Candidate Recruitment and the Development of Russian Political Parties, 1993-99

Abstract

This article tracks the candidate recruitment behavior of three continuous Russian parties across three State Duma elections from 1993 to 1999 - the KPRF, LDPR and Yabloko. These parties were selected for inclusion in this analysis because they were the only Russian parties successfully to contest all three parliamentary elections in the 1990s. There are three principal findings: (1) all three parties exhibited a trend towards recruiting more elite candidates to stand for election, especially in rural districts, and this is most pronounced in the case of the KPRF and LDPR; (2) the differences between parties in terms of recruiting elite candidates to stand for district elections has lessened over time; (3) not all parties `recognize' their constituencies; only the KPRF has concentrated its nominations in districts where its voter support is strongest.