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Факторы фрагментации партийных систем российских регионов (2003–2013)
Up to the 2002 electoral reform the performance of political parties in Russia's regional legislative elections was poor. According to the federal law introduced this reform, all Russian regions since December 2003 have been obliged to elect no less than a half of the members of their assemblies by proportional representation. As a result, party competition at the regional level became unavoidable. These circumstances gave a good opportunity to study factors of party fragmentation in the entities of the Russian Federation. The study tested three kinds of hypotheses dealing with institutional, sociological and political effects. Analysis based on general sample of elections held in Russian regions since 2003 to 2013 shows that only political effects were robust through the time of observation. Party system fragmentation in Russian entities was systematically deprived by influential regional executive incumbents, federal authorities as well as was connected to the type of regional political regime.