Boxing Russia: Executive-Legislative Powers and the Categorization of Russia's Regime Type

(ProQuest: . denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Since the adoption of the Russian constitution in December 1993, much debate has arisen over attempts to categorize the new regime among the familiar forms known to exist in the democratic world. Institutionally, is Russia a presidential system, a "superpresidential" system, or a "semi-presidential" system? While Russia is among a group of countries such as Iceland, Ireland, Israel, and Finland that seem to defy typological consensus, the ambiguity over the Russian case is perhaps a bit more peculiar.On one level, debates about the institutional makeup of the ambiguous cases listed above usually center on two choices: Whether the country in question is parliamentary or semipresidential, with the answer hinging on one's appreciation of the actual role of the head of state. By that standard, for example, Ireland is generally categorized as parliamentary, the direct popular election of the Irish president notwithstanding.For Russia, however, the range of assertions bridges a wider institutional gap. Some view Russia as "super-presidential," meaning that political power between the executive and the legislature is skewed overwhelmingly in favor of the former, to the detriment of the democratic credentials of the system. Others, however, noting the presence under the constitution of both an elected president and a "prime minister,"2 consider Russia to be a "semi-presidential" analog to France or Poland. Still others discount the role of the "prime minister" to that of little more than a presidential chief-of-staff, leading them to see Russia as a presidential system more similar to the United States than to France or Poland.3 Finally, others, dissatisfied with the broadness of the "semi-presidential" category, have generated intermediary categories: "premier- presidentialism" and "presidentparliamentarism" (with Russia falling into the latter). 4 Unlike the ambiguous cases cited above, in which the debate seems to revolve around parliamentarism and (some variety of) semi-presidentialiam, in the case of Russia the argument more precisely hinges on whether or not the Russian constitution of 1993 created a super-presidential or (some variety of) semi-presidential system.At a second level, there seems to be a noticeable predictability in the type of analysts who are more likely to place Russia into one of the polar choices. That is, Russian area specialists are more inclined to see Russia as a super-presidential system, while comparativists who focus less on countries than they do on regime-types tend to view Russia as semi-presidential. 5 This conceptual ambiguity has been further complicated since the 2008 acquisition of the prime ministership by former president Vladimir Putin-who, many argue, has more actual authority in Russian politics than does the president, Dmitry Medvedev.This paper explores the debate on the status of Russian political institutions. It assesses the arguments for and against each rival conceptualization of the Russian political system, and ultimately argues against the claim that Russia is a semi-presidential system in any generic sense.6 This position is not defended dogmatically, however, as it is admitted that Russia's institutional structure as described in the 1993 constitution does indeed provide grounds for all camps to press their claims. Ultimately, though, viewing Russia as a "superpresidential" regime is less harmful to a valid understanding of Russian politics than are the rival conceptualizations. To the degree that this claim is valid, then, viewing Russia as "semi-presidential"-grouping it, therefore, with France and Poland-is most injurious to a proper understanding of Russian politics. At the center of this determination is the issue of cohabitation in Russian politics. Semi-presidential regimes have as a sine qua non the real possibility (or probability) of executive cohabitation, stricto sensu. Institutionally speaking, Russia lacks this possibility. …