Factors of Voters' Political Preferences in Regional Elections in 2010: Comparative Analysis

Despite the fact that the procedure of Russian elections has been existed for 26 years, the analysis of the results of many elections are still unexplored. Analysis of the voting results assumes to investigate what factors influence the voters' behavior seeing as electoral behavior is an integral part of the political and electoral process. Today, there is a number of traditional approaches to the study of electoral behavior: social, socio-psychological and rational-instrumental. However, until now it is still unknown which approach "works" and can be applied to the Russian practices. What motivates the voters when choosing one or another political party - the impact of social environment, party identification and the charisma of the leader, or economic facilities associated with estimation of their own standard of living and the country's one as a whole? In this study it is necessary to conclude what concept is prevalent in the study of the behavior of russian voters in regional elections to regional legislatures in the period from 2010 to 2014. Econometric models using the method of multiple regression and two-stage least squares (2SLS) were built to study the influence of the most important factors. The indicators were selected on the basis of existing concepts. If these concepts can not be applied to Russian practices research, the regional elections could be a starting point for constructive criticism of traditional theories, which in fact claim to be universal to use.