Is economic reform popular at the polls? Russia 1995

This paper provides evidence that Russian regions that experienced greater reforms, e.g,, small-scale privatization and price liberalization, through Autumn 1995 exhibited greater support for reform in the December 1995 parli amentary elections. This positive association is not easily dismissed as a spurious result caused by regional differences in urbanization, economic gr owth, education attainment. wage arrears, natural resource endowments, or p overty rates. It is also not easily dismissed as a coincidence driven by th e fact that some regions were inherently pro-reform because it remains afte r holding constant the region's vote for Yeltsin in the 1991 elections. Usi ng republic status (measuring administrative autonomy) as an instrument for privatization supports the interpretation that reform itself caused electo ral support for reform. Overall. the evidence supports the view that reform s created a positive feedback through the ballot box, rather than the alter native hypothesis that reforms created a backlash against reforms. as many observers feared when formulating transition strategy in the early 1990's. (C) 2001 Academic Press.