The failure of democracy in Russia

Abstract

The early aspirations for democracy in post‐Soviet Russia have not been realised. The principal reason for this is that the elites which dominated the initial post‐Soviet period constructed a political system which effectively dosed off entry to the mass of the populace and to civil society organisations. But the system Yeltsin created, with a powerful presidency resting on charismatic legitimation, a weakened legislature, and ineffective parties, was not stable. Vladimir Putin has tried to remedy this by building a more integrated and coherent power structure with himself at the apex But this is no more democratic than that of Yeltsin. Political elites thereby remain the principal barrier to Russia's democratic development