| This study examines why dominant parties emerge in some non-democracies, but not in others. Institutionalized ruling parties that play a role in distributing rents, policy, and patronage contribute to elite cohesion and fortify authoritarian rule, so it is puzzling that many authoritarian leaders eschew building them. This dissertation solves the puzzle of dominant party emergence by examining dominant party emergence as a two-sided commitment problem between leaders and other elites. Specifically, it is argued that dominant parties emerge when other elites hold enough independent political resources that leaders need to coopt them, but not so many autonomous resources that they themselves are unwilling to commit to the party project.;In a span of just under 20 years, post-Soviet Russia has witnessed the failure of two ruling parties and the emergence of a dominant party. This makes contemporary Russia an excellent arena for exploring arguments about the formation of dominant parties. The dissertation shows how Russia's ruling parties failed in the 1990s because regional elites were so strong that they would not link their political machines to any ruling party project. In contrast, United Russia emerged as a dominant party in the 2000s under Vladimir Putin because elites were still strong enough that they needed to be coopted, but they were not so strong that they were prone to defect from the party. Using individual level data on Russian governors and legislators it is shown that strong elites were more reluctant to join Russia's emergent dominant party.;Using cross-national data on dominant parties in all the world's non-democracies since 1946, this study shows that dominant parties only emerge and endure in those countries where neither leaders nor elites hold a preponderance of resources. When elites control access to regional political machines, clientelistic networks, and hard-to-tax economic assets, they may need to be coopted, but if these resources give elites too much autonomy, then elites will not commit to a leader's party project and a dominant party will not emerge. By demystifying the origins of dominant party rule, this study contributes to our understanding of why some countries democratize, but others do not. |
