Igor Ivanov
Lecturer,
Faculty of Social and Political Science
Kazakhstan - German University
Almaty, Kazakhstan;
ELECTORAL SPECIFICITY
OF THE UNITED RUSSIA PARTY
AS
THE “PARTY OF POWER”
The necessity of the “party of
power” for the Russian party system became
topical after Vladimir Putin’s first presidential
elections in
2000. His first serious steps as president of Russia
were aimed at a new administrative mechanism
creation - that is the reform of
the federal districts and the
introduction of authorized representatives of the
President of the Russian Federation. The solution of administrative problems
of presupposes the existence of decision legitimation mechanism
of the executive. In democracy this mechanism is a legislative activity that is based
on a solid electoral foundation. Therefore, for the effective management Russia needed a "party of power".
The
idea of the “party of power” in Russia is not new.
A variety of Russian party system researchers noted such parties
as "The Democratic Choice of
Russia", "The Democratic Party of Russia" and "Our Home – Russia". However, these "parties of power" did not
have a broad electoral support,
and hence, they could be used as the base for a new political
regime. On the eve of the 1999 elections the President Yeltsin’s
entourage initiated work
on the party creation, which will be a
reliable support for the new political elite at the beginning of the new
millennium.
The
United Russia party is a centre-right political party. The party was founded in December the 1st, 2001 as the “Unity
and Fatherland – All Russia” party. Initially the co-leaders of the managing body
were S. Shoigu, Yu.
Luzhkov and M. Shaimiev, then in November 2002 the
Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov was
elected as one chairman of the party.
The official ideology of the
party is centrism, conservatism
and pragmatism, the party opposes
to radical movements.
According to the
results of the 2003 elections pro-presidential party "United Russia"
got the majority of seats in the State Duma.
After winning in its membership the party took most of the
independent MPs (members of parliament) from the “People's Party”, as well as
some other MPs from other parties. Getting
a constitutional majority of seats
in the Duma by The United Russia party made it possible
not to take into account other opposition parties' opinion. The "United Russia" persistently talked about its centrist political position therefore it attracted
electorate from different social groups. The interesting
thing was that a pro-reform and pro-presidential party won a landslide victory for the first time, forming the
majority of seats in the State Duma and receiving and blocking any
proposals and bills [1, 79].
Mixed
reactions from various political
forces and public figures were caused by the fact that in modern non-Communist Russia there
has been a “party of power”. In
his book “Putin:
A Guide
for those who cannot stay
indifferent” («Ïóòèí. Ïóòåâîäèòåëü äëÿ íåðàâíîäóøíûõ») Vladimir Solovyov gives the following evaluation of the
monolithic political force emergence collected from different pro-government parts:
"What has the “United
Russia” done? Sure, the story of the party origin is clear. Everyone
remembers the heavy clashes on
the political front.
It took the Kremlin leadership’s wisdom and political will to unite two parties
which were associated with the power
and to survive different currents
within each of the parties.
First of all, the party work is the ability to
find a compromise. It is an
opportunity to negotiate with
people who are on your left and
right. It is an opportunity to develop a common position within the group and to hear people,
because if you really
looked up to them,
they will remind about themselves.
But it is always dissatisfaction with the “party of power”. And
at the same time, it is always
the understanding that they do a
lot, and there are positive
examples that can be shown" [2, 58]
The
main vector of the "United
Russia" policy is clearly
described in the article "A
Place in the Sun" written by A. Kokoshin,
a deputy of a head of the "United Russia" faction
in the State Duma. The author speculates about contemporary Russian conservatism, patriotism and competitiveness: "One of the most important activities of the parliament
is control of laws execution.
It is clear that the parliament is closely connected with the civil society.
In the society there are a
lot of questions about whether everything
is being done in the chosen direction and what price is given to the movement" [3, 15]
According
to the results of the State Duma
elections of the fifth convocation on
the 2nd
of December 2007 the United Russia party got
unchanged majority. In general, according
to the registration service at
the time of the election, only 15 political parties met the requirements of the Russian Federation
Law
on Political Parties. The
2007 elections were the first elections in which the barrier for the Duma parties
became 7% instead of 5%. The electoral list of the United Russia party was headed by President Vladimir Putin who was not a party member and later he
refused from his deputy mandate. The
“party of power” won 70.08% of the vote and 315 seats in the
State Duma, the Communist Party gained
12.61% of the vote and 57 parliamentary seats, the Liberal Democratic
Party of Russia got 8.87% of the electorate, and 40 seats in
parliament and, finally, there were 8.44% of the
vote and 38 seats in the State Duma for the Just Russia party.
The
development of the party "United
Russia" is directly connected with
the name of the second Russian
president, Vladimir Putin. This party has an informal
but the generally accepted name of the Putin's
party. In her article "Formats of the Russian authorities” O. Kryshtanovskaya
counted the resource that Vladimir Putin has, and commented: "We
can say that Putin controls not only the government but the State Duma (70% of the “United Russia” members), the Council of the
Federation (70,5%), governors
and regional parliaments, municipalities
heads and members of the local
self-government too" [4, 33]
Table
1. Members proportion of the United Russia party in the regional
elite[1]
|
Regional elite groups on October 1,
2009 |
Group size (pers.) |
Members proportion of the
party "United Russia" in groups. |
|
Governors |
83 |
53,01 |
|
Speakers of
the regional parliaments |
83 |
97,30 |
|
Deputies of
the regional parliaments |
3891 |
71,83 |
|
Heads of local
self-governments |
689 |
59,80 |
|
Deputies
local self-governments |
12685 |
70,97 |
|
Total of the regional elite |
17431 |
70,58 |
The
party-building initiative passed to the state after the law adoption
on Political Parties. Such parties as the "Just Russia" and "Right Cause", formed on the initiative of the
authorities, offered Russian ruling elite their support
in exchange for some political resources
to. Information and financial
resources as well as limited opportunities to lobby their interests can be identified
among those resources.
This
situation can be compared with the
market in which a limited number of
companies distributes the scope of income.
Competition between them subsides
because working together has more profit. In the Russian party system the parties in the state Duma distribute their electorate
as well. R. Katz and P. Meir offered to call these parties "cartel", noting that they "do not behave as agents of a particular policy, but the mechanisms of possession and retention
of power." At the same time these
parties "are absorbed by the
state and ... no longer mediate between society and the state". [5, 35]
Ya. Shashkova in the article "Russian Parties and the State" expresses the same opinion and speculates about the use of the concept "cartel party" in the Russian context. The author of the article notes that “the 2001 law introduced the quantitative requirements
with their subsequent tightening for the
parties, thus it led to a significant number of players in this part of
the political field. And therefore it can be argued
that not all parties could use these preferences. On the one hand it gave the remained parties a significant
weight in the electoral process, on the other hand, it has
led to the narrowing of the Russian party system to a small range of
parties" [6, 21].
The United
Russia party is a good example in this small range
of parties because it helps stabilize public relations. The
Russian economy is developing and it needs foreign
investments because the country moves towards modernization. Doing business in
Russia foreign companies require guarantees of stability from the authorities. In its turn
these guarantees will be reached with the political mechanism by which it can be possible to control regions.
This objective implementation is closely related to the competitiveness of
the “party of power” in order to
preserve an instrument of direct influence
on the masses.
It
should be noted the timely appearance of the All-Russia People's Front in the political arena which complemented the United
Russia party. The need for such tandem was caused by the fact
that the "United Russia"
was in ideological impasse at that time
when the All-Russia
People's Front was established. The
last years have shown that the rate on the stated neoconservative
values is not justified. There are two reasons. Firstly, Russian voters badly
orient themselves in the party variety.
Secondly, electoral base of the “party
of power” is so diverse that clearly
outlined ideology can lead to rigidity. Hence there is a need to create a new pre-election project.
During
the existence of the "United
Russia", the opponents’ main reproach was addressed to those members of parliament (MPs) who did not
represent themselves as politicians but
gained a reputation of Putin’s supporters. Nomination of Russian
stars and sportsmen for MPs is not justified because
the "United Russia" does
not need the passive people in the existing party-political realities, it needs a competitive politicians. If we take into account the fact that
until now the political elite were recruited basing on the principle “Closed Guilds”, Putin
and his entourage had to change the procedure for the formation of parliamentary faction.
