Russian political party genesis of late 1900s - Early 2000s: problem of periodisation

As any institution, political parties, and the political system in whole, institutionalise gradually, turning into a greater extent of complexity and organization. In this connection, political party genesis is closely connected with the general political process in the country and reflects its peculiarities. The modern stage of the Russian political party genesis started in late 1980s - early 1990s as one of the trends of political transformation. However, the problem of its periodisation has been debatable so far. According to the majority of researchers who are engaged in the studies on the Russian multiparty system, the problem of the stages of political party genesis is connected with the most important social and political events that have cardinally changed the status and the functional purpose of the parties, in particular, the destruction of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the USSR, the confrontation of executive and legislative powers, federal elections and the adoption of the Federal Law On Political Parties. In this connection, they differentiate from two to five periods in political party genesis. This approach comprises rather original periodisation offered by Yu.G. Korgunyuk. He believes that, in late 1900s - early 2000s, the Russian political system went through four stages or states of its development. They are as follows: fluctuating and peripheral systems, transition to a pseudo-party system and a pseudo-party system. Other researchers, for instance, V.A. Lepyokhin, used qualitative transformation of the inner structure and the functions of separate parties as the basis of periodisation of development of the Russian political party system and differentiated the stages of forming the proto-party structures, organizing the main bodies of future political parties, ending the formation of political parties and functioning and development of the political parties within the current political process. One more basis of periodisation, in the author's opinion, might be the dominating way of forming political parties. In 1990s political parties were mainly organized from below without any significant influence of the State. In 2000s the principal model of the political party formation was that of a merger of several parties in one organized with the support of the organs of government. On the whole, following the first approach to the periodisation of the Russian political party genesis and accepting the institutional and legal factor as its basis, the author divides this process into three stages: 1) late 1980s-1993: destruction of the mono-party system and transition to the situation of competition between proto-party organizations (The parties existed in the form of ideological clubs without having any possibility and desire to take part in the formation of the organs of government.); 2) 1993-2000: the parties were legislatively recognized and obtained the status of obligatory participants in the process of the formation of federal legislature (As that took place, political party genesis was without any significant interference of the State.); 3) 2001 till now: Once the Law On Political Parties had been adopted, the political parties got the distinct legal definition and significant preferences in the election process. Political party genesis was simultaneously put under the control of the State and the political parties in the country left the institution of civil society and turned into the elements in the vertical of power.

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