Bargaining and Power in Russian Referendums

Abstract

Though referendums clearly grant popular legitimacy, it is not always clear what the effects of referendums will be in highly contested political debates. The 1991 Soviet referendum, designed to settle the issue of the union, instead led to numerous independence referendums. The referendums in Russia in 1993 also had widely varying effects: the April 1993 referendums failed to resolve conflict over policy in April 1993 between the executive and legislature but the December 1993 referendum legitimized a strong presidential system with a vote on a new Russian constitution. Even though the Congress of People’s Deputies chairman, Ruslan Khasbulatov, opposed him at every turn, and in most every way, Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia, was able to prevail through their elite battle because of the legitimacy the referendum device bestowed upon him.

Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.