John T. Ishiyama, "Candidate Recruitment and The Development of Russian Political Parties, 1993-99," Party Politics, 7 (July 2001), 387-411.

First Paragraph:
In recent years there has been increasing debate over the development of 'parties' in post-communist Russian politics (Fish, 1995a, 1995b, 1997; Gel'man and Golosov, 1998; Golosov, 1995, 1997, 1998; Haspel et al., 1998; Ishiyama, 1996, 1998, 1999a; Lowenhardt, 1998; McFaul and Markov, 1993; McFaul and Petrov, 1995; Moser, 1998, 1999; Pashentsev, 1999; Remington and Smith, 1995, 1998). As some scholars have noted, however, specific discussion of Russian parties in light of existing theories on party development, organization and behavior has been generally absent from the debate (Webb and Lewis, 1998: 261). Part of the reason is that there is little consensus over whether or not 'real' parties are developing in post-communist Russian politics. On the one hand, scholars have adopted a 'pessimistic' view, noting that the Russian party system comprises transient organizations with little continuity from one election to the next, lacking organizational form, coherent ideological programs and reliable social constituencies (Golosov, 1995; Moser, 1999). Some scholars have even termed post-communist Russia a 'non-party' country (Sakwa, 1995). On the other hand, a more optimistic view holds that parties are indeed forming in post-communist Russia and are playing an increasingly important role in shaping post-Soviet Russian politics (Fteron et al., 1998; Haspel et al., 1998; Kitschelt, 1995; Remington and Smith, 1995).

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Estimated political cohesiveness of parliamentary parties (December 1995) p. 396
Table 2: Votes and seats won by parties, 1993, 1995 and 1999 State Duma Elections p. 398
Table 3: Mean POLNOT Scores for the KPRF, LDPR, Yabloko, 1993, 1995, and 199 by population of largest city in district p. 401
Table 4: Kendall's tau-b coefficients (POLNOT by UNITY score) controlling for district urbanization, 1999 election p. 403
Table 5: Coefficient estimates and collinearity diagnostics for logistic regression for KPRF nominations, 1995 and 1999 State Duma elections p. 403
Table 6: Coefficient estimates and collinearity diagnostics for logistic regression for LDPR nominations, 1995 and 1999 State Duma elections p. 404
Table 7: Coefficient estimates and collinearity diagnostics for logistic regression for Yabloko nominations, 1995 and 1999 State Duma elections p. 405

Last Paragraph:
Furthermore, the one party which appears to have move in the direction of concentrating its efforts at nominating candidates to districts where its voter support was highest (outside the districts in which it had won previously) is the KPRE In 1999, the party clearly chose to nominate candidates to districts outside its control, districts in which it had received the greatest amount of electoral support, regardless of whether a powerful opposing incumbent was running. This suggests that the KPRF more than any other has sought out its constituencies. Although the LDPR and Yabloko have yet to do so (and the LDPR appeared to have been particularly poor at nominating candidates to districts where it had performed well), it remains to be seen if these parties choose to mimic the KPRF and limit their nominations to districts where they have a better chance of winning the election. However, before anything conclusive can be said about the future of the Russian parties, a great deal more research must be conducted to ascertain the internal dynamics of these parties and how their organizational development has proceeded thus far. In particular, this might provide valuable insight into what the 'typical' future Russian party might look like. Will it be mass-like, elite-driven, personal or perhaps 'non-charismatic personal', as Ansell and Fish (1999) suggest? In any case, it is far too premature to claim that there are (or are not) real parties in Russia. Rather the process of the development of Russian parties is far from complete, and is likely to be as arduous, and take just as much time, as the development of 'real parties' in the West.