DYNAMICS OF ELECTORAL COMPETITION CANDIDATES IN DIRECT GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS IN RUSSIA

Abstract

This article is devoted to determining the dynamics of the level of competition in the gubernatorial elections in Russia. Despite the existence of two diametrically opposite approaches, it can be stated that at the subnational level, the heads of the subjects of the Russian Federation are the highest officials, heads of the highest executive bodies of regional power. The study notes that since the early 2000s, the role of the main actor in regional political and electoral processes gradually began to move to the Federal government, which by the end of 2004 finally changed the balance of power in its favor through the implementation of the Federal reform, as well as party and electoral reforms. Methods. Institutionalism, comparativism, effective number of parties (Laakso-Taagepera index), the Herfindahl-Hirschman index. The results of the study showed that in comparison with the second half of the 1990s there is a tendency to reduce the level of electoral competition in the gubernatorial elections in the country. A direct link between the Federal presence in the region and the degree of electoral competition at the subnational level was identified. At the same time, the Federal center plays the role of demotivator of regional electoral competition. The study revealed a pattern between the level of electoral competition of candidates in direct elections of heads of regions and the degree of political and legal presence of the Federal center in the subjects of the Russian Federation. According to the results of the study, the decrease in the level of concreteness of direct gubernatorial elections coincides with the periods of reform of Federal relations associated with the restriction of regional autonomy: the wider it is, the higher the level of electoral competition, and vice versa.