Electoral Systems and Rules
These two countries use a mixed electoral system for its legislature, combining single-member districts with proportional representation.
Russia, Mexico
The United Kingdom’s electoral system reinforces this party system outcome
A Two-Party System
glasnost and perestroika
a period of political and economic openness.
How did this principle shape political participation and party structure under Soviet communism?
What is that it centralized authority within the Communist Party, framing elite leadership as necessary for the proletariat’s interests, thus eliminating competition and suppressing civil society?
Why is Russia’s federalism considered asymmetrical, and how does this benefit the central government?
What is that regions have unequal power and autonomy, allowing the Kremlin to reward loyalty and suppress dissent through selective control rather than uniform governance?
In Russia, electoral rules and media access are structured to benefit this dominant political party.
United Russia
Nigeria’s party system is shaped by ethnic cleavages, forcing parties to act as what type of organizations to win nationally?
Catch-all parties
Shock therapy led to the rise of this small group of wealthy elites with political influence.
Oligarchs
How did the transition to a market economy in the 1990s affect both political legitimacy and state capacity?
What is that rapid privatization produced inequality, oligarchic control, and economic chaos, eroding citizens’ trust in democratic reform and weakening state authority?
Explain how the “power vertical” has transformed the balance between federalism and authoritarian control.
What is that Putin restructured regional authority, appointing governors and subordinating local governments, creating de facto centralization within a nominally federal framework—blending institutional design with authoritarian consolidation
The UK and Nigeria both use single-member district plurality, but Nigeria differs by requiring presidential candidates to meet what additional condition?
25% in 2/3rds of the states (geographic distribution)
In democratic systems like the UK and Mexico, parties serve as linkage institutions by doing this key function.
connecting citizens to the state (interest aggregation and articulation)
Yeltsin’s “shock therapy” reforms are best described as a rapid form of this broader economic strategy.
neoliberal economic reform
Evaluate how the rise of the oligarchs affected political legitimacy and regime stability under Yeltsin.
What is that concentration of wealth in few hands eroded trust in democracy, encouraged corruption, and tied economic power to political influence, making the regime appear captured by elites rather than representative of citizens?
Discuss how the judiciary’s role illustrates the difference between “rule of law” and “rule by law” in Russia.
What is that courts exist and laws are applied, but legal institutions are used to reinforce regime control—targeting opposition rather than limiting state power?
Mexico’s use of proportional representation, compared to the UK, leads to what key difference in legislative outcomes?
Greater representation of multiple parties.
When parties fail to represent societal interests effectively, citizens often turn to what alternative form of participation?
Social Movements
One political consequence of economic collapse in the 1990s was a decline in this key concept that supports regime stability.
legitimacy
In what ways did Stalin’s political methods institutionalize authoritarian control that persists in modified form in Putin’s Russia?
What is that both regimes used centralized propaganda, state security services, and suppression of opposition to maintain control, fostering a political culture that prioritizes order and loyalty over pluralism?
Why are parties like the Communist Party and the LDPR tolerated, and what function do they serve within Russia’s authoritarian political system?
What is that they create an illusion of pluralism and absorb protest votes, allowing limited expression of dissent while preventing genuine regime threats?
China and Iran both limit electoral outcomes, but China differs because it operates under what type of party system?
A single party system
Strong, institutionalized parties are most closely associated with higher levels of what regime outcome
Political Stability
The long-term political consequence of Yeltsin-era instability was increased public support for restoring this under Putin.
centralized authority
Explain how the structure and ideology of the Soviet system created long-term challenges for democratization after 1991.
What is that centralized planning, suppression of civil society, and reliance on state legitimacy through ideology left weak institutions and little precedent for pluralism or independent participation after the USSR collapsed?
Daily Double
Assess the extent to which the Russian political system depends on Putin personally versus institutional design.