Central Weakness and Provincial Autonomy: Observations on the Devolution Process in Russia

A specialist on regional politics and center-periphery relations in the Russian Federation examines the process of devolution of authority from Moscow to the regions in the 1990s. A discussion of the process by which federal treaties were negotiated is followed by an examination of types of de facto policy autonomy that have emerged at the regional level by default. Research sources include Russianlanguage documents and interviews with a range of central and regional officials. There follows a discussion of the impact on the devolution process of the institutional structure of the Russian state.     

Central Governing Incapacity and the Weakness of Political Parties: Russian Democracy in Disarray

Political parties can be an important mechanism by which tobetter integrate states in the developing world. Despite this,in Russia parties continue to penetrate provincial politicsonly weakly and thus do not help to integrate the state andenhance its abilities to govern in the periphery by extension.Drawing on evidence of weak central-state capacity to governin the Russian provinces and correspondingly weak politicalparty penetration, emergent political and economic actors havelittle interest in building political parties and increasingstate integration and capacity as a result. The article concludeswith a discussion of the implications of the argument and analysisfor the future of Russian political and economic development.