Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T23:01:30.111Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Did Ivan's vote matter? The political economy of local democracy in Tsarist Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

STEVEN NAFZIGER*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Williams College, [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Russia's emancipation of the serfs was accompanied by numerous other measures aimed at modernizing the Tsarist economy and society. Among these ‘Great Reforms’ was the creation of a new institution of local government – the zemstvo – which has received comparatively little attention from economic historians. This quasi-democratic form of local government played an important role in expanding the provision of public goods and services in the half-century leading up to the Russian Revolution. This article utilizes archival records and contemporary evidence to outline the zemstvo's role in Russian society and describe its political structure. The article then presents a newly collected panel data set that includes information on the allocation of political rights within the zemstvo, spending and revenue decisions by district zemstva, and a variety of other socio-economic indicators. With these data, I explore whether the electoral structure of the zemstvo allowed the newly emancipated peasantry to voice their preferences over spending levels and tax rates. I find that the district zemstvo with greater political representation from the peasantry shifted taxes away from communal property and spent more per capita, especially on education. However, these effects did not derive from a direct voting mechanism but most likely arose out of the interaction between peasant representation and more liberal elements of the noble class. This study initiates a broader research agenda into the zemstvo's place in Russian economic history and contributes to the literature on the political economy of public good provision in developing societies.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © European Historical Economics Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anon, . (1907). Zemskie vybory. Nizhegorodskaia zemskaia gazeta 17, pp. 478–80.Google Scholar
Abramov, V. F. (1996). Rossiiskoe zemstvo: ekonomika, finansyi i kul'tura. Moscow: FG ‘Nika’.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2000). Why did the West extend the franchise? Democracy, inequality, and growth in historical perspective. Quarterly Journal of Economics 115, pp. 1167–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2008). Persistence of power, elites, and institutions. American Economic Review 98 (1), pp. 267–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aidt, T. S., Dutta, J. and Loukoianova, E. (2006). Democracy comes to Europe: franchise extension and fiscal outcomes 1830–1938. European Economic Review 50, pp. 249–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alderman, H. (2002). Do local officials know something we don't? Decentralization of targeted transfers in Albania. Journal of Public Economics 82, pp. 375404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, S. E. Jr (1969). The Zemstvo as force for social and civic regeneration in Russia: a study of selected aspects 1864–1905. PhD dissertation, Clark University.Google Scholar
Andreevskii, I. E. (ed.) (1878). Zemskii ezhegodnik za 1876 god. St Petersburg: Imperial Free Economic Society.Google Scholar
Atkinson, D. (1982). The Zemstvo and the peasantry. In Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.), The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 79132.Google Scholar
Bardhan, P. and Mookherjee, D. (2006). Decentralisation and accountability in infrastructure delivery in developing countries. Economic Journal 116, pp. 101–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besley, T. et al. (2004). The politics of public good provision: evidence from Indian local governments. Journal of the European Economic Association 2 (2–3), pp. 416–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borisov, E. I. (ed.) (1895). Sistematicheskii svod postanovlenii Elisavetgradskago uezdnago zemskago sobraniia za 1865–1895 gody. Elisavetgrad: Elisavetgradskoe uezdnoe zemstvo.Google Scholar
Brandt, L. and Turner, M. A. (2007). The usefulness of imperfect elections: the case of village elections in rural China. Economics & Politics 19 (3), pp. 453–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, J. (1982). The zemstvo and the education of the people. In Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.), The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 243–78.Google Scholar
