Legislature Speakers of Subjects of the Russian Federation: Recruitment Paths and Career

Abstract

This article analyzes the channels for recruiting speakers for the legislatures of subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as the specifics of their career, both before election and after resignation. The empirical basis of the study is a biographical database of chairmen of regional legislative assemblies of all convocations from the time when the last councils of people’s deputies were disbanded and until February of 2019. It is shown that speakers tended to be strongly rooted in the political power structures of Soviet society, but over time the share of nomenklatura among them – primarily party cadres – saw a significant decline. The most important channel for recruiting speakers – which was also their place of work after resignation – was representative bodies, primarily regional legislatures. Electing relatively experienced professional deputies as speakers might indicate a certain autonomization and institutionalization of legislative bodies, but this tendency is rather limited: close ties with influential external forces that control the legislature often serve as a powerful driving factor for a legislative career, freeing speakers from the need to first go through “political apprenticeship” in parliament. One of the main channels for recruiting speakers is administrative bodies, primarily regional and local, which, in many respects, reflects the dependence of the formation and functioning of legislatures on governors, who strive to appoint persons from their clientele to run said legislatures. Less often speakers work in administrations after resigning, primarily as governors. A significant source for recruiting speakers is business, but there’s a relatively small number of people who came directly from that environment (most often from large firms by regional standards), which may reflect both the importance of preliminary political professionalization in order to attain the post, and control over legislatures by governors, for whom private businessmen may seem too independent of figures to be speakers. Speakers are much less likely to end up in business after resignation, and their return to the enterprises where they previously worked is common.