Co-optation in the process of dominant party system building: the case of Russia

Abstract

This article uses the data from the 2003–2006 and 2007–2011 cycles of sub-national legislative elections in 55 regions of Russia to examine the patterns and scope of co-optation in the process of dominant party system building. The analysis examines three modes of co-optation: direct co-optation into the dominant party, United Russia; indirect co-optation via well-established political parties with limited electoral appeal; and mediated co-optation via new quasi-opposition parties sponsored by the authorities. Several properties of parties, including electoral potential, ideological rigidity, and organisational stability, are identified as factors that determine the modes of co-optation for different categories of politicians.

Keywords:

• political parties
• authoritarianism
• Russia
• co-optation
• dominant party

Notes on contributor

Grigorii V. Golosov is the University Professor of Comparative Politics at the European University at St. Petersburg, Russia. He is the author of Political Parties in the Regions of Russia: Democracy Unclaimed (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004).

Notes

1. All numerical evidence cited in this paper, unless otherwise stated, is calculated by the author from the official website of the Central Electoral Commission of Russia (www.izbirkom.ru) or from the Russian Electoral Statistics database (http://db.geliks.org), both accessed in June 2013.

2. For a related concept of “virtual politics”, see Wilson (2005).

3. See, however, Kazee (1980).