Dominant party and co-ethnic vote in Russia’s ethnic republics

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study provides the first empirical evidence of ethnic identity bias in the context of the dominant-party authoritarian electoral system in Russia’s multi-ethnic republics. I run vote-choice survey experiments in Tatarstan, Buryatia, and Sakha, in which the respondents choose between the dominant United Russia candidate and a system-opposition A Just Russia candidate. First, I find that the party vote in previous elections is the best predictor of the vote and candidate evaluation in the experiment, revealing the traction of party support in Russia’s electoral process. Second, titular voters demonstrate a strong preference for co-ethnic candidates regardless of the party they support. I rely on the arguments of social dominance theory to explain the prevalence of ethnic bias in voting among titular citizens of ethnic republics.