Centre Politics in Russia and Ukraine

Abstract

In this article we examine the manner in which clientelistic and programmatic types of party competition structure centre politics in Russia and Ukraine. The main research focus is on variations in the size of parliamentary factions that claim to be centrist in their ideological orientation. Changes in the composition of centre factions, their voting behaviour and changes in membership size are compared with each other and with a similar analysis for left and right parties. Data from the 1994–8 and 1998–2002 parliamentary terms in Ukraine and the 1993–5 and 1995–9 parliamentary terms in Russia are utilized in the research. Our findings indicate that patterns of rising and falling faction size are closely related to variations in the access of factions to state resources and the extent of voting conformity with executive initiatives, rather than electoral incentives and/or rules of parliamentary procedure.