Public policy and elections in authoritarian regimes: evidence from the policy on native languages in Russia

Allison C. White*, Inga Saikkonen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
27 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

How might public policy changes affect electoral support for authoritarian regimes? Missing from the existing scholarship, which focuses mostly on regimes generating political budget cycles and manipulating electoral rules, is an exploration of how non-fiscal and non-electoral policies may impact incumbent support. We examine this issue with electoral and census data from one of the world's most prominent authoritarian regimes - Russia - to evaluate the regime's 2017 change to the policy governing native language instruction, which curtailed minority students' ability to learn their native languages and faced opposition in some ethnic regions. Examining panel data on presidential elections using fixed effects models, our results reveal that the regime's support decreased in titular minority areas in 2018. The results also indicate that some of these patterns emerged in previous national legislative elections and thus cannot be solely attributed to the policy change.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)427-446
JournalJournal of Public Policy
Volume43
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Sept 2023
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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