Russian Political Parties and the `Bosses'

Abstract

The `bosses' are an occupational category of Russian administrative and economic managers who, in addition to their already prominent positions in the country's power structure, engage themselves in public politics and enjoy a significant degree of electoral success without being affiliated to any political party. The data provided by analysing the results of the 1994 provincial elections in Western Siberia confirm the prominence of the `bosses' in the electoral arena of the Russian periphery. Viewing this phenomenon as an important functional equivalent to political parties, the paper explains its salience with reference to its origins in the nomenklatura system, and to the strategic choices made by the Russian leadership in late 1991. It is suggested that the recent attempts to create a regular political organization on the basis of the `bosses' have failed to facilitate the process of party system formation in Russia.