Boxing Russia Executive–Legislative Powers and the Categorization of Russia’s Regime Type

This paper1 examines the debate over the categorization of the Russian political system as “semi-presidential” (as many, especially comparativists, argue) or “super-presidential” (as perhaps the majority of Russian area experts argue). To approach a resolution of this debate, the article focuses on the interpretation of the relevant articles in the Russian constitution, presents practical comparisons with unambiguously semi-presidential systems (such as those in France and Poland), and delves into the issue of executive cohabitation between president and prime minister as the sine qua non of semi-presidentialism. To that end, the Yeltsin-Primakov dyad is examined in some detail. At its base level, the article rejects the notion that Russia since 1993 is a semi-presidential system of the French or Polish variety, since, it is argued, (1) the possibility of bona fide cohabitation is not present under Russia’s constitutional rules, (2) the Prime Minister and cabinet are ultimately not responsible to the State Duma, and (3) the Prime Minister is not president-independent. Rather, viewing Russia as essentially a super-presidential system, though not without its own problems, best captures the nature of politics in the country.