In 1989 and 1990, competitive elections were held in the Soviet Union for the first time in decades. The all-Union and republican legislatures that subsequently were convened also feature, again for the first time, open political debate, non-unanimous voting, and recorded public votes by the legislators. With the weakening of the Communist Party, ethnic cleavages have begun to be apparent in these legislatures. Whether and how the representatives of various ethnic interests are able to build effective political coalitions or form effective political parties is of extreme interest not only to the future of democracy in the Soviet Union but also to social scientific theories about legislative coalition building more generally. This research will analyze the formation and evolution of political alliances in soviet legislatures. The project will focus on the way in which ethnic cleavages become associated both with different patterns of political accommodation and confrontation, and with different patterns of party formation. Data will be collected on the voting decisions of legislators in the all-Union legislature and in the legislatures of five union republics. In addition to providing the basis for the current study, the data will provide valuable data for a variety of future studies interested in tracking the process of democratization in the Soviet Union.
