ABSTRACT
Between the first and second rounds of the 1996 Russian presidential elections the newspaper Segodnya published an article by five experts from the Centre for Political Technologies on what the election might mean for the future of Russian politics.1 The experts extrapolated from the conduct of political leaders during the presidential campaign to assert that the basis had been laid for the development of a 'rational structure of party politics'. They noted that, after the high degree of party fragmentation in the December 1995 State Duma elections, politicians had learnt 'strategies of coalition building' in the presidential elections, and discovered that aspirants to political power needed to abandon their individual ambitions and join one of the two 'big coalitions' of ' r e fo rmis t s ' or 'restorationists'.2 The prognosis of the experts at the Centre for Political Technologies was accurate for the presidential elections, where the 'big coalition' of 'reformists' triumphed over the 'restorationists'. Their suggestion that the presidential elections would produce a 'rational structure of party politics' is, however, far more problematic. The experts of the Centre for Political Technologies did not indicate what such a structure would be, but the inference was that it would
involve a fairly small number of coalitions and simplify the future electoral choice of Russian voters. The consequence might not be a breakdown into two parties based on reform and restoration of the Soviet past, but it would not be the confusing choice between 43 parties and electoral groups that faced Russian voters in the 1995 State Duma elections.
