What type of government does Russia have 2022

To answer this question, one must look back in time at how exactly this type of government had evolved historically on this territory. What was the Russian way of organizing a country?

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

Knyaz’ and druzhina
Tatar-Mongol influence
The age of the Tsar
Emperor and nobility
Soviet times
Russian Federation

Knyaz’ and druzhina

A knyaz’ (prince) was the first type of Russian ruler. Long before the Tatar-Mongol invasion, parts of the land were ruled by local princes. Their primary function for society was to protect the population from invaders and conquerors, and also from local rogues. The knyaz’ was aided by his druzhina (guard), a close-knit fellowship who fought for the knyaz’. In exchange for protection, people of the land paid the knyaz’ an annual tribute. They didn’t really influence his actions, however.

Tatar-Mongol influence

After the Tatar-Mongols pillaged and enslaved the Russian lands, the function of Russian princes had become subject to Tatar approval – in order to be an ‘official’ prince of some Russian territory, one had to go to the Golden Horde, bringing lavish presents, and ‘earn’ a prince’s credence document, called ‘yarlyk.’ Russian princes, who were important and noble at home, often had to humiliate themselves in the Horde’s capital – for example, walk on their knees towards the khan’s throne.

The Horde influenced the Russian political system in its infancy. Ruthless and cunning ways of the Tatar khans were borrowed by early Russian princes and used in the feudal war. The land needed unity to oppose the Tatar yoke, and gradually, Moscow princes became the most powerful. Grand Prince Ivan the Great of Moscow, who united the land against the Tatars, already called himself a ‘tsar’ – an Eastern title borrowed by Russians. Instead of druzhina, the tsar was surrounded by the boyars – wealthy landlords and military commanders who helped the tsar rule.

The age of the Tsar

The first official tsar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible, understood that the vast territory he controlled was very diverse and its parts had different goals and wishes. Around 1549, Ivan called upon a Zemsky Sobor – a gathering of the most influential people (noblemen, traders, priests, and military leaders) who were sent to Moscow by local people from different parts of Russia. Russian historians claim this is a Russian form of non-elected, but ‘selected’ representative democracy.

There were about 60 Sobors from 1549 to 1684. They gathered irregularly to decide upon the most important questions of the state. The tsar and boyars couldn’t effectively carry out their rule from the center because they didn’t have their finger on the pulse of the rest of the vast land.

During the 17th century, communication between the country’s center and the periphery was established, and Russian nobility emerged – military men who served the tsar and boyars in exchange for plots of land. They could possess serfs, some of whom became their military men during wartime. There was no longer a need for Sobors, as these noblemen became servants of the tsar and boyars across the country. Meanwhile, boyars were the first among these noblemen. The boyars had a great influence on politics and the tsar. However, they were the elite, and didn’t represent the wishes of the population.

Emperor and nobility

A European-styled government appeared in Russia under Peter the Great. He destroyed the boyars who had concentrated too much power in their hands. Now, there was the tsar - an ultimate sovereign - and everybody else, who were his servants. Peter obliged all noblemen to serve the state, either in military or civil service, and installed a European legal and government system with collegiums (ministries), the Governing Senate and the Church, also controlled by the state.

Physically or financially destroying the most powerful of the old elite, Peter installed a new elite by giving away large plots of land, and made sure the titles became hereditary. For most of the 200-year history of the Russian Empire, the balance of power was organized as follows: the nobility was dependent on their serfs, who produced sustenance and goods, and the state was dependent on the nobility who fought in the military, organized businesses and developed technology. The unstable equilibrium crashed when serfdom was abolished in Russia.

Russian peasants paid a hard price for their freedom – they had to buy out the land they used from the state. This impoverished the majority of the population to an even greater degree. Meanwhile, the nobility was deprived of its main source of income and quickly went into decline.

Soviet times

The Bolshevik revolution brought an end to the old order, but the Soviet system largely copied the Tsarist one. The Soviet state organized its own ‘nobility’ – the Communist Party. It was merged with the state apparatus at all levels. Party officials were formally elected by the population. But in reality, all of the top Party positions were subject to appointment by the leader and his “boyars” – the Politburo.

