Voting for Russia's governors

"Andrew Konitzer's study tracks Russian voter behavior in two ways. First, a survey of voters and their motivations in Ul'ianovskaia Oblast offers a detailed analysis of why Russians vote the way they do. The most important finding is that voters held their governor accountable for the economic performance of their region relative to that of other regions." "Second, Konitzer examines all the elections for subnational executives in Russia between June 1996 and April 2001, assembling a database of more than 150 potentially relevant political, economic, and institutional factors. These analyses, like the intensive study of Ul'ianovskaia Oblast, show that despite a vast number of shortcomings these contests enforced a degree of accountability for economic performance."--Jacket.