Степень заинтересованности посадских общин в магистратском правлении в XVIII в. (на основе анализа посещаемости выборов)

Человеческий капитал. 2024. № 4(184). С. 30–38.

Гущина Д. В.

This article presents updated data on attendance at city magistrate elections in 33 cities across European Russia in the mid-18th century. The calculations attempted to account only for those tradespeople who actually had the right to vote. Higher turnout figures were obtained compared to those available in the historiography. Based on the percentage of voter turnout in different cities, the level of interest of tradespeople in magistrate institutions was analyzed. The analysis of attendance took into account such limiting factors as the size of the premises in which the election meeting was held and special election procedures, such as multi-stage voting. When examining cities with low turnout, it was discovered that tradespeople either avoided voting or petitioned the Chief Magistrate to alleviate the burdens this service imposed on the tradespeople. Thus, the tradespeople of these cities were less interested in the magistrates, as the burden of providing magistrates with employees for the tradespeople outweighed the benefits of these institutions. The impact of election conflict on assembly attendance was also examined. It was concluded that intra-town conflicts and election struggles did not provoke a significant increase in attendance. At the same time, conflicts between the town community and the local administration and the latter's attempts to interfere in the electoral process caused a significant increase in election attendance. Based on these data, it was concluded that one of the key functions of the magistrates, which interested the town population, was protection from the arbitrary exercise of the local administration.

Keywords: явка на выборы, electoral activity, voter turnout, посадская община, elective city government, city magistrates, town community, chief magistrate, выборное городское управление, городские магистраты, выборная активность, воеводская канцелярия, Главный магистрат