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Abstract
Why do hybrid regimes imitate democratic institutions? Do they serve exclusively as a showy formality for the external, mainly Western, audiences or do they perform some substantive functions within the framework of a political system? Within the broader context of diffusion of ideas across countries, the author of this paper explains the nature of the Russian State Duma, which, over the last 10 years, has become a kind of administrative stock exchange for the Russian political elites, and challenges the common simplistic view of the current Russian legislative process as “rubber-stamping” orchestrated by the executive branch.
Notes
Ekaterina Schulmann is a senior lecturer at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) and a columnist at Vedomosti. She can be reached at [email protected] Published with the author's permission.