Building State Capacity from the Inside Out: Parties of Power and the Success of the President’s Reform Agenda in Russia

Abstract

In contrast to his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin continues to successfully neutralize legislative opposition and push his reform agenda through the State Duma. His success is due in large part to the transformation of the party system during the 1999 electoral cycle. In the face of a less polarized and fragmented party system, the Kremlin-backed party of power, Unity, became the foundation for a stable majority coalition in parliament and a weapon in the political battle to eliminate threatening opponents such as Yuri Luzhkov’s Fatherland-All Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.