The article analyses various aspects of impact that elections produce on political institutions. In includes “ritual” function of elections which produce a political nation, legitimation of all political institutions and professional political class. Another function is representation of citizens in the political domain by virtue of intermediary political institutions. Yet another, is building a system of checks and balances and conflict management. Besides, the article discusses the problem of accountability of elected officials and the phenomenon of modern populism and other new trends in relations between parties and voters. The concluding chapter briefly touches upon the specific features and effects of elections in the Russian political system.

The paper fills gaps in the research agenda of the international electoral standards studies. Election standards are considered as a phenomenon of electoral governance and an advanced institution of global governance as well. The main trends in the development of electoral standards are revealed, the change in their role and importance for electoral governance is described. Two main stages in the history of the development of international electoral standards have been identified. The article argues that at the present stage of development of electoral standards since the end of the 20th century, the scope of electoral standards has expanded to all major components of electoral governance. The processes of detailing and specifying election standards have led to a hierarchization and greater practical orientation of international norms for organizing and conducting elections. At the present stage, electoral standards go beyond the framework of international law; NGOs and international intergovernmental organizations play a crucial role in their development and promotion.

In 2016 and 2018 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) launched the first in Russia electoral prediction market to forecast the election outcome for the State Duma and President. The paper compares effectiveness of this market to forecasts based on public opinion polls. It demonstrates that prediction markets performed quite well at the national level but are not efficient enough at the regional level where there are no publicly available polls.

The article analyses how perception of election fairness influences the turnout under authoritarianism. It is argued that the perceived relative fairness of elections facilitates voter turnout in contemporary authoritarian regimes. However, strong party organisation and/or media control make highly authoritarian regimes capable of increasing voter turnout irrespective of the level of fairness of elections. A combination of relatively fair elections with greater degrees of authoritarianism tends to decrease voter turnout by making it more possible that opposition-minded voters will employ a protest strategy of rational abstention. The impact of different components of the fairness of elections upon voter turnout depends on the voters’ ability to observe and understand different varieties of electoral malpractice.

The article analyses the phenomenon of political absenteeism: theoretical approaches, hypotheses, typology, concepts. Manifestations of the electoral absenteeism in local elections of so called «three Russias» are studied. The low absenteeism in settlements of the «third Russia» has been discovered. The causes and types of absenteeism in different types of settlements are investigated.

The article analyses the public speeches of Russian governors during the 2018 presidential campaign as an instrument of the electoral governance. The analysis allows to detect the most commonly-used formats, themes, rhetorical constructions and ideologems of such management, as well as settings used by governors in order to increase turnout. It is argued that the government management of electoral participation was aimed at the formation of a universal «political identity» of an «average Russian voter», which impeded the development of partisan ideological identification in Russia.

Article is devoted to the analysis of the Russian party system through a prism of the 2018 presidential election. The comparative analysis of presidential elections in various electoral cycles shows changes in the character of candidates and parties’ relations. Till 2004 candidates often did not use party support, then it became the guarantee of the access to elections. In the 2018 election, the incumbent was nominated as an independent candidate - but with the support of the «party of power». The 2018 election are very close to the 2004 one by the dual status of the incumbent, the list of participants, the level of the competition and the electoral results. The analysis of electoral statistics helped to define the general tendencies of the 2018 election: the abrupt rise in the turnout, the low level of the competition demonstrated by the effective number of candidates, the decrease in absolute numbers of voting for all party candidates, except of P. Grudinin. These tendencies are confirmed by voting data in the Siberian Federal District, although some regions (Kemerovo oblast and Tyva) gave abnormal results which can be explained presumably by using administrative resource. Results of the research point out the personalistic character of the political regime and the decrease in the electoral efficiency of party leaders as system problems of the Russian political parties.

This paper discusses the success factors of self-nominees at the municipal elections in Russia. Based on the data from the 2014-2018 elections to the representative bodies of Russia’s regional administrative centers, it is shown that the electoral performance of independent candidates was directly dependent on their bargains with local branches of United Russia. We also discovered a connection between the electoral success of self-nominated candidates and a number of their personal characteristics, in particular, an incumbent status, a high level of education, and the presence of administrative, social or economic capital at their disposal.

The article analyzes the distribution of mandates in regional elections in Russia. The main methods for distribution of mandates are discussed: Hare - Niemeyer, d’Hondt, Imperiali and Tyumen ones, as well as their qualities and their using. It is shown that in the second half of the 2000s and early 2010s regional legislation passed from the quotas method of Hare - Niemeyer to the methods of divisors: in most regions to the Tyumen method, in fewer ones to the method of Imperiali. The empirical data prove that this methods (especially the Imperiali one) give advantages to a leader party and distort the proportionality of the mandates' distribution.

The article analyses models and determinants of electoral behavior of young people in the Russian regions in the electoral cycle of 2016-2018. The predominance of the model of electoral absenteeism among young voters has been confirmed. Two kinds of absenteeism have been revealed: sustainable, associated with the desire to avoid the responsibility for the country and their own future, and situational. The basic conviction of young people in the need for elections as an element of the political process collides with the disappointment in elections, parties and candidates, as well as the closed nature of political lifts and the inability to implement socio-political initiatives. The article explains ineffectiveness of the measures taken to overcome youth absenteeism by a low level of confidence in socio-political institutions and by the lack of interest on the part of the state and other political actors in the overall increase in civil and political activity of this social group.

The article examines the issue of the political space in the context of globalization. The focus is on the postmodern reconceptualization of the characteristic global when related to the modern political space. The study encompasses the typical for the postmodern methodology combination of special approaches, namely: transnational, communicative, network, and actor ones. New parameters for the modern political space analysis have been proposed. It is revealed that the postmodern paradigm articulates the global political space as an ambivalent metaphorical term, which characterizes the world political process inconsistency under the conditions of globalization: its integrity and irregularity, universality and adherence to pluralism, progressivity and discontinuity, a complex mix of opportunities and constraints.

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of Food Regime, which is little-known in the Russian academic reference. A versatile demonstration of the functional specificity of the concept was performed. The theoretical and methodological basis of the concept was subjected to critical analysis. The conceptual impact of the four paradigms of international political economy - neo-realism, neo-liberalism, neo-Marxism and constructivism - on the epistemological structure Food Regime was revealed. The author comes to conclusion that the concept represents a successful attempt to accomplish paradigm integration and interdisciplinary synthesis.