Is Russia A Hybrid Regime?

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union between 1989-1991, Russia emerged as a nominal democracy. Few expected Russia’s transition to democratic rule to be easy since the country lacked any democratic tradition. As expected, the transition has not been smooth and instead of the consolidation of democratic norms – such as the rule of law, Russia has seen the resurgence of its more traditional authoritarian forms of governance. However, it has not entirely moved back towards a full-fledged authoritarian regime. Relatively free elections do take place, Russians are free to travel and some opposition is allowed. This is has led political scientists to classify Russia as a hybrid regime. A hybrid regime is defined as containing elements of both …show more content…
The Russian government after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 80s-early 90s went to a hybrid regime. This allowed the citizens of Russia to have more freedom throughout the country. When the Soviet Union was still intact they did not have the freedom that is allowed now in Russia. The citizens now have the ability to vote for their leaders in the government. This allows them to become more involved in the government all together. The ability to vote their leaders into office also allows different parties to have candidates run for office. If the potential candidate can gather one million signatures, then they are able to run for the office they wish to. The people of Russia also have the ability to protest or form a protest if they wish to do so. This is looked down upon by the government, since most of the time they are protesting the government, but under their new regime they are allowed to do so. Another part of the democratic side to the hybrid regime in Russia is that the leaders have to allow the public interests to have some say in their decisions because the leaders are able to be thrown out of office or the people can protest and revolt against the government if they wanted to. The second part to a hybrid regime is the authoritarian part of it, this will be discussed in the next