Putin, partiet och processen : Stigberoende i Rysslands resa mot elektoral autokrati

Sammanfattning: The aim of this paper is to study the course of events that led up to the 2021 legislation which allows Russian president Vladimir Putin to continue his presidential term until 2036. Based on the theoretic framework of historic institutionalism, the paper uses path dependence as the tool of analysis for the study. Using said tool, the paper aims to contribute to contemporary research on autocratization and provide new explanatory factors on what autocratization processes might look like. As such, the overall aim of the paper is to, with the aid of historical institutionalism and path dependence, explain the how’s and why’s in the autocratization process in Russia. By combining said analytic tool with a textual analysis methodology, the study finds distinct signs of path dependence during the time period studied.