A Survey of Democracy in Russia's Regions

Abstract

An American political scientist and a Russian geographer, specialists in postCommunist political reform and Russian regional politics, respectively, adopt a subnational approach to democratization, measuring democracy in a standard fashion across 57 regions of Russia. They rate levels of democracy in Russia's oblasts, krays, and federal cities based on the results of a survey they administered to experts on Russian provincial politics. The article presents the ranking of the regions, evaluates the survey as a means of measuring provincial democracy, and examines five possible explanations for subnational variation in democracy. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H11, H77, P16, P26. 3 figures, 4 tables, 79 references, 2 appendices.