The post-Soviet transition: Constitutional structuring and political reality (CIS countries case-study)

Abstract

The given article offers a political and legal analysis of the constitutions of the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States that began constructing their independent statehood after the collapse of the USSR. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of such institutions in the CIS as the parliament, presidency, courts and found out that the studied institutional features could be described as “modern traditionalism.” At the same time prevalence is given to informal political practices (clans, interest groups, and political networks) that facilitate the political process in these countries. By opposing the traditional constitutional institutions, these informal mechanisms and structures could be able to “seize the government” and cause the emergence of neopatrimonialism. The paper describes various models of the neopatrimonialism regimes which allows to depart from a simplified description of these regimes as being “authoritarian” and find new “hybrid” institutions, that accumulate both formal and informal power.