The history of parliamentarism in Russia

About the author:

Sergey V. Kondratiev, Dr. Sci. (Hist.), Professor, Department of History and World Politics, University of Tyumen; skondratiev@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0002-9861-5032

Abstract:

The article analyzes the process of the parliamentarism formation in Russia. The author turns to the origins of the parliamentarism in Russia, the extrapolation of the European experience and its adaptation in Russia. The idea of the representative democracy were introduced to Russia in the XVII-XVIII centuries after Peter the Great’s reforms due to adopting theories, social experience and technologies. The author comes to the conclusion that the Russian elite were mostly oriented towards the British evolutional experience since they didn’t want a repetition of French and American revolutionary scenario. But Russia had some influential forces which totally rejected the European parliamentarism practices. Establishment of the State Duma in the beginning of the XX century contributed greatly to implementing the idea of representation of the people in Russia. The author proves that the Soviet system established after the October revolution broke off the natural process of broadening participation of the people in governing the country. The author claims the soviets should be considered as a representation without people taking part in governing the party. After the Soviet system collapse in 1993, the natural order was restored and Russia turned to the representative democracy again.

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