| Summary: | 碩士 === 淡江大學 === 俄羅斯研究所 === 89 === Since party politics has become an essential element for modern democracies, there is no doubt that an election is the center for all political party activities. Moreover, election systems have positive effects for the nature of political parties; likewise there is a close correlation for the country's political stability. When considering Russia's political system, several questions need to be asked. After many years leaning and mimicking from western countries' electoral systems, is the Russian Duma electoral system well organized? Does the Duma electoral system affect the party system of the Russian federation positively? These pertinent questions need deeper research since they affect not only whether the transition to democracy is smooth and stable as opposed to rough and unsteady, but also whether the geo-political situation remains stable.
The major purpose of this research is to observe and understand how Russian democratic politics functions throughout the Russian Duma, as well as understanding the relationships between the myriad of party systems. However, since there are innumerable elements affecting elections and the political parties, the former is viewed as an independent valuable while the party system is seen as a dependent variable. Specifically, a holistic focus will be aimed at the various Russia political parties, instead of concentrating on one particular party. This is done to add depth and understanding.
There are total of six chapters in this thesis. The first chapter is the introduction. It discusses the research motivation, purpose, method, scope, and restriction. Also, the literature review points out other researchers' previous results regarding this topic. The second chapter introduces and classifies other democratic countries' electoral systems. In addition, it explores how the election system affects party politics in Russia. The third chapter illustrates the1993 Russian constitution and looks intensively at the previous Duma electoral system legal foundations. The fourth chapter emphasizes the 1993, 1995 and 1999 Duma election results and analyzes Russia party politics. The fifth chapter looks at how the Duma has affected the numbers of various political parties, and its influence on party competition. It provides a deeper analysis regarding the nation-state, and how the Duma electoral system affects the political party system. The sixth chapter concludes with an integrated analysis collating the various ideas, as well as raising important questions for any future research endeavor.
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