Populism and political development in hybrid regimes: Russia and the development of official populism
| Author | Sarah Milne,Neil Robinson |
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512117697705 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512117697705
International Political Science Review
2017, Vol. 38(4) 412 –425
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512117697705
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Populism and political
development in hybrid regimes:
Russia and the development of
official populism
Neil Robinson
University of Limerick, Ireland
Sarah Milne
University of Limerick, Ireland
Abstract
Hybrid regimes like electoral authoritarianism blend elements of democratic and non-democratic political
practices. Hybrid regimes can develop from populism or can themselves develop populism to explain and
justify their democratic shortcomings. Where the latter occurs, populism is a tool of regime stabilisation
rather than a form of ‘populism in power’. Moving from using some populist themes to assist regime
stabilisation to official populism requires the development of populist discourse to a point where it becomes
definitional of what constitutes the relationship between state and society. The paper uses the example of
Russia to discuss the uses of populism in a hybrid regime. Populist rhetoric has been used by the Putin regime
since the mid-2000s, but was initially balanced by other discourses. This changed during the 2011–2012
electoral cycle as a conservative-traditional populist discourse was deployed that redefined political agency
and the relationship of the state to Russian society.
Keywords
Russia, Putin, hybrid regime, populism, conservative-traditionalism
Introduction
Populist resurgence across the globe has led to renewed interest in what happens when populists
are in power. The emerging literature on populists in power focusses on what happens when a
populist movement or party takes power through the ballot box, and on the reactions to such take-
overs and the possibility of domestic and external actors mediating and moderating populist action
Corresponding author:
Neil Robinson, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick, Limerick, V94 T9PX Ireland.
Email: neil.robinson@ul.ie
697705IPS0010.1177/0192512117697705International Political Science ReviewRobinson and Milne
research-article2017
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