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In a path-breaking study of Russian elections, Regina Smyth reveals how much electoral competition matters to the Putin regime and how competition leaves Russia more vulnerable to opposition challenges than is perceived in the West. Using original data and analysis, Smyth demonstrates how even weak political opposition can force autocratic incumbents to rethink strategy and find compromises in order to win elections. Smyth challenges conventional notions about Putin's regime, highlighting the vast resources the Kremlin expends to maintain a permanent campaign to construct regime-friendly majorities. These tactics include disinformation as well as symbolic politics, social benefits, repression, and falsification. This book reveals the stresses and challenges of maintaining an electoral authoritarian regime and provides a roadmap to understand how seemingly stable authoritarian systems can fall quickly to popular challenges even when the opposition is weak. A must-read for understanding Russia's future and the role of elections in contemporary autocratic regimes.

In a path-breaking study of Russian elections, Regina Smyth reveals how much electoral competition matters to the Putin regime and how competition leaves Russia more vulnerable to opposition challenges than is perceived in the West. Using original data and analysis, Smyth demonstrates how even weak political opposition can force autocratic incumbents to rethink strategy and find compromises in order to win elections. Smyth challenges conventional notions about Putin's regime, highlighting the vast resources the Kremlin expends to maintain a permanent campaign to construct regime-friendly majorities. These tactics include disinformation as well as symbolic politics, social benefits, repression, and falsification. This book reveals the stresses and challenges of maintaining an electoral authoritarian regime and provides a roadmap to understand how seemingly stable authoritarian systems can fall quickly to popular challenges even when the opposition is weak. A must-read for understanding Russia's future and the role of elections in contemporary autocratic regimes.

In the early 1990s, competitive elections in the Russian Federation signaled the end to the authoritarian political system dominated by a single political party. More than ten years and many elections later, a single party led by Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to end Russia's democratic experiment

"Despite decades of Putin, it is too simplistic to assert that authoritarianism has eliminated Russian activism, especially in relation to everyday life. Instead, we must build an awareness of diverse efforts to mobilize citizens to better understand how activism is shaped by and, in turn, shapes the regime. Varieties of Russian Activism focuses on a broad range of collective actions, from labor unions to housing renovation, religion, electoral politics, minority language rights, and urban planning. Contributors draw attention to significant forms of grassroots politics that have not received sufficient attention in scholarship, or that deserve fresh examination. The volume shows that Russians find novel ways to redress everyday problems and demand new services. Together, these essays interrogate what kinds of practices can be defined as activism in a fast-changing, politically volatile society. An engaging collection, Varieties of Russian Activism unites leading scholars in the common aim of approaching the embeddedness of civic activism in the conditions of everyday life, connectedness, and rising society-state expectations"--

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Everyday Activism: Tracking the Evolution of Russian State and Society Relations / Jeremy Morris, Andrei Semenov, and Regina Smyth -- Part 1: The Building Blocks of Everyday Activism: Identity, Networks, and Social Trust / Regina Smyth -- 2. Cultural Production as Activism: National Theaters, Philharmonics, and Cultural Organizations in Russia's Regional Capitals / Katie L. Stewart -- 3. The Promotion of Minority Languages in Russia's Ethnic Republics: Social Media and Grassroots Activities /Guzel Yusupova -- 4. From Neighbors to Activists: Shared Grievances and Collective Solutions / Regina Smyth, Madeline McCann, and Katherine Hitchcock -- Part 2: Organizational Roles in Mobilization for Activism: Communication, Cooperation, and Conjunction / Jeremy Morris -- 5. Social Activism in the Russian Orthodox Church / John P. Burgess -- 6. The River of Urban Resistance: Renovation and New Civic Infrastructures in Moscow / Anna Zhelnina -- 7. Activists and Experiential Entanglement in Russian Labor Organizing / Jeremy Morris -- 8. Skateboarding Together: Generational Civic Activism and Nontransition to Politics in Sosnovyi Bor / Anna A. Dekalchuk and Ivan S. Grigoriev -- Part 3: Institutional Environment and Opportunity Structures for Urban Activism / Andrei Semenov -- 9. Policy Activism in Urban Governance: The Case of Master Plan Development in Perm / Eleonora Minaeva -- 10. Urban Planning and Civic Activism / Carola Neugebauer, Andrei Semenov, Irina Shevtsova, and Daniela Zupan -- 11. Manipulating Public Discontent in Russia: The Role ofTrade Unions in the Protests against Pension Reform / Irina Meyer-Olimpieva -- 12. Active Urbanites in an Authoritarian Regime: Aleksei Navalny's Presidential Campaign / Jan Matti Dollbaum, Andrei Semenov, and Elena Sirotkina.