Brower, D. R. (1990). The Russian City between Tradition and Modernity, 1850–1900. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chattopadhyay, R. and Duflo, E. (2004). Women as policy makers: evidence from a randomized policy experiment in India. Econometrica 72 (5), pp. 1409–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chekhov, A. (1915). The Muzhiks. In The Kiss and Other Stories. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.Google Scholar
Dennison, T. K. (2004). Economy and society in rural Russia: the serf estate of Voshchazhnikovo, 1750–1860. D.Phil. dissertation, Cambridge University.Google Scholar
Eklof, B. (1986). Russian Peasant Schools: Officialdom, Village Culture, and Popular Pedagogy, 1861–1914. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmons, T. (1968). The Russian Landed Gentry and the Peasant Emancipation of 1861. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Emmons, T. (1983). The Formation of Political Parties and the First National Elections in Russia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.) (1982). The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ershov, G. (ed.) (1886). Pozemel'naia sobstvennost’ Evropeiskoi Rossii 1877–1878 gg., vol. 10: Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi Imperii, series III. St Petersburg.Google Scholar
Faguet, J.-P. (2004). Does decentralization increase government responsiveness to local needs? Evidence from Bolivia. Journal of Public Economics 88, pp. 867–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fallows, T. (1982). The Zemstvo and the bureaucracy, 1890–1914. In Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.), The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 177241.Google Scholar
Fallows, T. (1985). The Russian Fronde and the Zemstvo movement: economic agitation and gentry politics in the mid-1890s. The Russian Review 44, pp. 119–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frieden, N. M. (1975). Physicians in pre-Revolutionary Russia: professionals or servants of the state? Bulletin of the History of Medicine 49 (1), pp. 20–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Frieden, N. M. (1982). The politics of Zemstvo medicine. In Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.), The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 315–42.Google Scholar
Garmiza, V. V. (1957). Podgotovka zemskoi reformy 1864 goda. Moscow: Moscow University.Google Scholar
Gradovskii, A. D. [1884] (2001). Krest'ianskie vybory v glasnye uezdnykh zemskikh sobranii. In Vedeneev, Iu. A., Zaitsev, I. V. and Lugovoi, V. V. (eds.), Institut vyborov v istorii Rossii. Moscow: Norma.Google Scholar
Gregory, P. R. (1982). Russian National Income, 1885–1913. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gregory, P. R. (1994). Before Command: An Economic History of Russia from Emancipation to the First Five-Year Plan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamburg, G. (1984). Politics of the Russian Nobility, 1881–1905. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartley, J. (2006). Provincial and local government. In Lieven, D. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia, vol. 3: Imperial Russia, 1689–1917. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 449–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoch, S. (1986). Serfdom and Social Control in Russia: Petrovskoe, a Village in Tambov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ivanov, L. M. (1945). Gosudarstvennye krest'iane Moskovskoi gub. i reforma Kiseleva. Istoricheskie zapiski 17, pp. 76129.Google Scholar
Khodskii, L. V. (ed.) (1887). Zemskii ezhegodnik za 1884 god. St Petersburg: Imperial Free Economic Society.Google Scholar
Koliubakina, N. M. (ed.) (1902). Narodnoe obrazovanie, vol. 1: Sistematicheskii sbornik postanovlenii zemskikh sobranii za 35 let s raz'iasneniiami iz dokladov i gel upravy 1865–1899 gg. Novgorod.Google Scholar
Kornilov, A. A. [1906] (2001). Iz istorii voprosa ob izbiratel'nom prave v zemstvom khozhdenie zemskoi izbiratel'noi sistemy. In Vedeneev, Iu. A., Zaitsev, I. V. and Lugovoi, V. V. (eds.), Institut vyborov v istorii Rossii: istochniki, svidetel'stva sovremennikov, vzgliady issledovatelei XIX – nachala XX vv. Moscow: Norma, pp. 413–43.Google Scholar
Koroleva, N. G. (1995). Zemstvo na perelome (1905–1907 gg.). Moscow: Rossiiskaia akademiia nauk, Institut Rossiiskoi istorii.Google Scholar
