Some observations on the role of political parties in the system of state and local authorities in Russian regions

The paper is devoted to the study of the role of political parties at the regional and local political level from the point of view of activist theoretical model. The author discusses the shifting of the main focus of the study from the processes of conquest and retention of the political authority to the functioning of the state and its communication with the community in the process of resolving the specific social and economic problems. The author also analyses the activity of political parties in the regions, their interaction with the authorities, civil society and citizens initiative, that are initiated by them. The empirical basis of the analysis is the data collected by the author during the research, which was held in 2013-2014 in several regions of Russia. The author claimed that the political life in Russian regions is determined not by institutions, but by actors and that the success of any political party is determined by the ability to cooperate with them.