Classifying Russia's party system: The problem of 'relevance' in a time of uncertainty

Party development in Russia has been chaotic, but can be explained in part by looking at the interactions between Russian political parties. The application of Sartori's scheme for classifying party systems suggests that party competition in Russia shows signs of both centrifugal and centripetal pulls. This has several contradictory effects. Anti-systemic parties have their principled opposition to Russia's post-communist development reaffirmed at one level, but are sometimes forced into co-operation with the more powerful executive. Pro-systemic parties have little incentive to co-operate because they and members of the political elite do not face serious competition from anti-systemic parties. In consequence, there is unlikely to be a rapid streamlining of the Russian party system.