Koshelev, A. (1869). Golos’ iz zemstva. Moscow: V. Got'e.Google Scholar
Krug, P. F. (1976). The debate over the delivery of health care in rural Russia: the Moscow zemstvo, 1864–1878. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 50 (2), pp. 226–41.Google ScholarPubMed
Lapteva, L. E. (1993). Zemskie uchrezhdeniia v Rossii. Moscow: Rossiiskaia akademiia nauk, Institut gosudarstva i prava,Google Scholar
Leroy-Beaulieu, A. (1893–6). The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians, trans. Ragozin, Z.. 3 vols. New York: G. P. Putnam.Google Scholar
Lilenkova, A. P. and Gudrov, B. I. (1996). Evoliutsiia politicheskikh nastroenii Nizhegorodskogo zemstva (1890–1907 gg.). In Issledovaniia po istorii Rossii. Nizhnii Novgorod, pp. 134–43.Google Scholar
Lizzeri, A. and Persico, N. (2004). Why did the elites extend the suffrage? Democracy and the Schope Fo government with an application to Britain's ‘Age of Reform’. Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, pp. 707–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lokot, T. V. (1908). Biudzhetnaia i podatnaia politika Rossii. Moscow: Tovarishchestvo I.D. Sytina.Google Scholar
Luo, R. et al. (2007). Elections, fiscal reform and public goods provision in rural China. Journal of Comparative Economics 35, pp. 583611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mamulova, L. G. (1962). Sotsial'nyi sostav uezdnykh zemskikh sobranii v 1865–1886 godakh. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta, Seriia 9: Istoriia 6, pp. 3248.Google Scholar
Manning, R. T. (1982). The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mckenzie, K. E. (1982). Zemstvo organization and role within the administrative structure. In Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.), The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 3178.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (2008). Women's suffrage, political responsiveness, and child survival in American history. Quarterly Journal of Economics 123 (3), pp. 12871327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mironov, B. (1993). Bureaucratic- or self-government: the early nineteenth century Russian city. Slavic Review 52 (2), pp. 233–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mironov, B. (2010). Wages and prices in Imperial Russia, 1703–1913. The Russian Review 69, pp. 4772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nafziger, S. (2010). Financing primary schools in late-Tsarist Russia. Working paper, Williams College.Google Scholar
Obchinnikov, V. M. (ed.) (1872). Zakony o zemskikh vyborakh. Viatka.Google Scholar
Otchety i smety Vladimirskoi gubernskoi zemskoi upravy ocherednomy gubernskomu zemskomu sobraniiu, XIX-XXI sessii (1884). Vladimir.Google Scholar
Pande, R. (2003). Can mandated political pepresentation increase policy influence for disadvantaged minorities? Theory and evidence from India. American Economic Review 93 (4), pp. 1131–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pape, C. (1979). The ‘peasant zemstva’: popular education in Vjatka Gubernija, 1867–1905. Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 27, pp. 498519.Google Scholar
Pearson, T. S. (1989). Russian Officialdom in Crisis: Autocracy and Local Self-Government, 1861–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Persson, T. and Tabellini, G. (2000). Political Economics: Explaining Economic Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Pirumova, N. M. (1977). Zemskoe liberal'noe dvizhenie. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiskoi imperii, series II and III. St Petersburg.Google Scholar
Ramer, S. C. (1982). The zemstvo and public health. In Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.), The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 279314.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. R. and Foster, A. (2003). Democratization, decentralization, and the distribution of local public goods in a poor rural economy. BREAD Working Paper, No. 010.Google Scholar
Russia. Central Archive of Nizhegorodskii Oblast’ (TsANO).Google Scholar
Russia. Departament okladnykh sborov, Ministerstvo finansov. Statisticheskiia dannyia po priamym nalogam. St Petersburg, 1883.Google Scholar
Svod dannykh o postuplenii kazennykh okladnykh sborov po imperii za desiatiletie 1888–1897 gg. St Petersburg, 1902.Google Scholar
Russia. Khoziaistvennyi departament, Ministerstvo vnutrennykh del. Materialy po zemskomu obshchestvennomu ustroistvu. 2 vols. St Petersburg, 1885–6.Google Scholar
