Russian “Party of Power” vs Dominant Party

Abstract

The article presents a factual analysis of the origin and formation of the “party of power” in Russia. The work demonstrates that at all stages the Russian “party of power” was designed and controlled by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. The research carried out by the author shows that Russia’s “party of power” does not meet the criteria that would allow to qualify this political party as dominant, in any of its “incarnations”. This fully applies to the United Russia party that does not exert a significant impact on the appointments to the political and administrative positions and does not have any effect on the decisions that determine the state’s policy. The dominance of the United Russia party in the electoral field is ensured primarily by the electoral corruption, as well as by the fact that its “electoral machine” is represented by the system of public authorities at all levels, from federal to local. In turn, the dominance of this party in the State Duma and the rigid and strictly hierarchical administrative structure that it built in the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament allows the Presidential Administration to control the legislative process and parliamentary activity in general. According to the author’s conclusion, the “party of power” is an externally controlled political organization of a party type that protects the interests of Russia’s ruling nomenklatura and implements its goals in the processes of the formation of public authorities through electoral procedures, as well as in the course of the legislative and parliamentary activity. Not only does such an organization fail to meet the criteria of the dominant party, but it also fails to fully correspond to the concept of a political party per se.