Theory And Practice Analysis Of The Party "United Russia"

Since Putin came into power, the Russia's party system has changed. The major features of Russia's party system in 1990s, namely, party fragmentation and electoral volatility have decreased, which is replaced by the lack of party competition and monopoly of the party of power "United Russia". The answer to this change is that Russia is an emerging political system, which is lack of democracy.The Unity bloc, predecessor of "United Russia", was established to support the successor of Boris Yeltsin in presidential election. It has successfully completed its political expectation. And due to a series of contingencies, the Unity bloc has moved to a political party. The Russian government makes use of "United Russia" as a political vehicle so as to reduce uncertainty in elections, to reduce bargaining costs in legislation, to routinize political appointment and to alley political elites. Meanwhile, government and political elites also pay costs of acting in a dominant party of power. The minimum focus on ideology and the maximum focus on specific causes make United Russia widely supported by common people.The future development of United Russia is affected by a number of factors, including political and economic situation both domestically and internationally, the interior conflicts, the cost and benefits of power transfer and so on. The thesis aims at analyzing the history, party structure, ideology and policies, comparing it with other Russian parties so as to illustrate why United Russia can become the dominant party in ten years, which role it is playing and to preview its future development.