Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability

Regina Smyth is Associate Professor of Political Science at Indiana University. She previously authored Candidate Strategies and Electoral Competition in the Russian Federation: Democracy without Foundation (2006). She has also written articles for Politics and Society, Comparative Politics, and Comparative Political Studies, as well as non-academic outlets including PONARS, Monkey Cage, and The Conversation.

• 1. Elections, Protest, and Hybrid Regime Dynamics; 2. Winning Hybrid Elections: Organized Opposition, Incumbent Regimes, and The Threat of Popular Engagement; 3. The Long Game: Inter-Election Efforts to Shape Electoral Victories; 4. The Unexpected Power of Weak Opposition: Organizations, Frames, and Political Opportunities; 5. The Vote Protest: State, Opposition, and Voters in Russian Elections; 6. The Polls Close And Two Movements Emerge; 7. Protest and Rally Dynamics: A National Conversation Over Russia's Future; 8. The Perpetual Campaign: Regime Response and Opposition Innovation; 9. 2018-2020: Competition and Contestation.

'Smyth's book is a masterful dissection of the dynamics of regime-society interactions in one of the world's largest hybrid regimes. To unpack political survival and opposition resilience, Smyth takes the reader through meticulously researched evidence of constant adjustment of authoritarian regime and opposition behaviour in Russia. The rapid, strategic and tactical institutional and information updating and shifts in regime-opposition tactics problematise widespread assumptions about the essence of Russia's political regime in any given electoral cycle. A tour de force. This book should be on the shelf of any scholar of comparative politics grappling with the question of resilience of both regime and oppositional society in XXI century authoritarian polities.' Tomila Lankina, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science