There is nothing new or
unique in the project with the
name “All-Russia People's Front”. Its idea is
very simple and is already
tested in different countries, including
Russia. Its main objective is to engage leaders into pre-election
list who represent various spheres of
public interest and who can compete
in the political field as well. Then the United Russia party
organized primaries so that nobody doubted their leadership qualities.
The
name of the pre-election project
"the All-Russia
People's Front" arouses interest though it is just
a name which is aimed at the
generalized character against the enemy. At
elections a competitor of the All-Russia People's Front is so called "villain" that wants to return
Russia into the chaos of the 90s. It is plain to
see the certain logic here as three
parties of the 90s took part in the 2011
elections. This is primarily the Communists with their project named the “People's
Militia”, the Liberal Democratic Party of
Russia with its permanent leader V.Zhirinovsky, as well as the Russian United Democratic
Party "Yabloko", which
consists of the liberal intelligentsia.
These
competitors became traditional participants
in election campaigns. Among them only the Communist Party and the
Liberal Democratic Party have a
clear electoral concept.
At the Congress of the party
“Yabloko” there were a lot of different points of view on Russian democracy which showed the weakness of
the party in comparison with V.Zhirinovsky’s national slogans
and constructive election programme of the Communist Party. Pre-election
congress of the Communist Party
showed Russian
citizens that the left of the political spectrum is the main and leftists are the
only real opposition.
The
beginning of the election campaign
in 2011 showed that there is no the right opposition in
Russia. There are two political parties "Yabloko" and "Right Cause" but none of them is a real opposition force.
Historically two
categories of the population are the supporters of liberal values in Russia - it is business
and intelligentsia. Traditionally,
the Russian business is not so much
in need of representation as of
mechanism of lobbying commercial interests.
That is why most of the
Russian business elite support the
ruling elite and its course. The Russian intelligentsia prefers not being engaged
in policy but discussing policy being in a safe distance from the arena of
political struggle. Actually intelligentsia is not a force but rather the
conscience.
Right-wing forces
suffered a crushing defeat in 2003, since then they cannot recover. In 2011 they had a chance
with a well-known businessman Mikhail
Prokhorov but the supporters of the party "Right Cause" did not want to reject their principles. Prokhorov’s electorate is very
pragmatic, it would
be quite possible to attract this electorate by the idea of creating the second “party of power”, which could be
loyal to the business and market values.
But his leaving in the midst of party congress demonstrated the lack of prospects in cooperation between the right and
the business elite. In policy, as in business it
is necessary to have a well-organized team, rallied around the leader. Anyway in
policy there are more risks. As the
Congress of the party "Right Cause" showed money isn't
everything. Therefore, the
Russian business is more likely to focus on the “party of power”. Supporting the course conducted by the
Kremlin, Russian business avoids
public debate. Thus, it can influence on the political decision-making.
Since
1993 Russian election
campaigns of all parties aimed to explain the
two main theses:
1. It is necessary to strengthen the foundations of statehood. The Russian
Federation is quite a young state. The key institution of the political system is the institution of the presidency.
That is why liberals (parties "Yabloko" and "Right Cause") understand the foundation
of the state as the market economy and human rights encouraging Russians to
decentralize state power. Communists, the “Just Russia” and “Patriots of Russia” party members act
as fighters for the social
justice. They view the liberals
as main threat. And only the Liberal
Democratic Party appeals to the
values of the Russian people.
2.
It
is necessary to improve the country's economy. This thesis cannot be argued because there are a
lot of economic problems in Russia
which are not solved yet, e.g. housing
and communal services, the
increase in food prices and
so on. Opinions of all parties absolutely
coincide on these matters. They agree that the problems need to be
solved urgently. In mid-October 2011 in his speech to his supporters D. Medvedev announced: "Without
doubt we must continue to
modernize the economy. I consider
that we must continue to humanize
social life and social relations, to develop the political system and to engage in further investment
climate, to support business, to remember about
the working people and those who,
may not have the highest income now because our country is made up of very different people” [7].
According to the data of Russian Public Opinion
Research Center (VTsIOM) published on their website in October 5, 2011 “The Communist Party of the Russian Federation
supporters worry about the
problem of pensions (50%), supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party are concerned about the situation in the sphere of housing,
communal and utility services
(55%). The electorate the “Just Russia” worry about the same problem (59%), as well as inflation (59%) and corruption (56%).
