| Description: |
Theories of democratization emphasize the importance of political party institutionalization but there is no agreement about the meaning of the term or how it can be measured. This paper addresses both problems in the context of political party activity in Russia in the past decade. Conceptually, the paper suggests substituting the word development for institutionalization. Drawing on V.O. Key, it proposes three dimensions of party development: the party in government; the party in the electorate; and the party as organization. The criteria are then applied to Russia and data from special-purpose surveys there are utilized.
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