Lyubarev, A.E. Is the quantity of members of the party an indicator of its social support?

Abstract: Since the Federal Law “On Political Parties” provides a necessary criterion for a political party to have 45 000 members and no less than 450 members in each of at least the half of the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation, the author discusses the issue of whether the number of members of the party indicates its social support. The author notes, that the requirements are based by political and not legal arguments, and shows, that provided the proportional election system with “closed” party lists, the political parties, which unite a variety of people and have comparative large number of members fail to represent the will and interests of their electorate. Taking the State Duma elections of 2007 as an example, the author shows that quantity of the parties and their regional divisions have little to do with the support of these parties in the elections.

Keywords: