Governors and the Ruling Party Vote Shares in Armenia

Abstract

Scholarship has made significant advances in our understanding of the determinants of the survival of regional governors under authoritarianism. However, most studies focus on large nondemocratic regimes such as Russia or China. Drawing on data for 2007–2021, I test whether governors in Armenia were rewarded on the basis of their political or economic performance. I find strong support in favour of rewards based on regional election returns, a change in prime ministers, patronage and prior career in state office in the period up to the 2018 revolution. Afterwards, however, vote mobilisation no longer had the same effect on governors’ careers.