Russia's Dual State: Understanding Political Systems in Transition

1. Russia’s dual state Janet Elise Johnson Brooklyn College, CUNY Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu Presented June 13, 2011 at the AP reading for Comp GoPo

2. PRACTICAL • To update information about Russia • To introduce a potentially useful theoretical frameworkfor understanding Russia NORMATIVE • To illustrate how to integrate social justice concerns MORE SPECULATIVE • To suggest some radical ways to begin to reimagine comparative politics Objectives Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

3. censored last Thursday by EP for restricting opposiition rights • Upcoming “elections” in Russia • Duma elections scheduled for December 2011 • Presidential elections for March 2012  • “Democratic recession” around the globe since 2008* • Moving beyond the transition paradigm • thicker concept of democracy: electoral democracy vs. constitutional liberalism • many states in the grey zone: “hybrid regimes” and “soft authoritarianism” • ? Context Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu *Larry Diamond. 2008. “Democracy Rollback,” Foreign Affairs

4. POLITICALSOCIETY STATE Executive Bureaucracy Judiciary Military and Intelligence Parliaments Parties Elections CIVIL SOCIETY The basic way I teach comparative political institutions* Key organizations and their prominence Conditions for civil society: independence of the media Protection of civil liberties Corrup-tion *thanks to Jean C. Robinson

5. The dual state like 1930s Germany where a prerogative state that exercised power arbitrarily and without constraints existed alongside a constitutional state legitimacy is rooted in constitutionalism, but a parallel Byzantine parapoliticsof factions & informal groups not just de facto vs. de jure, but paraconstitutionalism consolidated through Putin’s modernization program to “normalize” the Yeltsin period

6. most obvious example of dual state: Putin’s 2008 move from Pres to PM • Putin’s commitment to a modernizing project and the letter of the constitution vs. his commitment to governance rooted in Russian traditions • result: what Russians call tandemocracy* • power sharing between Putin and Medvedev since 2008 elections • based on a personal agreement • important disagreements 1. Executive-parliamentary relations *Perhaps the “The Team” for the oligarchysee http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/1070/ Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

7. Semi-presidential Superexecutive Costs of rejecting nominee three times precipitates dissolution Fish (2000): superpresidentialism huge apparatus of executive power presidential control of the purse presidential decrees almost impossible impeachment little legislative oversight little judicial oversight • Constitution: Duma must approve president’s PM nominee • Typical categorization by comparative politics textbooks • a form of government in which presidents are more than just figureheads but are ultimately subordinate to the parliament Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

8. Neither or both? Failure of constitutional liberalism or lack of a spirit of constitutionalism? Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

9. Freedom of expression No freedom of the press* def: ability to holdthe govt accountable govt take over of national TV stations no live political talk shows or political satire biased coverage of terrorism and Chechnya mysterious contract killings of journalists • def: freedom to say what you want • independent small audience media proliferating: print dailies and weeklies, smaller TV stations, blogs, etc. 2. The media Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu *Masha Lipman & Michael McFaul in After Putin’s Russia (2010)

10. Rule by law Not rule of law “telephone justice” FSB getting acquittals reversed, not allowing jury trials, going after defense attorneys 1/5 ECHR cases are from Russia (pays fines, but no policy change) Khodorkovksy just won $35,000for rights abuse • Putin strengthened • qualifications • accountability • accessibility • police now must get search warrants • more jury trials & jurors becoming activists 3. Dual system of law Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

11. Duma • primary legislature • elected through PR w/ 7% threshold • Federation Council • represents regions • Public Chamber (2005) • forum for policy discussion • members chosen by Putin • State Council (2000) • 7 governors chosen by Kremlin 4. “Parallel parliaments”* Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu *Thomas Remington in After Putin’s Russia (2010)

12. Elections where multiple parties win • President • Duma • mayors • But, dominant party system secured through • loyal majority since 2000s, supramajority since 2003 • Party of power (United Russia) throughout country • change electoral rules to eliminate regional powers • direct control of Fed Council • justified through war on terrorism 5. Parties and elections Duality: Creation of “loyal opposition” Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

13. many NGOs remain untouched • protests have increased, especially regarding social issues • some have even succeeded • Public Chamber channels and funds favored NGOs • Kremlin-supported groups such as Nashietc. 6. “Imitation civil society”* Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu *Masha Lipman

14. Asymmetric ethnofederalism Power vertical by siloviki 7 federal districts/supergovernors appted FC with a lot of Kremlin input appted governors with a lot of Kremlin input United Russia as a superparty and banning regional political parties changing to PR (over FPTP) nationally and regionally • but chaotic decentralization under Yeltsin • bilateral treaties • ad hoc • “brown areas” • constitution 7. Fake federalism Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

15. all companies have two sets of books • appearance of transparency for FDI • but then use shell companies, off-shore banking, etc. • two ways of doing things: legally and through bribes 8. Dual economy Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

16. Regime type: democratic, hybrid, or authoritarianism?“Authoritarian democracy”* *several AP Comp GoPo students, Q8, 2011, who aren’t getting credit for assessing the regime type of Russia Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

17. http://www.sadanduseless.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/104.jpghttp://www.sadanduseless.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/104.jpg Intersectional consequences Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

18. Women in formal politics Interparliamentary Union, http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

19. a. Gender • more women in formal politics • women dominate NGO sector • facilitated by transnational women’s movement pressures and European supranational institutions • but in the parallel universe • siloviki dominate • KGB-like strategies: compromat • national identity fostered through homophobic masculinity (muzhik) Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

20. huge rich/poor gap • disastrous working age male mortality • but women entrepreneurship and increased state paternalism: • crisis centers + maternity capital • “Accessible Surroundings” for the disabled Parallel universe • control by all male oligarchs • just as corrupt as before, if not more so b. +Social class Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu http://www.blogcdn.com/www.luxist.com/media/2007/01/abramovichyacht.jpg

21. Responsible man campaign Day of Family, Love, and Fidelity, 2008 (Moscow Times) Health like a habit, 2008 Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

22. Grozny 2007-9 http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/09/30/world/30grozny.600.jpg c. +Race: Chechnya http://cdni.condenast.co.uk/646x430/a_c/chechnya_news_cnt_20nov09_pa_646.jpg Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

23. Pres. Khadyrov parallel universe http://www.wunrn.com/news/2008/04_08/04_07_08/040708_russia_files/image001.jpg veiling by paintball, 2011 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xPv9KK5RAsw/TXk8evyzTdI/AAAAAAAAJJM/B5e5M7ir6-w/s1600/Chechen%2Bwomen.jpg

24. Corrupting the accountability mechanisms of democracy, but not unconstitutionalUndermining institutions by making personalisticdespite the temporary stability/growth Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

25. move beyond transition theory: • use “hybrid” countries as at the model not the West • isn’t dual system also at work in Western countries? • 2008-9 financial crisis created by unelected officials • the virtual finance economy dwarfs the real economy • not bribe-paying, not clientalism, mostly perfectly legal Implications Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu http://media.entertainment.sky.com/image/unscaled/2010/11/19/Inside-Job-6.jpg

26. male architects of financial crisis undermined the most powerful women’s policy agency in the world • but then: government collapse, replaced with a gender balanced government, 40% quota for corp boards by 2012* Women’s Strike 2010 gendered consequences: Iceland *http://www.thenation.com/signup/158279?destination=article/158279/most-feminist-place-world Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

27. Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu

28. Can we really think about politics anywhere without the parallel universe? Janet Elise Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu