Electoral Behavior in Russian Single-Industry Towns: a Comparative Analysis

The work is devoted to the problem of managing electoral politics in single-industry towns in Russia. The life of single-industry towns workers is not just connected with the city-forming enterprises by a standard contract, but depends on it, because of the habit of getting some social benefits or by financial dependence because of the absence of alternative employment. This creates a special opportunity for managing the electoral behavior of the inhabitants of single-industry towns. In addition, the single-industry towns with small exceptions are small. This simplifies monitoring how people vote. In general, electoral behavior in single-industry cities and its diversification are still not studied. However, studying the factors of electoral behavior at the municipal level makes it possible to more accurately capture the desired effect. Analysis of variation and linear regression analysis was used for the data analysis. The main results of the study are as follows: firstly, electoral behavior in single-industry towns is not homogeneous, especially the cities of the oil and gas industry and the towns of the coal and mining industries, and secondly, the high turnout in single-industry towns of the oil and gas industry is explained by the "rentier effect", while a high turnout in the single-industry towns of the coal and mining industries is associated with the strength of the administrative resource. The "rentier effect" turned out to be quite significant, however, the administrative resource, coupled with the structure of the socio-economic organization of the activities of coal mining and mining enterprises, contributes to higher results of electoral mobilization.