Nov. 12, 2024, 9:48 a.m.
Editor's note
Dear colleagues and friends,
The twelfth (second in 2024) issue of our journal includes five papers and one review.
The issue starts with Andrei Lazarev's paper on the criteria of party institutionalization. The author believes that the issue of creating a clear structure of such criteria is becoming more and more relevant today.
Pavel Dubravsky explores the phenomenon of Latin American populism as exemplified by two countries: El Salvador, where Nayib Bukele was re-elected for a second term in 2024, and Argentina, where in 2023 Javier Milei became the world's first libertarian president. The paper focuses on how technological advances and social media are amplifying populist rhetoric and changing the rules of political communication.
The paper by Andrei Buzin and Arkadii Lyubarev summarizes the results of a survey in which 57 experts evaluated 170 amendments introduced to Russia's electoral legislation in 2003–2024. Most of the novelties averaged a negative rating. However, there were two short periods (2010-2012 and 2017-2018) when, according to experts, most of the novelties were aimed at improving the quality of elections.
Two papers analyze the latest presidential election in Russia. Yurii Korgunyuk considers the election through the lens of electoral cleavages and political dimensions. The author concludes that despite the general abnormality of the situation, the election results follow an understandable political logic and are not a product of pure fraud.
The article by Vitalii Kovin analyzes the official vote returns in the presidential election in Perm Krai. The special focus of the paper is the comparison of results at polling stations where votes were counted manually and those equipped with ballot paper processing systems (KOIB). KOIB-equipped PECs were found to record significantly lower voter turnout, less support for Vladimir Putin and more support for Vladislav Davankov than those where votes were counted manually.
The issue closes with Guzel Garifullina's review of Stanislav Shkel's book on the role that ethnic factor plays in Russian elections on the regional level.
We hope the new issue will further secure the journal’s status in academic circles and the pool of topics and authors will continue to expand.