Localization of Ethnic Groups in the Regions as a Factor in Cross-Regional Variations in Voting for United Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-153
Author(s):  
Eleonora Minaeva ◽  
Petr Panov

Abstract In the context of electoral authoritarianism, political mobilization is likely to be a more reasonable explanation of cross-regional variations in voting for the party of power than the diversity of the regions’ policy preferences. In the Russian Federation, the political machines which coordinate various activities aimed at mobilizing people to vote for United Russia demonstrate different degrees of effectiveness. This article examines the structural factors that facilitate machine politics focusing on ethnic networks. Although strong ethnic networks are more likely to arise if the members of an ethnic group live close to each other, and at the same time separately from other ethnic groups, so far researchers have neglected to consider the localization of ethnic groups within the territory of an administrative unit as a factor. In order to fill the gap, we have created an original geo-referenced dataset of the localization of non-Russian ethnic groups within every region of the Russian Federation, and developed special GIS (geographic information systems) techniques and tools to measure them in relation to the Russian population. This has made it possible to include the localization of ethnic groups as a variable in the study of cross-regional differences in voting for United Russia. Our analysis finds that the effect of non-Russians’ share of the population on voting for UR increases significantly if non-Russian groups are at least partially geographically segregated from Russians within a region.

Author(s):  
D. Naranova

To consider the main directions and extent of influence of ethical groups on political processes in the Republic of Kalmykia.The authors analyzed scientific research on the ethnic identity of the Kalmyk people, as well as media materials and statistical data on the cause and effect of the influence of ethnic groups on regional policy. Seven key areas of influence of the Kalmyks, as a titular nation, on political processes in the region, including through the formation of an ethnic majority among senior positions in the authorities of the subject of the Russian Federation, were identified. The theoretical significance of the study is due to the complex systematization of facts about the influence of the ethnodominating nation of the Republic of Kalmykia on political processes in the region. The practical significance is expressed in the proposal of specific recommendations for partial stabilization of the situation in the Republic.


Adeptus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Maksimowska

A “zoo” and “mock-up”: On the most frequent ways of portraying BirobidzhanThe article analyses the most common ways of depicting Birobidzhan by journalists, bloggers, film-makers and writers. Established in 1934, The Jewish Autonomous Region is an administrative unit within the Russian Federation. Foreign visitors and visitors from other parts of Russia usually perceive it as “exotic”, “funny”, “absurd”, “grotesque” or “artificial”. Its history is seen as a “failure”, especially when compared to Israel. In various representations, the notion of “utopia” is used in a very narrow, negative sense of “unrealistic pipe dream”. This orientalisation results in the objectification of local residents and delegitimisation of their practices of making sense of the region's history. „Zoo” i „makieta”. O dominujących sposobach pisania o BirobidżanieW artykule przeanalizowane zostały najczęstsze sposoby opisywania Birobidżanu przez dziennikarzy, blogerów, filmowców i pisarzy. Utworzony w 1934 r. Żydowski Obwód Autonomiczny wciąż istnieje jako jednostka administracyjna w ramach Federacji Rosyjskiej. Zazwyczaj traktowany jest przez odwiedzających z innych części Rosji lub z zagranicy jako „egzotyczny”, „śmieszny”, „absurdalny”, „groteskowy” czy „sztuczny”. Jego historia postrzegana jest jako „porażka”, zwłaszcza w porównaniu z historią Izraela. Autorzy rozmaitych przedstawień Birobidżanu posługują się także koncepcją „utopii” w jej zawężonym, negatywnym rozumieniu, jako „nierealnej mrzonki”. Orientalizacja Żydowskiego Obwodu Autonomicznego przyczynia się do uprzedmiotowienia jego mieszkańców i delegitymizowania ich praktyk nadawania sensu historii regionu.


1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-353
Author(s):  
Fran Markowitz

Ever since the late 1960s, when Fredrik Barth urged us to move away from the idea that ethnicity is constituted by “cultural stufT and to focus instead on the boundary that demarcates groups, anthropologists (and their perhaps more radical half-siblings in cultural studies) have cast into doubt the primordial or essentialist nature of ethnic groups, to say nothing of ethnic identity. Earlier studies focused on the groups themselves—how they display and are constrained by their identity as immigrants, minorities, ethnics, “persistent peoples,” and even “marginal men” (sic)—while more recent investigations have taken up the “borderlands” where groups meet, confront each other (Rosaldo; Rouse), and become zones of hybridized cultural production (Bhabha). In a related vein, ethnicity is also explored as one of many possible intersections of power and culture, and ethnic identity becomes a crazy-quilt of namings and “being-called” (Probyn 25). Indeed, Stuart Hall informs us that “identities are never unified, and in late modem times, increasingly fragmented and fractured, never singular but multiply constructed across different, often intersecting and antagonistic discourses, practices and positions” (4, emphasis added).


