Factors of Influence of the Regional Political Elite in Modern Russia: Evidences from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region

Abstract

The relevance of the research project is determined by the dominant role of elite groups in modern Russian politics. The opportunity and ability of the elite to solve topical social issues to a large extent depend on the degree of their influence. The article presents the results of an expert study in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region (late November to early December 2021). Representatives of the regional political elite themselves, as well as “key informants” acted as experts. The technology for collecting expert information included a set of qualitative and quantitative methods (methods of grouping data with an estimate of the average values of the variation series and dispersion measures, as well as multidimensional scaling, factorial and cluster analysis). The evaluation was carried out on 22 parameters. In St. Petersburg, six factors are associated with the strategies used by the authorities to strengthen their influence: the conditions of general and political socialization; dominant communication strategies of politicians based on the type of their leadership; economic resources; informal grounds for political career related to the politicians’ families; cultivation of clientelism, atypical for a metropolis; the regional elite having work experience in other areas, in addition to public administration and public policy. The politicians themselves are mostly attracted to three image types: a) a productive political “heavyweight”, belonging to a clan by birthright or “overgrown” with economic and informal ties, including with “shadow structures”, who has real economic opportunities to influence the situation in the region; b) a “political tribune”, who actively communicates with the population and relies on cultivating a stable positive attitude towards themselves among the inhabitants of the region; c) an “insider”, connected with the region by their destiny and having stable political views. The study showed that in St. Petersburg, public communicative activity online and offline is not a significant condition for strengthening the “political weight” of a politician; belonging to a clan (family, friend group, professional clan) is much more important. Experts deny that accentuated masculine or feminine behaviour patterns of politicians in St. Petersburg are a significant factor in strengthening their influence. In the Leningrad Region, the configuration of the latent factors influencing the significance of politicians is different. The most important factors include the following: the channel and method of politician’s recruitment to power; the activity of personal information policy on the Internet; the presence of social, human and status capital through birth in a certain family or effective interaction with certain influential regional groups; an accentuated demonstration of personal resources; the presence of real leadership qualities; control over economic resources in the region. Five dominant types of politicians were identified in terms of the various qualities exploited by them and demonstrated to the public. The importance of the ability of politicians to large-scale, strategic thinking in solving regional problems and the accentuated gender type of behaviour in public politics was confirmed.