The fall of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc has been covered in print to an almost exhaustive degree. However, there has been very little written that focuses on the regions of the former Soviet Union, or on the Russian Federation itself. This book builds on Cameron Ross' earlier work, Regional Politics in Russia, by combining theoretical perspectives with empirical work, to provide a comparative analysis of the electoral systems, party systems, and governmental systems in the ethnic republics and regions and to assess the impact of these different institutional arrangements on democratization and federalism.