2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Kupiszewski ◽  
Dorota Kupiszewska ◽  
Zuzanna Brunarska

Author(s):  
Viktoriia Viktorovna Filippova

The subject of this research is displacement of the indigenous small-numbered peoples in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation neighboring with Yakutia. The object is the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North residing in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, Zabaykalsky Krai, Amur Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Magadan Oblast, and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. These constituent entities of the Russian Federation have contiguous territories with the Sakha Republic. The author examines the displacement and size of the indigenous population of the regions of the Russian Federation neighboring with Yakutia. Special attention is given to clarification of the places of traditional dwelling of the indigenous small-numbered peoples in the aforementioned regions of the Russian Federation. It is established that the following ethnic groups reside in the territory contiguous to Yakutia: Dolgans, Evenks, Evens, Yukaghirs and Chukchi. The areas of residence of the listed ethnic groups border with the areas of settlement of the corresponding indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North in the territory of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The author’s special contribution lies in the analysis of displacement and size of the indigenous population in the regions of the Russian Federation neighboring with Yakutia on the local level. The novelty of consists in the territorial analysis of the places of traditional dwelling of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-378
Author(s):  
Svetlana S. Shlyakhova

The article is devoted to the perception and verbalization of somatic (bodily) codes of culture in the conditions of bilingualism and biculturalism. The ability of Komi-Permian bilinguals to identify somatic codes of their culture was revealed. The experiment was conducted in the form of an individual questionnaire in the Komi-Permyak district of the Perm region of the Russian Federation. The experimental material was created using the method of generalized portrait. Two images of real girls (Komi-Permyak and Russian) were superimposed on each other with the help of Face Morph program. “Artificial” person is obtained as a result, which combines somatics representatives of two non-related ethnic groups (Indo-European and Finno-Ugric). Three images (Russian, Komi-Permyak and “artificial” faces) were presented to respondents. It is established that the Komi-Permians recognize faces somatic code well. In the conditions of bilingualism and biculturalism somatic codes of culture in the consciousness of Komi-Perm change more slowly than in Russian. 62% of Komi-Permyaks choose the face of their ethnic group. The Komi-Permians “artificial” person likes least of all (9% of respondents). 29% of the Komi-Perm choose Russian face. Interpretation of the code is a subjective process and often depends on personal perception in the control groups of Russians. Russians choose an “artificial” person is 4 times more often than the Komi-Permians. Choose more often (52%), Komi-Permyatskiy face the Russians, who constantly live in the Permian Komi district. Russians who are not affected by Komi-Permyak culture choose Komi-Permyak face in 42% of cases. Russians Komi-Perm district choose the Russian face 6 times less likely (8,7%) than  face of Komi-Permyaks (52%). Komi-Permians choose a Russian face 3 times more often (29%) than the Russians themselves. The analysis of verbal responses showed that the physicality in the minds of the Komi-Perm with mental and moral characteristics, not physical. These characteristics are actual bodily identifiers for the Komi-Permians.


2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry E. Hale

Why would elites or masses in an ethnically distinct region ever opt for “alien rule” over national independence? While separatist movements tend to create the most drama and make the most headlines, mass media and most scholarly accounts pay far less attention to ethnic groups opting to stay in a union state dominated by other groups. Yet such unionist groups are surely more numerous than the separatist ones. Indeed, in the neighborhood of almost every separatist region in a given multi-ethnic state, one can find one or more unionist groups, such as the Yoruba during Nigeria's Biafran Civil War, the Ingush as Chechnya battled the Russian Federation, and the Kannadigas at the peak of Kashmir's struggle for independence from India. Sometimes, unionist groups advocate political integration despite seeming to have every reason to seek secession. Such groups are neglected by analysts only at great cost, because it is precisely these groups that are likely to hold the key to understanding how distinct groups can come to live together in peace.


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