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RIA Novosti
September 20, 2004
ELECTION REFORM: WHAT WILL RUSSIAN POLITICAL SPIN DOCTORS DO?

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti commentator Arseny Oganesyan) - The reform of the Russian power system will change the political landscape in the country. The cancellation of direct elections of regional heads and deputies from single-mandate districts will raise the personal responsibility of Vladimir Putin for the actions of his associates. Economically-wise, the reform will result in the curtailment of the election market, whose "grey volume" is at least $1 billion a year, say the experts polled by RIA.

The reaction of the Russian community of political scientists to the forthcoming radical change in the country's political life is heterogeneous. On the one hand, nobody questions the importance of preserving the territorial integrity of the country, but many worry about the future of political process in Russia.

For one, what will happen to political spin doctors? Owing to a dramatic curtailment of the election market, a large group of such doctors will have to search for other employment, fighting for a place in the sun by the principle of natural selection. The number of "grey" and "black" spin doctors, who used a standard set of primitive and sometimes openly illegal actions in order to promote their candidate, will be slashed. In fact, they must go and nobody will grieve for them.

But professional spin doctors will face broader tasks. According to Irina Nedyak, who has been organising elections at different levels since 1995, "the work of political consultants is not limited to their actions on the election market. The goal of political consulting is to make the institutes of authority more efficient."

"In the current complicated conditions, when terrorism has proclaimed a war on Russia, we need the consolidation of society, based on the citizens' understanding of the authorities' actions and trust for them, more than ever before," thinks Nedyak. "The effectiveness of the government's actions to ensure security directly depends on the legitimacy of its actions in the eyes of citizens. Modern political technologies include a wide range of methods designed to create additional channels of interaction between the citizens and the authorities. Such 'bypass' action is especially important now that the procedure for electing regional heads has been changed and a new, proportionate system of elections [to the State Duma] has been adopted. In other words, professional political consultants and spin doctors who work for strategic, rather than immediate, goals will be in demand."

At the same time, she mentioned the risks of the current political reform, which will increase the danger of de-personification of the authorities and a reduction of their responsibility to the electorate, because governors will turn from politicians into mere officials. In this case, the stability of the system will depend even more on the popularity of the incumbent president. This means that for Vladimir Putin the reform means not only the concentration of power in the executive branch, but also personal responsibility for the operation of the new regional heads and of the pro-presidential Unity party.

History knows of many cases when society delegated exceptional powers to the government in crisis situations. This happened during the rule of Churchill and Thatcher in Britain and of de Gaulle's presidency in France, etc.

In Russia, which does not have an established democratic tradition, the strengthening of the vertical power system is fraught with certain risks. But society is facing a mortal danger. Too much depends on the ability of the country to mobilise for repelling the aggression of terror to compare its actions to the established norms of Western democracy. Besides, the US, which has a long-established tradition of democracy, has deemed it possible to curtail and even violate democracy in the name of victory in the war against international terrorism.

According to Irina Nedyak, "the blow at democracy in Russia was delivered by the terrorists and not the state." A democratic state must guarantee to its citizens the right to life and to security in any region of the country, but it likewise must ensure the territorial integrity of the state.