Among the supporters of the "United
Russia" there is a high anxiety
concerning the problems of alcohol abuse and drug addiction (53%).
As for the adherents of non-parliamentary parties, they highlight
problems in housing, communal and utility services as an important issue (55%)" [8].
Table 2. “Problems of Russian
society concerning”[2]
|
## |
Which of the following problems do
you think are the most important for the country
as a whole? (multiple choice, up to 7 replies) |
|||||||
|
|
I.2011 |
IV.2011 |
V.2011 |
VI.2011 |
VII.2011 |
VIII.2011 |
IÕ.2011 |
|
|
11 |
Inflation,
prices rise on goods and
services |
59 |
60 |
60 |
47 |
48 |
56 |
53 |
|
22 |
Situation
in housing, communal and
utility services |
52 |
54 |
42 |
51 |
47 |
46 |
52 |
|
33 |
Low standard of living |
51 |
47 |
43 |
52 |
49 |
52 |
51 |
|
44 |
Alcoholism, drug addiction |
47 |
56 |
60 |
56 |
50 |
55 |
48 |
|
55 |
Corruption and bureaucracy |
48 |
47 |
43 |
41 |
43 |
43 |
42 |
|
66 |
Unemployment |
39 |
45 |
43 |
47 |
45 |
45 |
40 |
|
77 |
Situation in the health sector |
32 |
36 |
33 |
40 |
33 |
38 |
38 |
|
88 |
Position of young people |
32 |
32 |
31 |
34 |
34 |
37 |
35 |
Taking
into account this list of
problems typical for modern
Russian society, the United Russia party paid a
particular attention to the economy in its message published on the party's website in October 14,
2011. The strategy basis
of the “party of power” consists
of six priority areas. Problematics of
each of the six areas is
reflected in the daily news over
the past twenty years.
From the table ¹2 you can see that the three problems that Russian
society worries about is a consequence of the backwardness of economic
development, as well as inefficient system of income distribution among the
population. Therefore, in the election program the main
focus is to modernize the entire income distribution system in order to improve the welfare quality of all layers of Russia’s population:
1. Modernization of the economy,
education, industry technical re-equipment, improvement of the investment climate, creation infrastructure
for innovations, increase of productivity and labour safety in order to ensure high incomes and
budgets of all levels;
2. Fulfillment of social obligations, salaries and pensions increase, poverty
reduction, modernization of health
sector;
3. Corruption eradication,
transparency of information about officials’ income, state procurement, the decisions made by ministries and departments, public examination of all government initiatives that
directly affect people's property
rights and the sphere of their civil
liberties;
4.
Strengthening the judicial system
on the principles of independence,
transparency and justice, humanization
of criminal law on so-called economic crimes, toughening of
punishment for violent crimes, especially crimes committed against children, as well as acts of terrorism;
5. Maintaining inter-ethnic
and inter-religious peace, the fight against illegal migration, ethnic crimes, xenophobia and separatism, development of cultures all traditional
religions of all ethnic groups in
Russia;
6. Development
of modern political system, which
will enable everyone including the
smallest social groups to be heard and included in the processes of state and public management, to
be sure that in our country there
are no powerless and defenseless people. Freedom and justice
should be available to everyone [9].
The
secret of success of Putin's
Party election in 2011 is simple and plain. It
consists of three reasons that
have become traditional since the
elections to the State Duma in 2003.
The first reason is that the country’s political elite has got an information resource. Even if we take into account
the fact that all parties had an
access to federal channels, it
should be noted that in the news the
President and the Prime Minister are shown more often than their competitors. In all fairness it has to be added that congresses of all political
parties could be seen live on
Russian television. There were more election debates between representatives
of the parties than in previous years. It means that Russian people had a unique
opportunity to compare the pretentious
statements of party elites. Unfortunately the result of the
election day showed that it did not help the opposition to win. Another distinctive
feature of the information battles
was that for the first time the information struggle of political parties
moved from the television broadcast
into the social network. Party leaders have got
their own accounts now and then you can add them, follow them, and become their
online–supporters by joining one of the virtual groups.
