Federalism and Centralisation of Power: Political Institutions in Non-Typical Federations: Cases of Russia and Venezuela

Despite the fact that in the world there are only twenty-four federations, there are many cases of use of certain elements of federalism, when we talk about the application of the best practices of federalism in unitary states and supranational entities. On the one hand, we can speak about decentralization in the unitary states and at the same time, there is a downside to centralization even in sustainable federations. So in non-democratic political regimes the legal framework of federalism are distorted, which leads to centralization. This issue is relevant for Russia and Venezuela. This research consists of three chapters. The first chapter consists of three paragraphs. In the first paragraph, I address the concept of federalism. Modern trends in the development of federalism in the world: decentralized vs. centralization of power. The second paragraph will consider the presence or absence of a link between federalism and democratization. In addition, there will be paid attention to "defective" democracies. In the third paragraph political institutions would be considered, which are divided into formal institutions and informal practices. In the second and third chapters, will be paid attention to two cases: Russia and Venezuela. I discuss whether there is a trend opposite to the world, towards centralization of power. It will be investigated how stable the Federal model in these two "quasi federations" what is the role of political institutions. In particular, the second chapter will be considered formal political institutions, while the third - informal practices.