A Treaty for the Rich and Politically Loyal? Explaining the Bilateral Center-Region Treaties in Post-Soviet Russia

Ekaterina Paustyan

doi:10.30965/24518921-00602002

Abstract

Abstract This paper studies the signing of bilateral treaties between the federal and regional governments of Russia in the period of 1994–1998. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 64 cases suggests that by signing bilateral treaties in exchange for political support President Yeltsin built a broad coalition with subnational leaders. This strategy allowed Yeltsin to win the 1996 presidential election but, in the long run, contributed to the preservation of authoritarian enclaves in Russia. The results are in line with the argument that authoritarian consolidation in Russia during the 2000s was deeply embedded in the center-region relations of the 1990s.

Highlights

Over the last three decades, the Russian Federation has undergone a gradual transformation from subnational authoritarianism to national autocracy
Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of 64 cases reveals two sufficient combinations of conditions accounting for a signed treaty, namely, voting for Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential election and either having the status of a donor region or having an appointed executive. These results suggest that by signing bilateral treaties in exchange for political support President Yeltsin built a broad coalition with subnational leaders
The first combination (VOT*donor region (DON)) suggests that political and economic factors have played an important role in the treaty signing process

Summary

Introduction

Over the last three decades, the Russian Federation has undergone a gradual transformation from subnational authoritarianism to national autocracy. While previous studies either explain why some regions signed the treaties earlier than others[3] or concentrate on their legal aspects,[4] more puzzling is the question of why some regions managed to negotiate a treaty while others did not. This is important for our understanding of the balance of powers between the center and the Russian regions as well as the ways how subnational and national politics interact with each other

Results

Discussion

Conclusion