When Majorities Fail

The Russian Parliament, 1990-1993

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by Josephine T. Andrews

Cambridge University Press

Due/Published October 2002, 320 pages, cloth

ISBN 0521801125

This study of institutional failure in Russia's first democratic legislature claims that inadequate rules and a chaotic party system combined to make it nearly impossible for the legislature to pass a coherent legislative program, including a new constitution. It studies a peculiar form of chaos; cycling; that can exist in majority rule institutions when institutional rules are weak. It identifies cycling in an important institutional setting--the Russian national legislature--and shows that poor institutional design has important consequences for the consolidation of democracy in transitional countries.

Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Cycling in action: Russia's constitutional crisis; 3. Cycling and its consequences: a theoretical framework; 4. Institutional design and implications for majority rule; 5. Issue dimensions and partisan alliances; 6. The structure of preferences; 7. Legislative instability; 8. The dynamics of agenda control in the Russian parliament; 9. Implications of disequilibrium in transitional legislatures.