder, ‘Asymmetry and Federal Integration in Russia’, in Vladimir Tikhomirov (ed.), Anatomy of the 1998 Russian Crisis (Melbourne: Contemporary Europe Research Centre, University of Melbourne, 1999), pp.79–107.
Leonid Smirnyagin, ‘Aktual'na li problema asimmetrii v sovremennom Rossii?’ [Is the problem of asymmetry in contemporary Russia topical?'], paper presented at the Russia Roundtable ‘Federalism and Diversity’, Moscow, MGIMO Institute, 28 Feb. 2008.
J. Paul Goode, ‘The Push for Regional Enlargement in Putin's Russia’, Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.20, No.3 (2004), pp.219–57; Gary N. Wilson, ‘Abandoning the Nest: Regional Mergers and their Impact on the Russian North’, Polar Geography, Vol.27, No.3 (2003), pp.240–53.
V.Ye. Chernik, Konstitutsionnoe pravo Rossii [Constitutional law of Russia] (Moscow: Yurist, 2004), pp.200ff.
On the various conceptions of sovereignty in republican constitutions and the rulings of the Constitutional Court of Russia, see N.M. Mirichanov, Federalizm, etnichnost', gosudarstvennost': Novyi kurs rossiiskoi vlasti [Federalism, ethnicity, statehood: The new course of Russian power] (Moskva: Arba T-XXI, 2002), pp.170–80.
Viktor A. Cherepanov, Teoriya Rossiiskogo Federalizma [Theory of Russian federalism] (Moskva: MZ-Press, 2005), p.167.
Postanovlenie Konstitutsionnovo Suda RF ot 1 Fevralya 2005 g. N 1-II po delu o proverke konstitutsionnosti abzatsev vtorogo i tret'evo punkta 2 stat'i 3 i punkta 6 stat'i 47 Federal'nogo Zakona, ‘O politicheskikh partiyakh’ v svyazi s zhaloboi obshchestvenno-politicheskoi organizatsii Baltiiskaya respublikanskaya partiya [Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the RF of 1 February 2005 No.1–II, in the matter of testing the constitutionality of the first and second subsections of point 2 of Article 3 and point 6 of Article 7 of the federal law ‘On political parties’ in connection with a complaint by the socio-political organization the Baltic Republican Party], available at <http://echr.ru/documents/doc/6070028/6070028.htm>, accessed 10 Feb. 2010.
The Russian version of the law can be found at <http://base.garant.ru/183523.htm>, accessed 10 Feb. 2010.
Between December 2005 and March 2007 we conducted interviews with leading representatives of seven federal parties on their positions with respect to federalism.
The following section draws in part on Irina Busygina and Andreas Heinemann-Grüder (eds.), Russian Federation: A Global Dialogue on Federalism, Diversity and Unity in Federal Countries (Montreal and Kingston, ON and London: McGill–Queen's University Press, forthcoming 2010).
Daniel Treisman, ‘Russia's Ethnic Revival: The Separatist Activism of Regional Leaders in a Postcommunist Order’, World Politics, Vol.49, No.2 (1997), pp.212–49; Daniel Treisman, ‘Fiscal Redistribution in a Fragile Federation: Moscow and the Regions in 1994’, British Journal of Political Science, Vol.28, No.1 (1998), pp.185–222; Daniel Treisman, ‘Deciphering Russia's Federal Finance: Fiscal Appeasement in 1995 and 1996’, Europe–Asia Studies, Vol.50, No.5 (1998), pp.893–906; Daniel S. Treisman, ‘The Politics of Intergovernmental Transfers in Post-Soviet Russia’, British Journal of Political Science, Vol.26, No.3 (1996), pp.299–335.
Kitty Stewart, ‘Are Intergovernmental Transfers in Russia Equalizing?’, Innocenti Occasional Papers, EPS 59 (Florence: UNICEF 1997); Söderlund, The Dynamics of Federalism in Russia.
Natalia Zubarevich, Russia: Case Study on Human Development Progress Toward the MDGs at the Sub-National Level (Geneva: United Nations Development Programme. Human Development Report Office, 2003).
Ibid, pp.8f.
Natalia Zubarevich, ‘Sotsio-ekonomicheskie razlichiya mezhdu etnicheskimi regionami i politika pereraspredeleniya’ [Socio-economic differences between ethnic regions and distribution policy], in Irina Busygina and Andreas Heinemann-Grüder (eds.), Federalizm i etnicheskoe mnogoobrazie v Rossii [Federalism and ethnic diversity in Russia] (Moskva: Rosspen, 2010), pp.80–93.
Ibid.
Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed; Valerie Bunce, ‘Federalism, Nationalism, and Secession: The Communist and Postcommunist Experience’, in Ugo Amoretti and Nancy Bermeo (eds.), Federalism and Territorial Cleavages (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), pp.417–40.
‘Stable’ according to Irina A. Konyuchova, Sovremennyi rossiiskii- federalizm i mirovoi opyt: itogi stanovleniya i perspektivy razvitiya [Contemporary Russian federalism and world experience: Results of its establishment and development prospects] (Moscow: Izdatel'skii dom Gorodec, 2004), p.14; the opposite assessment (‘extremely unstable’) is represented by Milena V. Gligich-Zolotareva, Pravovye osnovy federalizma [Legal bases of federalism] (Moscow: Yurist, 2006), p.214.