Social structure and the left – right divide: The socio-economic background of voting in the first russian parliament

Abstract

The paper considers the social basis of voting in the First Russian Duma. Ideological division is shown to have been extremely strong on left – right issues. Unlike other studies, which have focused on the link between electoral voting and party choice, the paper shows that deputies' voting is also linked to social structure. Voting by deputies elected from party lists (who were more right wing in voting) is distinguished from those elected on a single constituency mandate. Three social and seven socio-economic indexes are constructed and correlated with the voting of deputies from 89 regions. There is a clustering of constituencies: The more rural and working class the area, the higher the deputies' left wing vote; conversely, the larger cities elected deputies who were more right wing. The former areas are characterized by loss-making enterprises with a lowly educated and unemployed workforce, which in turn were correlated with high levels of poverty, relatively little foreign investment and low disposable wage levels. Right wing voting deputies came from regions with greater foreign investment, where enterprises had a large proportion of employees with higher education and where there was less unemployment and poverty. It is contended that anti-reform voting was a consequence of opposition to the effects of Yeltsin's reform programme. Duma deputies consistently voted in parliament on issues that had an affinity with their constituency base. Russian politics has an ideological basis with a distinct social class base.

Key words:

• Class
• transformation
• Russia
• left-right voting
• social basis
• Russian politics

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement is made to the Leverhulme Trust, which funded the research on which this paper is based.

Notes

¹ Such conclusions are often drawn from polling data asking people to ascribe to a left – right range; such answers do not entail that respondents actually have left – right preferences. They may not conceptualize their political positions in left – right terms.

² Here he is concerned with public consciousness, though in a footnote, he does concede that some elites have a ‘strong belief system’ (note 24, p. 308).

³ Colton finds effects of 14 ‘social indicators’ on electoral voting (2000, p. 84).

⁴ See also the second edition of this book, where he notes, ‘The key to voting patterns was its social and occupational structure’ (1996, p. 120).

⁵ Of primary importance were data based on official parliamentary records derived from the INDEM database, see http://www.indem.ru/indemstat/index.htm. Our thanks to Nikolay Blagoveshchenski for invaluable help and assistance in retrieving and ordering the data.

⁶ A similar methodology has been adopted, with respect to candidates' values, by Remington (2003, p. 239).

⁷ Examples of motions are: Social: Federal'nyi zakon o pensiyakh [Law on pensions] (July 1994); Federal'nyi zakon o minimal'noi zapabotnoi plate [Law on the minimal wage] (January 1995); Federal'nyi zakon ob indeksatsii pensii [Law on the indexation of pensions] (February 1995); Federal'nyi zakon o minimal'noi pensii [Law on the minimal pension] (March 1995); Federal'nyi zakon o byudzhete fonda sotsial'nogo strakhovaniya na 1995 god [Law on the budget of the Social Insurance Fund for 1995] (May 1995); Federal'nyi zakon o kompensatsionnykh vyplatakh [Law on compensation payments] (June 1995); Federal'nyi zakon o byudzhete fonda zanyatosti na 1995 god [Law on the budget of the Employment Fund for 1995] (October 1995); Federal'nyi zakon o sotsial'nykh garantiyakh [Law on social guarantees] (December 1995). Economic motions: Postanovlenie po proekty byudzheta na 1994 god [Resolution on the federal budget for 1994] (May 1994); Federal'nyi zakon o priostanovlenii protsessa privatizatsii [Law on the suspension of privatization] (June 1994); Programma privatizatsii: federal'nyi zakon o prinyatii programmy [Programme on privatization] (July 1994); Federal'nyi zakon o sel'skokhozyaistvennoi kooperatsii [Law on agricultural co-operation] (June 1994); Postanovlenie o khode ispolneniya federal'nogo byudzheta na 1994 god [Resolution on the implementation of the Federal Budget for 1994] (October 1994); Federal'nyi zakon o vnesenii izmenenii v nalogovoe zakonodatel'stvo [Amendments to tax legislation] (January 1995); Federal'nyi zakon o tarifakh na energiyu [Law on energy tariffs] (January 1995); Federal'nyi zakon ovnesenii izmenenii v Federal'nyi zakon ob inostrannykh investitsiyakh [Amendments to the Law on foreign investments] (October 1995). International relations/political motions: Postanovlenie o komissii Gosudarstvennoi Dumy po sobytiyam 21 sentyabrya – 4 oktyabrya 1993 goda [Resolution on the Duma commission for September – October 1993 events] (the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet) (February 1994); Federal'nyi konstitutsionnyi zakon o gosudarstvennoi simvolike [Law on State Symbols] (December 1994); Postanovlenie o deyatel'nosti Fonda Sorosa v Rossii [Resolution on the activities of Soros Foundation in Russia] (January 1995); Postanovlenie ob upolnomochennom po pravam cheloveka v Rossii [Resolution on the State Ombudsman] (March 1995); Postanovlenie o snyatii ekonomicheskikh sanktsii s Iraka [Resolution on the lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq] (April 1995); Postanovlenie o snyatii ekonomicheskikh sanktsii s Livii [Resolution on the lifting of economic sanctions against Lybia] (April 1995); Postanovlenie o prinyatii mer po zashchite natsional'nykh interesov gosudarstva [Resolution on the protection of national interests of the state] (April 1995).

⁸ More than 160 deputies were elected in the single mandate constituencies with no party affiliation, that is, as ‘independents' (about 36% of all deputies or 72% of the deputies elected in the single mandate constituencies). As Rose et al. have shown, these deputies as well as those elected under party mandates formed shifting constellations of deputies and party allegiances.

⁹ Data for 2002, taken from the census: No occupational data are available during the 1990s (this follows extensive enquiries at the offices of the Russian statistical agency) Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, Itogi Vserossiyskoy perepisi naseleniya 2002 goda, Zanyatiya naseleniya, Moscow, Federal'naya sluzhba Gosudarstvennoy statistiki, Tom 9, 2005.

¹⁰ The total population for Russia in 1995 was: 147,609,000 and the 71 regions here included 139,241,000 or 94.33%. Source: Regiony Rossii (2004, pp. 42 – 43).