Sbornik pravitel'stvennykh rasporiazhnii po delam, do zemskikh uchrezhdenii otnosiashchimsia. 2nd edn, 13 vols. St Petersburg, 1878–90.Google Scholar
Russia. Kommissiia dliia peresmotria sistemy podatei I sborov, 1859–1882. Priamye nalogi vol. 2, part 3: Trudy kommisii vysochaishe uchrezhdennoi dliia peresmotra sistemy podatei i sborov. St Petersburg, 1879.Google Scholar
Russia. Ministerstvo zemel i gosudarstvennogo imushchestva, otdel sel'skoi ekonomii i sel'skokhoziaistvennoi statistiki. Svod statisticheskikh svedenii po sel'skomu khoziaistvu Rossii k kontsu XIX veka, vols. 1–2. St Petersburg, 1902.Google Scholar
Russia. Statisticheskoe otdelenie, Departament okladnykh sborov, Ministerstvo finansov. Dokhody i raskhody zemstv 34-kh gubernii po smetam na 1903 [, 1906, and 1913]. Multiple vols. St Petersburg, 1908–15.Google Scholar
Russia. Tsentral'nyi statisticheskii komitet, Ministerstvo vnutrennykh del. Dokhody i raskhody gubernskikh i uezdnykh zemstv za 1883 god, series III, no. 16, Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi imperii. St Petersburg, 1886.Google Scholar
Mirskie raskhody krest'ian za 1881 god, series III, no. 13. Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi imperii. St Petersburg, 1886.Google Scholar
Sbornik svedenii po Rossii za 1883 god, series III, no. 8, Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi Imperii. St Petersburg, 1886.Google Scholar
Statisticheskiia svedeniia i izchisleniia, posluzhivshiia osnovaniem dlia opredeleniia chisla zemskikh glasnykh. St Petersburg, 1889.Google Scholar
Sbornik svedenii po Rossii za 1884–1885 gg., vol. I, Statistika Rossiiskoi Imperii. St Petersburg, 1887 [also . . .za 1890, vol. X, 1890; and . . .za 1896, vol. XL, 1897].Google Scholar
Zemskie raskhody, naznachennye po smetam i deistvitel'no proizvedennye v 1896 godu. St Petersburg, 1896.Google Scholar
[untitled] Series I, vol. 1. Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi imperii. St Petersburg, 1866.Google Scholar
Statistika zemliavladeniia 1905 g., vols. 151. St Petersburg, 1906.Google Scholar
Shakibi, Z. P. (2006). Central government. In Lieven, D. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia, vol. 3: Imperial Russia, 1689–1917. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 429–48.Google Scholar
Skalon, V. Iu. (ed.) (1888). Zemskiia dokhodnyia smety i raskladki na 1885 god. St Petersburg: Departament okladnykh sborov, Ministervo finansov.Google Scholar
Starr, S. F. (1972). Decentralization and Self-Government in Russia, 1830–1870. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Starr, S. F. (1982). Local initiative in Russa before the zemstvo. In Emmons, T. and Vucinich, W. S. (eds.), The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 530.Google Scholar
Syrnev, A. (ed.) (1888). Statistika vyborov v zemskiia uchrezhdeniia za 1883–1886 gg., vol. V: Statistika Rossiiskoi Imperii. St Petersburg.Google Scholar
Troinitskii, N. A. (ed.) (1905). Pervaia vseobshchaia perepis’ naseleniia Rossiiskoi Imperii, 1897 g., multiple vols. St Petersburg: Central Statistical Committee, Ministry of the Interior.Google Scholar
Troinitskii, N. A. (1982). The Serf Population in Russia According to the 10th National Census, trans. Herman, E.. Newtonville, MA: Oriental Research Partners.Google Scholar
Veselovskii, B. (1909–11). Istoriia zemstva za sorok let. 4 vols. St Petersburg: O. H. Popov.Google Scholar
Veselovskii, B. and Frenkel’, Z. G. (eds.) (1914). Iubileinyi zemskie sbornik, 1864–1914. St Petersburg: O. N. Popov.Google Scholar
Vestnik partii narodnoi svobody (1906). St Petersburg.Google Scholar
Wallace, D. M. (1878). Russia. 3 vols. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz.Google Scholar
Weeks, T. W. (1996). Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, J. M. (2002). Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Zakharova, L. (1968). Zemskaia kontrreforma 1890 goda. Moscow: Moscow University.Google Scholar
Zemstvo i politicheskaia svoboda (1905). In Zhurnaly komissii-sobraniia Saratovskago gubernskago zemstva (1905 g.). Paris.Google Scholar
Zhang, X. et al. (2004). Local governance and public goods provision in rural China. Journal of Public Economics 88, pp. 2857–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhurnaly Byiskago uezdnago zemskago sobraniia. ocherenaia sessiia 18–23 Marta 1874 goda. (1875). Kostroma: Uezdnaia zemskaia uprava.Google Scholar
Zhurnaly Ardatovskago uezdnago zemskago sobraniia Simbirskoi gubernii. Ocherednoi sessii 1883 g. i ekstrennykh sozyvov na 11 Ianvaria i 12 Iunia 1883 goda. (1884). Nizhii Novgorod: Roiskii and Dushin.Google Scholar