The development of party activism in Russia: a local perspective

One of the great opportunities afforded to the political scientist since the fall of the Soviet Union has been that of examining politics ‘on the ground’ in non-metropolitan areas. The current study addresses the development of regional and local political party organisations in post-communist Russia. Focusing on the six movements which won representation in the 1999 election to the State Duma, it uses three case study regions in the middle Volga - the Republic of Tatarstan and the provinces of Samara and Ul’yanovsk - to examine party activity at the regional and district levels. Based on extensive fieldwork in Russia, the investigation utilises a broad range of local sources and interviews in its analysis. However, in order to avoid the danger of simply providing an observational study of local politics, wide use is also made of national opinion survey and focus group data. The study begins by examining the context of party activity in Russia, giving a brief history of the party system and its institutional framework. Thereafter, examination is made of the role of parties in regional and local politics, based mainly on official electoral statistics from 1995-2001. This analysis begins by looking at the Russian Federation’s eighty-nine regions in a comparative context, before narrowing the focus to the three case study regions. Parties’ activities, and their interactions with the respective political systems in each region, are examined in detail. Thereafter, the functioning of parties at three levels - federal, regional and district - is examined, using both theoretical and empirical methods. The study goes on to examine the role played by members in Russia’s political parties, most specifically at a regional and local level, utilising survey and focus group material (undertaken specifically for this study) to case new light on the entry patterns, bases of activism, and attitudes of party members in the middle Volga. Furthermore, parties are examined in the context of the 1999-2001 electoral cycle. This analysis concludes that, in the federal elections, particularly that to the State Duma in December 1999, regional nuances dominated over the national campaign; but that party participation was limited in region-specific elections

Data Inventory on Electoral Registration and Turnout in the European Parliament Elections 2009, 2013 & 2014

The inventory catalogues sources of official information on turnout and electoral registration for the two most European Parliament elections, prior to 1 January 2019 (generally 2009 and 2014, except for Croatia). This inventory was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). The content of this inventory represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains. The dataset was originally published in DiVA and moved to SND in 2024.Se engelsk beskrivning. Datasetet har ursprungligen publicerats i DiVA och flyttades över till SND 2024

Voting Behavior of Immigrants and Their Children in Sweden

We still know remarkably little about the voting behavior of immigrant populations, and in particular, the children of immigrants – who grow up in the same society as their contemporaries, but may be subject to different patterns of socialization. This article uses verified voting behavior in Swedish municipal elections to offer at least two new perspectives on these questions. First, we are able to separate out the impacts of family socialization, general societal socialization, and citizenship acquisition on electoral participation. Second, we are also able to add to our knowledge of the differences in political participation levels between different groups of foreign-background voters

Consolidating the Putin Regime : The 2020 Referendum on Russia's Constitutional Amendments

In July 2020, Russian voters gave strong support to a package of constitutional reforms that reconfigured the Russian political system and enshrined social guarantees and conservative identity values, consolidating the regime that has been built over a 20-year period. This was achieved through an alteration that `zeroed' presidential terms that commenced before the constitutional change, potentially allowing President Vladimir Putin to overcome term limits and continue in office beyond 2024. The article explains how such a far-reaching and important change was successfully endorsed by the Russian electorate. The analysis shows that the main explanation rests with variations in voting patterns across the regions, a pattern that has been evident in previous Russian elections and resulted in strong pro-Putin support. The article also evaluates questions raised about the legitimacy of the result, and its long-term significance for the Russian political system

Dataset of turnout rates for mobile EU citizens in European Parliament and municipal elections 2009-2018, v.1.1

1 data file,1 documentation fileThe dataset contains information on turnout in the most recent municipal elections prior to 1 January 2019 to which EU Directive 94/80/EC applied, and also to the two most recent European Parliament elections prior to the May 2019 contest, to which EU Directive 93/108/EC applied. Sources include official data in the public domain (e.g., official results from electoral commissions and parliamentary documents); publicly available research data; links to official figures from reputable secondary sources (e.g., European Commission implementation reports, press releases and newspaper articles); approaches via FAIREU country experts to national authorities, with formal freedom of information requests; and direct approaches from the authors to national authorities, with informal freedom of information requests or requests for clarifications.This report was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020

FAIREU key country report : electoral participation in Sweden

This Key Country report focuses on electoral registration and turnout in Sweden, where the most recent general election was held on 9 September 2018. It provides a historical perspective on patterns of electoral registration and turnout among foreign-born voters (non-citizens and Swedish citizens) in local and regional elections.This report was funded by the European Union's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). The content of this report represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains