Oleh Protsyk and Andrew Wilson, "Centre Politics in Russia and Ukraine: Patronage, Power and Virtuality," Party Politics, 9 (November 2003), 703-727.

First Paragraph:
Centre party politics remains a difficult phenomenon for post-Soviet scholars to analyse. While the political left and (to a lesser degree) right have been steadily moving towards crystallization of their organizational forms and ideological positions, in the political 'centre' both party structures and programmatic appeals remained highly elusive during the first post- communist decade (Remington, 1999; White et al., 1997; Wilson and Birch, 1999). Political parties and parliamentary factions that identified themselves as 'centrist' rose and fell at a rapid rate during the period under study, often without leaving enough time for either the electorate or for political scientists to understand their ideological position or political behaviour.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Index of clientelelistic acccess for parliamentary factions in Ukraine and Russia
Appendix: Legislative votes included in the composition of voting conformity index
Table 2: Voting conformity index for parliamentary factions in Ukraine and Russia
Figure 1: Parliamentary factions' size change in Ukraine, 1994-2002
Figure 2: Parliamentary factions' size change in Russia, 1993-99

Last Paragraph:
The ideological parties of the political left and right largely failed to recruit new members among the ranks of unaffiliated deputies or defectors from other parliamentary factions. The membership of centrist factions during all four parliamentary terms was more volatile than the membership of major factions of the left and right. None of the major pro-government centrist parties survived for longer than one parliamentary term. Further research on the impact that the specific combinations of clientelisric norms and electoral rules have on the motivations of centre party politicians can improve our understanding of centre party politics in post-communist regimes.