Description: This study of institutional failure in Russia's first democratic legislature claims that inadequate rules and a chaotic party system combined to make it nearly impossible for the legislature to pass a coherent legislative program, including a new constitution. It studies a peculiar form of chaos; cycling; that can exist in majority rule institutions when institutional rules are weak. It identifies cycling in an important institutional setting--the Russian national legislature--and shows that poor institutional design has important consequences for the consolidation of democracy in transitional countries.
Review Quotes: "Andrews offers a rational-choice analysis of the short-lived Russian parliament that could not finalize a new constitution and was dissolved by Yeltsin amid fighting.... Recommended." Choice