The Political Strategies of "Opposition" Governors: Comparative Analysis

The phenomena of “opposition” governors winning the direct elections against the incumbent has become the burning issue in modern Russian political reality. However, less attention has been given to the problem of in-depth study of the opposition governors’ strategies after the elections. The purpose of this study is to reveal the Features of the political strategies of Russian governors who are not members of United Russia. Using data collected from Central election commission of the Russian Federation, this paper explores the number of indicators which are supposed to describe the set of practices that the governor uses to continue his powers. In order to compare different political strategies, the comparative analysis and case study will be conducted. The results suggest is that the main parameter that determined the success or failure of the governor are his party membership, and not his financial policy or backroom arrangements. This study also identifies that Coming to power through elections contributes to the information openness of governors. We conclude by making recommendations for future research using more variables to compare.