Electoral reform in the former USSR and Russian Federation, 1989-1993: Continuity, contradiction and departure

Through an examination of the elections of the USSR Congress of People's Deputies and the elections to the Russian Federal Assembly and their deputy compositions, this dissertation argues that the elections held in the former Soviet Union and the contemporary Russian Federation from 1989-1993 have demonstrated elements of continuity, contradiction and departure compared to those elections held before Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). There has been a continuity of a central, powerful institution interfering and designing the electoral system and largely influencing, encouraging and restricting their outcomes. This continuity can be interpreted as a contradiction between the regime's intention to implement democratic changes and its reform efforts. Notwithstanding these factors, with each successive election there have been numerous innovations, greater scope for candidate competition and subsequently public choice, improved possibilities for civic involvement in all stages of the election campaigns and the opportunity for civil society to become actively involved in political affairs. Therefore, this accumulation of these electoral reform measures has resulted in significant departures from the previous electoral system that existed in the USSR from 1937-late 1980s. These developments have changed the Soviet electoral system from a series of plebiscites in which there was no choice among candidates to elections in which citizens were offered a choice among candidates to, ultimately, multiparty elections