In Tsarist Russia, nobility was hereditary, while Soviet noblemen could be destroyed in the blink of an eye by simply throwing them out of the Party. As appointed local leaders, Soviet officials didn’t represent the wishes of the population, and sometimes went straight against them in service of r their own needs – as Soviet ‘nobility’ wasn’t hereditary, some corrupt officials resorted to stealing and bribery in order to accumulate more personal wealth. Such a system was doomed to failure.

Russian Federation

After 1991, the Russian Federation became a presidential republic with a semi-presidential system. This means that people express their wishes by electing both the legislature (a parliament, in Russia – the Federal Assembly) and the executive (the President, who approves the government formed by the Prime Minister) branches of power. To pass a law, both the Federal Assembly and the President must approve it.

The branches of power control each other. The legislature, which approves all laws, may move for a vote of no-confidence to the government and demand its reform. On the other hand, the President can dissolve the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly, at any time; and the Federation Council (the upper house) can impeach the President.

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Russian White House, Moscow

During the Soviet era the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (the R.S.F.S.R.) was subject to a series of Soviet constitutions (1918, 1924, 1936, 1977), under which it nominally was a sovereign socialist state within (after 1936) a federal structure. Until the late 1980s, however, the government was dominated at all levels by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which was all-powerful and whose head was the country’s de facto leader. Indeed, in the elections that were held, there was only a single slate of candidates, the great majority of whom were in effect chosen by the Communist Party.

From the late 1980s through 1991—the period of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika (“restructuring”), glasnost (“openness”), and demokratizatsiya (“democratization”) reform policies—fundamental changes took place in the political system and government structures of the Soviet Union that altered both the nature of the Soviet federal state and the status and powers of the individual republics. In 1988 the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies was created, and a Congress of People’s Deputies was established in each republic. For the first time, elections to these bodies presented voters with a choice of candidates, including noncommunists, though the Communist Party continued to dominate the system.

Thereafter, the pace of change accelerated. In June 1990 the Congress of the Russian republic proclaimed that Russian laws took precedence over Soviet laws, and the following year Boris Yeltsin became the republic’s first democratically elected president. An abortive coup in August 1991 by hard-liners opposed to Gorbachev’s reforms led to the collapse of most Soviet government organizations, the abolition of the Communist Party’s leading role in government, and the dissolution of the party itself. Republic after republic declared its “sovereignty,” and in December, when the Soviet Union was formally dissolved, Russia was established as an independent country.

The structure of the new Russian government differed significantly from that of the former Soviet republic. It was characterized by a power struggle between the executive and legislative branches, primarily over issues of constitutional authority and the pace and direction of democratic and economic reform. Conflicts came to a head in September 1993 when President Yeltsin dissolved the Russian parliament (the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet); some deputies and their allies revolted and were suppressed only through military intervention.

On December 12, 1993, three-fifths of Russian voters ratified a new constitution proposed by Yeltsin, and representatives were elected to a new legislature. Under the new constitution the president, who is elected in a national vote, is vested with significant powers. As Russia’s head of state, the president is empowered to appoint the chairman of the government (prime minister), key judges, and cabinet members. The president is also commander in chief of the armed forces and can declare martial law or a state of emergency. When the legislature fails to pass the president’s legislative initiatives, he may issue decrees that have the force of law. In 2008 an amendment to the constitution, which took effect with the 2012 election, extended the presidential term from four to six years. Prior to 2020 the president could not serve more than two consecutive terms, but constitutional changes enacted that year abolished term limits for the office.

Under the new constitution the Federal Assembly became the country’s legislature. It consists of the Federation Council (an upper house comprising appointed representatives from each of Russia’s administrative divisions) and the State Duma (a 450-member popularly elected lower house). The president’s nominee for chairman of the government is subject to approval by the State Duma; if it rejects a nominee three times or passes a vote of no confidence twice in three months, the president may dissolve the State Duma and call for new elections. All legislation must first pass the State Duma before being considered by the Federation Council. A presidential veto of a bill can be overridden by the legislature with a two-thirds majority, or a bill may be altered to incorporate presidential reservations and pass with a majority vote. With a two-thirds majority (and approval by the Russian Constitutional Court), the legislature may remove the president from office for treason or other serious criminal offenses. The Federation Council must approve all presidential appointments to the country’s highest judicial bodies (Supreme Court and Constitutional Court).

