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If a country has no developed political party system, it is not really a democracy. And the development of political parties in Russia has a long way to go. The only branch of government in which parties play an influential role is in the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) -- not in the Federation Council (the upper house) or the executive branch. Addressing the question of why parties have developed so little elsewhere, it is argued that they are weak because the most powerful politicians choose to make them so. This institutional arrangement suits their purposes to control what happens in government from the top. Tracing the origins of this situation reveals that they lie in Russian history & culture, predating the Soviet period. Another impediment to party development is the scale of socioeconomic change in Russia. Socioeconomic cleavages were important to party development in Western Europe, with liberal & conservative parties representing different sectors of the population. However, there is reason for optimism for the future. While Putin enjoys solid support from the people, other major political actors do not; if Putin should cease to identify with Unified Russia, the majority party's future is uncertain. Also, a 2002 law passed by both houses & the president requires regional parliaments to be proportional in terms of political party representation. This will lead to party development at the regional level, which conceivably could spread upward. Tables. J. Stanton

"A modern book for a modern parties course Seth Masket and Hans Noel bring a contemporary perspective and engaging writing to the political parties course. Using key material from contemporary and foundational research, Masket and Noel focus on how parties solve important problems in the American political system. This perspective reveals the importance of political parties, their inner workings, and their failures and successes"--

After tracing the origins of political parties in post-Soviet Estonia, parties are classified on the basis of "dispute measurements" -- from areas in which they fundamentally agree to those on which they widely diverge -- using a left-center-right continuum. It is shown that two key areas constitute the major source of interparty differences: socioeconomic & cultural-ethnic; ideological differences between parties are also noted. Data are presented on the performance of the major parties since independent Estonia held its first Riigikogu (parliamentary) elections in 1992, comparing results with those of the 1995 & 1999 elections; changes in the size & number of parties, the rise & fall of coalitions, & characteristics of party supporters are analyzed. The fundamentals of the Party Law adopted in 1994 are outlined & the structure of the party system is described, concluding that it lags far behind that of more developed democracies; electoral participation also remains quite low. 14 Tables, 2 Figures. K. Hyatt Stewart