Location and political influence: A further elaboration of their effects on voting in recent Russian elections

This essay explores voting patterns in the,1996 and 2000 presidential elections and the 1999 Duma elections in the search for evidence of political boss influence on rayon-level election returns. Extending a previous study, we show how a change in two assumptions-that regional governors were at best neutral in their support of Yel'tsin in 1996 rather than in full support, and that their influence is greater on average in outlying rayons than in regional centers-brings various patterns in the data from all three elections in line with the hypothesis that part of the observed correlation between reform and voting patterns in the 1996 election should be attributed to political boss influence.