Why Does Russia Hold Elections?
 |
James Joyner | Monday, March 3, 2008 |
Anne Applebaum asks and answers an important question about the process by which Dmitry Medvedev was easily “elected” president of Russia but in which all the plausible opposition parties were ruled ineligible.
Why did anyone bother holding an election at all? Given that the inner circle of ex-KGB officers that controls the Kremlin also controls the country’s media, its legal system, its parliament, and its major companies, why do they need elections? Why didn’t Vladimir Putin just appoint Medvedev, or keep the presidency himself? The answer, I think, can lie only in the ruling clique’s fundamental insecurity, odd as that sounds. Though the denizens of the Kremlin do not, cannot, seriously fear Western military attack, they do still seem to fear Western-inspired popular discontent: public questioning of their personal wealth, public opposition to their power, political demonstrations of the sort that created the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. To stave off these things, they maintain the democratic rituals that give them a semblance of legitimacy.
Indeed, they maintained this pretense even in the days of the Soviet Union, when candidates were elected with 99.99 percent approval with 99 percent turnout.
It’s noteworthy that, by all indications, Putin and Medvedev are genuinely popular and it’s widely presumed that they would have won in open, fair elections. That we’ll never know, however, is a shame.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
Follow James on FriendFeed | Twitter | Digg
- Putin Keeps Kremlin Chair
- Chairman Putin
- Putin Wins Big in Undemocratic Election
- Putin to Control Russia After Leaving Office
- Mugabe Re-Elected in Landslide
- De-Collectivizing Russia and the Prospects for Agriculture
- Obama Losing Whites, Winning the Election?
- Russia Orders Georgia ‘Cease-Fire’
- Belgium: No Government 150 Days after Elections
- OSCE Monitors Denied Russian Visas
- OTB Latenight - Jim Croce
- Caption Contest Winners
- What’s the Opposite of Schadenfreude?
- Posse Comitatus? Its a Stupid Law Anyways
- Obama’s Short National Security Team
- Wire Politics
- 10 Funniest Political Quotes Of 2008 -
- Memeorandum Beats Google News
- US in Recession Since December 2007
- Sex Offender Registry Stupidity
- Below The Beltway linked with Why Bother Holding Elections When You Already Know The Result ?
Comments are Closed