The constitution provides for welfare protection, access to social security, pensions, free health care, and affordable housing; it also guarantees local self-governance. Nevertheless, national law takes precedence over regional and local laws, and the constitution enumerates many areas that either are administered jointly by the regions and the central government or are the exclusive preserve of the central government. In the years after the constitution’s enactment, the central government implemented several measures to reduce the power and influence of regional governments and governors. In 2000 Pres. Vladimir Putin created seven federal districts above the regional level to increase the central government’s power over the regions (see discussion below). His successor, Dmitry Medvedev, continued this policy: as a part of Moscow’s ongoing efforts to quell separatism and Islamic militancy in the Caucasus, he created an eighth federal district there in 2010.

Under the Russian constitution the central government retains significant authority, but regional and local governments have been given an array of powers. For example, they exercise authority over municipal property and policing, and they can impose regional taxes. Owing to a lack of assertiveness by the central government, Russia’s administrative divisions—oblasti (regions), minority republics, okruga (autonomous districts), kraya (territories), federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), and the one autonomous oblast—exerted considerable power in the initial years after the passage of the 1993 constitution. The constitution gives equal power to each of the country’s administrative divisions in the Federal Assembly. However, the power of the divisions was diluted in 2000 when seven federal districts (Central, Far East, Northwest, Siberia, Southern, Urals, and Volga), each with its own presidential envoy, were established by the central government. In 2010 the southeastern portion of the Southern district was reorganized as an eighth federal district, North Caucasus. Russia’s ninth federal district was created in 2014, after it annexed the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea; this territorial claim was not recognized by Ukraine or most other countries, but Russia exercised de facto control of the region. The districts’ presidential envoys were given the power to implement federal law and to coordinate communication between the president and the regional governors. Legally, the envoys in federal districts had solely the power of communicating the executive guidance of the federal president. In practice, however, the guidance served more as a directive, as the president was able to use the envoys to enforce presidential authority over the regional governments.

In comparison to the federal government, regional governments generally have inadequate tax revenue to support mandatory items in their budgets, which have barely been able to cover wages for teachers and police. The budgets of regional governments also are overburdened by pensions.

Legislation has further affirmed the power of the federal government over the regions. For example, the regional governors and their deputies were prohibited from representing their region in the Federation Council on the grounds that their sitting in the Federation Council violated the principle of the separation of powers; however, under a compromise, both the legislative and executive branch of each region sent a member to the Federation Council. Legislation enacted in 2004 permitted the president to appoint the regional governors, who earlier were elected. In the first decade of the 21st century, the country began to undergo administrative change aimed at subordinating smaller okruga to neighbouring members of the federation.

Following these reforms in regional government, the new federal districts began to replace the 11 traditional economic regions, particularly for statistical purposes. The Central district unites the city of Moscow with all administrative divisions within the Central and Central Black Earth economic regions. The Northwest district combines the city of St. Petersburg with all areas in the North and Northwest regions, including Kaliningrad oblast. The Southern district includes portions of the Volga and North Caucasus economic regions; the North Caucasus district encompasses the remaining units of the latter economic region. The Volga district merges units of the Volga, Volga-Vyatka, and Ural economic regions. The Urals district consists of the remaining administrative divisions of the Ural economic region along with several from the West Siberia economic region. The Siberia district unites the remainder of the West Siberia economic region and all of East Siberia. Finally, the Far East district is congruent with the Far East economic region. The Crimean district, created in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory, included the federal city of Sevastopol.

Several of the administrative divisions established constitutions that devolved power to local jurisdictions, and, though the 1993 constitution guaranteed local self-governance, the powers of local governments vary considerably. Some local authorities, particularly in urban centres, exercise significant power and are responsible for taxation and the licensing of businesses. Moscow and St. Petersburg have particularly strong local governments, with both possessing a tax base and government structure that dwarf the country’s other regions. Local councils in smaller communities are commonly rubber-stamp agencies, accountable to the city administrator, who is appointed by the regional governor. In the mid-1990s municipal government was restructured. City councils (dumas), city mayors, and city administrators replaced former city soviets.