-
Why Russia’s Democracy Never Began
- Journal of Democracy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 34, Number 3, July 2023
- pp. 105-118
- 10.1353/jod.2023.a900436
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Abstract:
Scholars often blame Russia”s recent re-autocratization on mistakes of individual leaders: Yeltsin or Putin. This essay casts doubt on such accounts. It argues instead that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced not a democratic transition but a temporary weakening of the state (incumbent capacity). This is evidenced by a lack of elite rotation and the preservation of the same type of formal and informal institutions that characterized Russia’s political system in the past. Accordingly, subsequent re-autocratization of Russian politics was just a matter of time.