It has become common wisdom that Russia has nothing we can call a party system. No fewer than 141 "electoral associations" registered with the Ministry of Justice by December 1998, and only the Communist Party is usually seen as much more than a small, leader-centric clique of individuals with no strong roots outside of Moscow or perhaps St. Petersburg. There are strong signs, however, that a real party system is now coalescing in Russia in the run-up to the 1999 parliamentary elections. While Russia is still many years away from Western levels of party development, there is good reason to expect parties to play a much more important role in these elections than in the past, and we may even be witnessing the emergence of a relatively stable four-party system in Russia. […]
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