Organization and institutionalization of Russia’s political parties in 1905—1917 and 1993—2007: Similarities and differences from two occidentalist periods

Abstract

In this article, we use logit models to examine the role of the major characteristics of a political party's organization, (1) legitimation, (2) penetration/diffusion, (3) charisma, (4) ideology and (5) centralization/decentralization, in the institutionalization of parties in both pre-Soviet and post-Soviet Russian national parliamentary elections. The article begins by situating this research in the context of the theoretical and empirical literature on party origins, organizational development and institutionalization, in general, and party formation theories in post-communist countries, specifically. The impact of organizational features on electoral success or failure is analysed for 24 parties. The models correctly predicted both the successful and failed parties in the 2007 Russian Duma election and offer reasons for the apparent floating party system in Russia.