Do russian law enforcement agencies punish governors who allow free elections(2)
1. Do Russian Law Enforcement Agencies
Punish Governors Who Allow Free
Elections?
Research Idea
Maxim Ananyev
New Economic School
MAE, class 2012
Graduate Workshop in Institutions and History
Higher School of Economics, 2010
3. Post-Soviet Governor Elections in
Russia
1993 - 1994:
Disputes between Boris Yeltsin and regional elites on
whether governors should be elected by local citizens.
1995-1996:
Elections of the governors are adopted everywhere.
2004:
Parliament passes the presidential bill to abolish regional
elections.
4. •
A lot of local authorities faced legal
charges
5. Political Process
"Administrative resource" - people who vote
as they were told at their workplace or
institution.
"Power party" - political party created to
rubber stamp government bills.
6. Demarcation line (and possible clash
opportunity)
Power Party (controlled by federal authorities)
has to sustain its credibility on the elections
dominated by the administrative resource
(controlled by local authorities).
7. H0w to control governors?
Q: Assuming weak role of formal institutions
how the federal authorities might control
elected governors?
A: Money transfers and law enforcement
agencies.
8. Is low popular vote for Power Party a
good predictor of the legal charges
against local authorities?
9. Ideal experiment
Archangel Gabriel makes all federal subjects
equal in population, per-capita income, corruption
rate and decreases the popularity of Power Party in
a random subset of the regions.
10. Real world mode of statistic inference
OLS: Yi= a + bXi + e
Xi - difference between the Power Party
electoral support in the region and country
average.
Yi - the intensity of federal law
enforcement activity in the region between
the elections.
12. Big picture
One of the main questions of social
science: why the states are governed in a
way they are governed, and what can
induce institutional change?
