Transformations of the Russian party system in the context of the global trends of political parties' genesis

The year 2019 will be significant for the Russian party system. Firstly, nearly 30 years ago, Article 6 of the USSR Constitution was abolished, which formally created the basis for the modern Russian multi-party system. Secondly, 2019 is the termination time for the seven-year period set for new political parties, formed on the basis of changes in the Law on Political Parties of 2012, to become active political actors. In this connection, there is a need to evaluate the past period, to answer the interrelated questions: What is the state of the Russian party system? What is its configuration? Will it be affected by the elimination of some parties? Though political parties had existed in Russia before, the formation of the modern party system was part of the import of institutions. The work and role in society of Western political parties of that time were undergoing dramatic changes, which could not but tell on the Russian parties. Given this, the state of the Russian parties is analyzed in the context of the world trends of "party change", their model in the semantic space of Russian politics, and the alignment of parties' political forces. Particular attention is paid to the potential of the staff and features of the Russian parties' work at the regional level because it is a criterion for assessing parties' activities and for forming electoral preferences for the majority of citizens. In addition, internal processes in the Russian parties, especially in those formed after 2012, are most noticeable at the regional level. The structural dynamics of the Russian political parties was divided into three periods according to the analysis mentioned above: (1) years 1991-2001, (2) years 2001-2012, (3) year 2012 and on. It is remarkable that the reduction in quantitative requirements increased the number of organizations registered but did not influence the structure of major political parties. The survey of the role of political parties in the social and political life in Russia has proved the conclusions of foreign political experts about the following functions of political parties: (1) persisting functions; (2) formally persisting functions with a changed content; 3) functions abandoned by parties in modern time and never performed in the post-Soviet Russia. In conclusion, a four-level pyramid-type model of the Russian party system is introduced together with the forecast of its stability for the nearest future under the probability of dramatic outer changes.

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