Perspectives of development of the two-party political system in the subjects of the Russian Federation

The article pays special attention to the development of the electoral system in the regions of Russia. They note that the laws adopted in the early 2000s in most cases approved the use of a mixed electoral system in regional parliamentary elections. Regional parliaments were required to be formed at least 50% using a proportional electoral system, while the remaining part was to be elected using a majoritarian system. Changes to Russian legislation in 2013 led to the proportion of deputies elected by proportional representation being reduced to 25%, and by the end of 2021, regions could potentially transition entirely to a majoritarian system. The authors hypothesized that considering Duverger's law, this trend could contribute to regions transitioning to a two-party system. Taking these circumstances into account, the authors calculated the effective number of political parties in those regions that predominantly adopted the majoritarian system in parliamentary elections, using the Laakso-Taagepera index.