earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to categorize regional legislative bodies in the Russian Far East on the basis of their structures and political status. In this study, a special attention has been paid to dynamics of institutional changes of legislatures to meet the political challenges that arose in line with the changes in federal relations. Despite the changes in political status in general, the findings suggest that structural features of regional legislatures such as formality of general congress meetings, expanded roles of committees and commission, concentration of power in the hand of chair person seem to remain untouched. However, some progresses are also observed: division of powers between legislative and executive bodies; increasing degree of professionalized participation in the decision-making. In particular, legislatures in the Russian Far East tended to show wide range of political spectrums in the process of reform during the last decade. For instance, disparities are obvious between those in Kamchatka oblast and Khabarovsk krai. This study suggests that it may takes a considerable period of time before democratic or decentralized legislative reforms are to be completed in the Russian Far East.