INTERACTION EFFECTS IN MIXED-MEMBER ELECTORAL SYSTEMS: EVIDENCE FROM RUSSIA’S FEDERAL PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
The article studies interaction effects in the election to the State Duma of the 7th convocation: 1) the influence of personal voting (in terms of incumbency, electoral experience and popularity of candidates) and extensive nomination of candidates in single-member districts (SMD) on the PR-tier results; 2) ‘necessary’ split-voting caused by the absence of the candidate from the favorite party in a SMD. The analysis has revealed that personal characteristics of candidates such as incumbency and electoral experience are only relevant in the case of A Just Russia. However, regarding non-parliamentary parties, it has been revealed that the strategy ‘to nominee as many candidates as possible’ has a positive effect on the list results. The analysis also demonstrates that the ‘necessary’ split-voting is determined by the ‘authorities - (non-systemic) opposition’ cleavage, when United Russia, on the one hand, and Civic Platform and PARNAS, on the other hand, receive these split tickets.