 Regina Smyth, Strong Partisans, Weak Parties? Party Organizations and the Development of Mass Partisanship in Russia Studies of mass partisanship in Russia frame an interesting puzzle: the unexpectedly high levels of party attachments in the first two election cycles stagnated or even declined in subsequent elections. Mass-level explanations of nascent partisanship fail to account for this pattern of behavior. As a corrective to these arguments, party organizations should be incorporated as an actor in theories of partisanship. To what extent were Russian party organizations capable of projecting coherent issue positions during the electoral period? Although the mean issue positions of some parties were remarkably stable over time, the shifting structure of the party system coupled with high levels of disagreement within party organizations undermined their capacity to build ties to voters. |