Russians want both free elections and order, but order - a sense of predictability in everyday life and the rule of law - has been in short supply. This is the challenge that Russia presents to Vladimir Putin. This 2002 book is about Russia's attempt to achieve democratization backwards, holding elections without having created a modern state. It examines the multiplication of parties that do not hold the Kremlin accountable; the success of Vladimir Putin in offering a 'third way' alternative to the Communist Party and the Yeltsin family; the president's big but vague election mandate; the popular appeal and limits of Putin's coalition; and what the Russian people make of the combination of free elections and disorderly government. Russia is evaluated from the point of view of ordinary Russians, using clear figures and tables drawn from the rich resources of a decade of New Russia Barometer surveys of public opinion.
Conventional political science depicts legitimate elections as rational affairs in which informed voters select candidates for office according to how their coherently presented aims, ideologies and p
The pressures of contemporary electioneering force political professionals into "campaign mode"—a state of mind that merges a visceral drive to win elections with a deep-seated habit
This book argues that, despite the scholarly emphasis on 20th-century congressional history, it is necessary to study the nation’s first 150 years in order to understand more fully the evoluti
Written by a leading team of internationally distinguished political communication scholars, this book offers the most comprehensive account on comparative political communication research in the cont
The 2000 presidential election was one of the closest in history, yet this book shows that the Latino vote and voice in the election were limited in impact. In time for election year 2004, Muted Voice
Two decades ago the mere notion of examining local elections in Latin America would have produced a puzzled look and a simple question: ?Why?? Elections of any sort were limited and suspect if they oc
The Scottish parliamentary and local elections of 2007 were significant for two key reasons: the SNP was brought to power for the first time in history, posing a fundamental challenge to the three-hun
