Abstract
Abstract In July 2020, Russian voters gave strong support to a package of constitutional reforms that reconfigured the Russian political system and enshrined social guarantees and conservative identity values, consolidating the regime that has been built over a 20-year period. This was achieved through an alteration that ‘zeroed’ presidential terms that commenced before the constitutional change, potentially allowing President Vladimir Putin to overcome term limits and continue in office beyond 2024. The article explains how such a far-reaching and important change was successfully endorsed by the Russian electorate. The analysis shows that the main explanation rests with variations in voting patterns across the regions, a pattern that has been evident in previous Russian elections and resulted in strong pro-Putin support. The article also evaluates questions raised about the legitimacy of the result, and its long-term significance for the Russian political system.
Highlights
The analysis shows that the main explanation rests with variations in voting patterns across the regions, a pattern that has been evident in previous Russian elections and resulted in strong pro-Putin support
In a week-long vote that culminated on 1 July 2020, Russians went to the polls to confirm the constitutional changes announced by President Vladimir Putin in his January 2020 address to the Federal Assembly
Approved by 77.92 percent of those who voted, the constitutional amendments made extensive alterations to the Russian constitution – some cosmetic, and others more substantial. How did such a far-reaching constitutional change come to be approved by voters, with relatively little debate? As we argue in this article, the answer rests in two aspects of the election
Summary
H2 The higher the vote for Putin in the 2018 presidential election and United Russia in the 2016 Duma election in a region, the higher the referendum ‘yes’ vote.
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