The Russian Federation - Standard 1 (Instituitions)

Authoritarian Regime

Authoritarian Regime

Type of government; power is centralized, and all control is held by one individual or small elitist group

USSR

Soviet Union (union of soviet socialist republics) 1922-1991; communist regime under one party rule (the bolsheviks)

Federal Assembly

Russia’s national legislature; consists of the upper house (federation council_ and lower house (duma); bicameral

State Duma

lower house in Russia’s parliament (federal assembly); more powerful than upphouse, but not as powerful as the UK lower house. Today, ½ is proportional and ½ is from SMD (Putin made this happen), in the past it was different.

State Council

Advises the Russian head of state (president); made up of leaders including governors and people the president chooses.

Parliamentary-hybrid system

same as the semi-presidential system; power is split between the president, the prime minister, and parliament; in Russia, the president has way more power; the PM and parliament typically handle making the legislature.

federal republic

power is allocated to both the federal government and local governments; in Russia, they technically do this, but putin basically has all control (he appoints the regional leaders.)

Oblasts

the 46 different “provinces” or regions of russia.

Federation Council

the upper house of russia’s parliament; can really only slow down legislature and had way less power than the duma.

Asymmetric Federalism

Although power is allocated to the different regions of Oblasts of Russia, certain ones are given more power than others.

Semi-presidential system

same as the parliamentary/hybrid system

dual executive

describes the leaders in a semi-pres/parl-hybrid system. the president has pwoer, alongside the PM and cabinet.

democratization

showing/having democratic values; putin lacks in this by means of his own-party system and fraudulent elections.

tandemocracy

described the relationship of Putin and Medvedev when Putin wouldn’t serve a 3rd pres. term and had to act as a PM instead.

Code law

the systematic collection of statuses that governs the way in which things are run and the rules that a government enacts at the time.

constitutional court

Russia’s high-court; deals primarily with constitutional law. determines if the laws that are challenged are constitutional or not.

Supreme Court

the supreme judicial body for civil, criminal, economic and administrative cases.

Super districts

Russia’s 8 federal districts: central, northwestern, southern, north caucasian, Volga, ural, siberian, and far eastern federal districts.

Vladimir Putin

Russia’s current president. Came to power after yeltsin stepped down. PM from 2008-2012; pres from 2000-2008, and 2012 to current

Josef Stalin

led the communist soviet union from 1924-1953 (his death)

Leonid Brezhnev

served as the general secretary of the communist party of the soviet union 1964-1982 (his death)

Mikhail Gorbachev

the 8th, and FINAL leader of the soviet union; from 1985-1991 (the soviet collapse); played major role in ending the cold war and in establishing more economic freedoms in the USSR (which ultimately led to the creation of a democratic Russia.)

Dimitri Medvedev

Putin’s PM during his first terms, and president of Russia from 2008-2012 when Putin became his PM. He mysteriously disappeared when Putin became president for a second set of terms.

How is government power divided in Russia between national and regional governments?

president holds essentially all the power in russia (cause of putin) but some power is allocated to regional governments. Putin appoints tehse regional officials, though, which kind of gets rid of the whole point of the, but they technically still follow asymmetrical federalism.

Who holds the executive power, how is he/she chosen, what is the term, how is his/her power limited and how is he/she removed?

The president and PM hold executive power in russia; the President is elected through MAJORITY, but if no one has more than 50% then there is a runoff election. The PM is chosen by the president, however the Duma has to approve of the PM. If the Duma doesn't approve, though, the Pres can choose to hold new Duma elections. The president can serve 2 6-year terms, and the PM has no fixed terms. The Duma and fed. Council can elect to impeach the pres each with a ⅔ vote, however the pres holds so much power that this won't happen. The PM can be dismissed by the Pres or through a vote of no confidence.

What is the function and structure of the legislative branch, how are members chosen, what are their terms, how are they removed, and what are the checks on legislative power?

The Legislative branch in Russia enacts the policy that the president wants to be enacted. The legislature is BI-cameral, with a PM. PM is chosen by the pres, and the upper house is chosen while the lower house is (now) ½ from proportional and ½ from plurality (used to be all proportional but putin wants to be different so bad)

What is the source of law in Russia?

The law, but the law is putin. Everything and anything Putin wants becomes a law.

What is the function and structure of the judicial branch, how are the members chosen, and what are the checks on judicial power?

Judges are appointed by the federation council and serve for life; the judicial branch is made up of the supreme court and constitutional court (talked ab earlier), and kind of just goes with Putin so they don't really do what they should be doing. There are many checks on judicial power since putin controls who is in the judiciary.