Indeed, one of the complications of the democratization literature is the

disagreement on the definition and measurement of this concept.

One approach has focused on elections as a linchpin of the democratic process
(Schumpeter1942; Vanhanen 1990; Przeworski et al. 2000). The holding of
competitive, free and fairelections is essential to the meaning of democracy. This
includes acceptance of the rule of law so there is legal administration of elections
and procedures for resolving electoral disputes.Unless different political views can
compete in the electoral arena, and the electoral outcomesstructure government
policy to a substantial degree, a political system cannot claim to be a
democracy.
(Norris 1999; Pharr and Putnam 2000). But the foundation of the democratic process
is a publiccommitment to democratic values and principles, and the extent of such
orientations is essentialfor judging the potential for democratization
Since 2000, the majority of Russian
endorse the current political regime and their number seems to increase with the
passage of time. In the course of twelve months, political inertia creates a threepoint
increase [on a 201-point scale] in support and, as the years pass, the impact
becomes increasingly large. By the beginning of 2005, it adds forty points to mean
support for the current regime. Russians who were initially positive become more so,
those neutral become positive, and the intensity of those negative toward the regime
Putin ended direct election of the 83 regional governors, they are now nominated by
the president and confirmed by the regional legislatures.Putin created 7 federal
districts with appointed super governors Referendum-- president can call for national
referenda by popular vote on important issues Duma Elections (changed in 2007)
Now elections are entirely proportional

Single-member districts were eliminated in 2007 upon the

initiative of President Putin

The threshold for eligibility to win seats was raised from 5% to

7%

In 2003, 100 of the 225 single-member district seats were won

by independents or minor party candidates

Presidential Elections

Direct elections, if no candidate receives 50% of the vote in 1st

round, run-off between top 2

judiciary

Members appointed by president, confirmed by Federation

Council

Courts have power of judicial review

 Only 22% of Russias citizens report being a member of a political party

Beliefs and attitudes
Mistrust of Government result of mistreatment and government secrecy
during tsarist and Soviet regimes
Statism despite mistrust of government, Russian citizens still expect the
state to take active role in their lives
Economic Beliefs nearly all groups and political factions favor market
reforms, but many still believe in egalitarianism
Weak Civil Society Few Russians are members of clubs, churches, or
cultural groups
This association has been founded in order to help social scientists and policymakers better understand worldviews and changes that are taking place in the
beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world. In order to do so, the
members of this association carry out representative national surveys of peoples
values and beliefs on a global scale.
"Desire for freedom and democracy is a universal human aspiration, but it is not top priority
when people grow up feeling that survival is uncertain. When basic physiological
and safety needs are fulfilled, growing emphasis on self-expression values makes the
emergence of democracy increasingly likely"(http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org)

Although this literature is perfectly correct in finding that most Russians have favorable attitudes
toward democracy, when these findings are examined in broader cross-cultural perspective one
finds that support for democracy is relatively weak in Russiaindeed, it is weaker than in almost any
other country among the more than 70 societies covered by the Values Surveys. Moreover, by some
important indicators, pro-democratic orientations among the Russian people became weaker, not
stronger, during the 1990s

The concept of sovereign democracy provides the other analytical tool suitable for
describing the Russian institutional arrangement in politics. It has recently become
extremely popular among both Russian scholars and top officials. Its quintessence
consists in highlighting the electoral process embedded in the nation-state and in
relegating the two other attributes of democracy to the backstage. In a sovereign
democracy people vested in power, governmental bodies and their policies are
elected, formed and guided exclusively by the Russian nation in all its diversity and
integrity (Surkov, 2006; see also Polyakov, 2007). To put it differently, sovereign
democracy means that there are no external pressures on people vested in power,
governmental bodies and their policies.

At first sight, the claim that democracy.

The current institutional arrangement in Russia has only one element of democracy,
relatively competitive elections. This configuration questions its long-term stability
understood as the capacity (a) to withstand external shocks and (b) to generate less
uncertainty on its own. Taking into consideration the heavy dependence of the
Russian states policies on oil and gas rents, the former deserves separate
consideration (in the present article principal attention was paid to the latter).
In the past, the Soviet institutional arrangement proved unsustainable in the fa