On the relations between liberal parties and regional authorities in Tomsk Oblast in the 1990s

During the 1990s in Tomsk Oblast, there was a process of political pluralism legalization. This was due to the intensity of social and political processes, intellectual potential and high social-political activity of the population. Regional liberal spectrum was presented by two main directions - classic liberalism and social liberalism. Classic liberalism was represented by the Republican Party of Russia (before the dissociation into two organizations), the Choice of Russia, followed by the Democratic Choice of Russia and the Democratic Party of Russia. Social liberalism was presented by the political organization Yabloko. The regional specificity of Tomsk Oblast was expressed in the fact that liberal parties gained quite a respectable number of votes in the elections of different levels. This could be explained by the fact that the alleged liberal orientation (market economy, legalization of private property, construction of a democratic state) was quite popular among Tomsk intelligentsia. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Tomsk Ob-last became a full member of the Russian Federation. In Tomsk Oblast, there were large-scale radical economic reforms, the formation of executive power and regional parliament. In this situation, liberal political parties became an independent actor in the regional political process and took the responsibility of public decision. They had to be in constant and direct contact with the authorities, which prompted the latter to establish certain "rules of the game". Therefore, further development of the political system in Tomsk Oblast depended on the relationship between these actors of the regional political process. The author analyzed the content of the relationship between liberal parties and regional authorities in the electoral, parliamentary and government aspects. It was concluded that Tomsk liberal parties, as well as parties' federal structures, did not have overall behavior strategies. Liberal partisanship range had been divided into two wings. Tomsk branch of the Republican Party of Russia (later, the block Choice of Russia and the party Democratic Choice of Russia) supported regional and federal authorities in their reforms. The Tomsk organization Yabloko, criticizing the general course of the government, was in constructive opposition to it. Despite the fact that the candidates of the liberal parties were members of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the parties themselves achieved good results in the general federal elections in Tomsk Oblast, they actually were not represented in the regional parliament and could not really influence the policy of regional authorities. The situation was also made more complicated by the fact that, constantly criticizing the actions of the Governor and the regional Administration, Tomsk Yabloko did not want to cooperate with the government on its terms. The Tomsk organization Choice of Russia decided to cooperate with the authorities, but also could not contribute to any of the liberal reforms in the region, because the non-partisan Governor and his team made all decisions. Thus, the position of the liberal parties in Tomsk Oblast in the 1990s was not powerful and strong.

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