Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

2 Between a rock and a hard placeThe Russian Federation in comparativeperspectiveMichael BurgessIntroduction: taking stock of Russia’s pastIn a seminal article on comparative federalism published just over fortyyears ago, Anthony Birch observed that it was much better to approach thestudy of federal systems by trying first to identify the similarities betweendifferent systems than to begin with basic conceptual matters and definitionsof federalism that served to underline their differences and made comparativeanalysis much more difficult to achieve. 1 In this chapter I want to followthe line of reasoning adopted by Nancy Bermeo who believes that institutions– and by inference federal systems –‘are best assessed from multiplevantage points’ so that ‘a fair analysis requires both comparative and historicalperspectives’. 2 To be effective, comparative federalism must be rootedin historical analysis so that important legacies, which establish lines ofcontinuity indispensable to our understanding of contemporary change, areacknowledged and incorporated in current explanations.In the case of the Russian Federation, the Soviet legacy of federalism hasto be confronted and addressed as a historical and ideological specificitybefore any meaningful comparative perspectives can be assembled. As weshall see, most of the current problems, stresses and strains together with thecontemporary challenges, trends and developments in Russian federalismcan be ascribed to this troublesome legacy. The Russian Federation thatcame into existence during 1991-3 emerged in the most difficult and unpromisingof circumstances, which certainly did not bode well for future democraticstability. It was also built upon an extremely fragile foundation, onethat replaced the former Soviet federal state structure cemented by a unitarycentralized single party system, which effectively controlled all the institutionsof policy-making and policy-implementation together with all the linesof political communication. It was, in short, a federal facade.This means that we must be both careful and cautious in deciding preciselywhat comparative perspectives to choose. We are confronted by twoconceptually and empirically distinct federations that existed in differenthistorical epochs, one that endured for nearly seventy years, as the Union ofSoviet Socialist Republics, the USSR (1922–91), and the other as its putative