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Perception of Subnational Unit’s Status in the Rhetoric of Russian Governors: the Case of Republics

Student: Iuzbekova Karina

Supervisor: Andrey Starodubtsev

Faculty: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences

Educational Programme: Comparative Politics of Eurasia (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2020

The idea of uniqueness and specialty of the republics’ status in system of federal relations in Russian Federation originated in the 1990s – decentralization period – when the republics were indeed endowed with a special position and authority. Since then, the concept of the special status of the republic in Russia has become an axiom, which is usually used without substantiated arguments. However, the fact that such a long period of time has passed requires a comprehensive analysis of the current normative and positivist image of the republics within the Russian Federation. And considering that now these two approaches – normative and positivist – are in contradiction with each other, the task becomes more challenging. The main idea of this study is to analyze this particular contradiction and in order to do that it is suggested to look at the rhetoric of the heads of the republics and to find out how the Russian republic’s status is interpreted in the rhetoric of Russian governors and if their interpretation is different from the one officially enshrined in the Constitution or other normative acts. The study is based on the institutional theory as well as on the theory of federalism. The analysis of the theory of political discourse is provided too as the rationale for the selection of this methodological framework of research. The sample for the empirical part of the research, which implies analysis of the rhetoric of Russian governors, includes all 22 republics of Russia. Speeches by heads of republics on the occasion of Republic Day and Constitution Day from 2000 to 2019 are used as data for analysis.

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