Electoral Laws and Party Systems: UK vs. Russia

Introduction: Democracy and the Party System

The political party framework in any modern country represents a guarantee of that system's democratic character. During the Cold War era, political parties and political plurality were considered a true luxury in countries of the Communist bloc. On the other side, western democracies enjoyed a vibrant political life that ensured basic human and civil rights were respected and upheld. After the end of the Cold War, the freedom of expression and a rapid increase in democratic tendencies drove a massive reorientation of the political spectrum toward a more open society. However, recent elections in the Russian Federation have stirred controversy over the validity of its democratic mechanisms, and questions have been raised about the extent to which the elected president, Dmitri Medvedev, was in fact the most democratically legitimized candidate for Russian leadership.

In order to gain a proper understanding of how political parties and electoral systems shape the democratic environment within a country, it is useful to analyze and compare two distinct systems of government. The United Kingdom and Russia serve as instructive examples in this regard.

Historical Backgrounds of the UK and Russia

The United Kingdom can be considered the birthplace of the modern democratic system of rule. This assessment rests primarily on the UK's long historical background in human and civil rights (Berstein and Milza, 1994). Britain was the first nation to provide the world with a structure for civil duties, liberties, and rights, as well as a model for the sharing of power within the administrative structure of the state. Given that the British Monarchy is one of the longest-enduring royal institutions in the world, a clear separation of powers was crucial to successful governance. At the same time, the United Kingdom — unlike the majority of democratic nations — is not founded on a written constitution as the fundamental law of the state (Berstein and Milza, 1994). This absence meant the state was obliged to maintain administrative control through a range of other legal mechanisms.

On the other side of the comparison, the history of the Russian Federation has been a major factor in shaping its current political situation. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia was an empire in which political parties, while not entirely excluded from public life, operated in close alignment with the Tsar. The dynamic totalitarian system imposed during Tsarist rule was in some respects presented as a Russian adaptation of democracy (Tucker, 1961). The communist era that followed, however, treated the single-party system as the cornerstone of the eventual victory of socialism. All parties other than the Communist Party were outlawed, and the party system underwent radical restructuring. From this historical perspective, it is difficult to regard the current party system in Russia as fully democratic or as having fully recovered from the pressures of communist rule.

Legislative Structures and Party Composition

The party system in the UK has its historical roots in the Whigs and Tories. Today, the system is dominated by the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, though other political forces — such as the Liberal Democrats — remain active (CIA World Fact Book, 2008). A distinctive feature of British political life is the presence of representatives from Northern Ireland and the Scottish Parliament, a development that reflects the long history of conflict across the British Isles and the ongoing struggle for varying degrees of independence within the Kingdom.

The Russian Federation's legislative branch bears some structural resemblance to that of the United Kingdom. Both states have a bicameral legislature; in Russia's case, this consists of the Federation Council (Soviet Federatsii) and the State Duma. Members of the Federation Council represent the regions of the Russian Federation and are appointed by senior regional officials rather than directly elected by the public. The representative body is the Duma, whose members are elected by direct vote; however, the voting system is based on proportional representation and party lists. Given Russia's historical background, this arrangement allows party members to enter the Duma without being directly chosen by voters — a feature that echoes the Communist-era practice of designating party activists to official positions. Furthermore, the current Russian electoral system offers limited scope for genuine political pluralism, as the dominant position is held by United Russia. In the 2007 elections, United Russia received more than 60% of the vote, while the closest rival party received just over 10% (CIA, 2008).

In the United Kingdom, the legislature is also bicameral. The House of Lords and the House of Commons are organized not along regional lines but according to long-standing constitutional tradition. The House of Lords consists of hereditary and appointed peers who are not elected by the public; internal elections within the Lords occur only for new peers. The House of Commons, by contrast, is a fully representative body whose members are directly elected by the constituents of their respective districts. The results of the 2005 general election illustrate the greater degree of political competition in the UK: no single party won a majority, with Labour receiving 35.2% of the vote, the Conservatives 32.3%, and the Liberal Democrats 22% (CIA, 2008). This distribution demonstrates a meaningful pluralism in British political life.

Bibliography

Berstein, Serge, and Pierre Milza. Histoire de l'Europe. Paris: Hatier, 1994.

CIA. "The Russian Federation." The World Fact Book. 2008.

CIA. "United Kingdom." The World Fact Book. 2008.

Cohen, Ariel. "Putin's Legacy and United Russia's New Ideology." The Heritage Foundation, 2006.

Darlington, Roger. A Short Guide to the Russian Political System. 2007.

The Government's Response to the Electoral Commission's Report: Voting for Change. An Electoral Law Modernization Program. Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor, 2004.

Tucker, Robert C. "Discussion: The Question of Totalitarianism." Slavic Review, Vol. 20, No. 3 (October 1961), pp. 377–382.