Dmitry
Medvedev, positioning
himself as an Internet-savvy
leader, talked to the
bloggers live. It can be noticed that the Russian government monitors the global network and, therefore, it has to consider blog people's
opinion. By the way, they write a lot and not only positive
things about the authorities. In 2011 the Internet still remained uncontrolled space. If we compare the entries in various forums with reports on federal channels, we will notice the mood of protest
taking place in Russian society.
Nevertheless, in 2011 the main
communication tool was still TV that gives the information advantage to
the "party of power".
The
second reason of the "United
Russia" winning is the habit
of Russian people to adapt to the authorities. Primarily the average voter votes for the power. For the very
power that can
fight against bribetakers and oligarchs. Neither the "Yabloko" nor
"Right Cause" can be associated
with power. Democrats are associated with a political conscience rather than a political
will. The only Russian politician whose name is connected with victories and achievements of the past ten
years, was nominated as a candidate for president of Russia from the "party of power".
The
main competitors of the "United
Russia" in all elections were
communists. Gennady Zyuganov’s party
organized an active campaign with the
project “People's Militia” and a deployed constructive programme. However, the defeat of the
Communist Party was predictable because the true heroes of folk-Communists remained in
the Soviet past and in the given electoral
list there were no figures
whose authority may be opposed to Vladimir Putin. Moreover communists are opposed the "Just Russia" party on
the left wing, the independence
of the latter one is in doubt but the goal is very clear
– to take votes from the Communist Party. Despite all the "Just Russia" party
members’ statements about opposition to the "party of power", the former chairman of the
Federation Council Sergey Mironov is still associated with the team of the ruling tandem. Even a poorly researched analysis of campaign
commercials shows that the
"Just Russia" party’s real
competitor is the Gennady Zyuganov’s team. If we take into
account the loss of votes
the United Russia party will have to
negotiate with other parties on various bills.
The
third reason of the "party of power" winning is concentration of Russian elite’s
all layers in it. There are governors, mayors, business leaders (definitely not all) and most of legislators in different regions. During the election campaign the ruling tandem strengthened the vertical power by recommending the St.
Petersburg former governor to the post of the chairman of the Federation Council
and by indicatively changing
the Minister of Finance.
References
1.
Ivanov I.P. Formirovanie i razvitie
partiynoy sistemyi Rossiyskoy Federatsii (1990 – 2012 gg.); Monografiya -
Almatyi, 2012. – 132 p.
2.
Solovyov V.R. «Putin. Putevoditel
dlya neravnodushnyih»: Eksmo; Moskva; 2008- 416 s.
3.
Kokoshin A.A. Mesto pod solntsem. //
Strategiya Rossii #6 (54). FOND «Edinstvo vo imya Rossii» Iyun 2008 - 96 p.
4.
Kryishtanovskaya O.V. Formatyi
Rossiyskoy vlasti \\ Polis . Politicheskie issledovaniya # 1 (115) 2010 g -192
p.
5.
Kats R, Meir P. Izmenenie modeley
partiynoy organizatsii i partiynoy demokratii: vozniknovenie kartelnyih partiy
\\ Politicheskaya nauka: Politicheskie partii i partiynyie sistemyi v sovremennom
mire. #1 2006 g. – 108 p.
6.
Shashkova Ya.. Yu. Rossiyskie partii
i gosudarstvo. \\
Svobodnaya myisl #6 (1613) 2010 g.- 224 p.
7.
Medvedev: Pobeda «Edinoy Rossii»
garantiruet razvitie stranyi \\ http://er.ru/news/2011/10/15/medvedev-pobeda-edinoj-rossii-garantiruet-razvitie-strany.
15 oktyabrya
2011
8.
Glavnyie problemyi stranyi- inflyatsiya
ZhKH i uroven zhizni \\ VTsIOM Press-vyipusk #1855
http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=112035 05.10.2011.
9.
Programmnoe obraschenie partii
«Edinaya Rossiya»\\ http://er.ru/news/2011/10/14
/programmnoe-obrashenie-partii-edinaya-rossiya. 14 oktyabrya 2011
[1] The table is in the
article written by O. Kryshtanovskaya "Formats of
the Russian authorities”, published in the Polis journal #1 (115) 2010.
[2] The initiative Russian opinion poll was
conducted on 24-25 September 2011
by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM).
1600
respondents were interviewed in 138 settlements in 46 regions and republics of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.