Research

Protest and Electoral Authoritarian Regimes

This research focuses on state-society relations within electoral authoritarian regimes (EARs).  Smyth has also written on the role of symbolic politics in Putin’s Russia and the role of social media and political leadership in protest and rally participation.  With funding from the Ostrom Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, she has extended this framework to study Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, Ukraine’s Euromaidan, and protests in Romania.

Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability in Non-Democratic States: Russia 2008-2020, Cambridge University Press, 2020

Urban Activism in Contemporary Russia, with Jeremy Morris and Andrey Semenov, eds, Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2021.

Constitutional Reform and the Value of Social Citizenship with Sarah Sokhey, Russian Politics, 2021 forthcoming April 2021

Russia’s 2020 Constitutional Reform: The Politics of Institutionalizing the Status-Quo, with William Pomeranz, Russian Politics, forthcoming April 2021.

Pandemic Politics in Eurasia: Roadmap for a New Research Subfield, with Marlene Laruelle, Mikhail Alexseev, Cynthia Buckley, Ralph S. Clem, J. Paul Goode, Ivan Gomza, Henry E. Hale, Erik Herron, Andrey Makarychev, Madeline McCann, Mariya Omelicheva, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Sarah Wilson Sokhey, Mikhail Troitskiy, Joshua A. Tucker, Judyth Twigg, and Elizabeth Wishnick, Problems of Post-Communism, October 2020

Disengagement, Non-Political Activism, and Anti-Regime Protest: A New Frontier in Authoritarian Research, APSA Comparative Politics Newsletter, June 2020.

Resolving the Authoritarian Dilemma: Policy Outcomes and Political Control in The Hong Kong Legislative Council  (with William Bianco and Kwan Nok Chan), Journal of Politics, 2019

Considering the Orange Legacy: Patterns of Political Participation in the Euromaidan Revolution, Post-Soviet Affairs 2018

Studying Russia’s Authoritarian Turn: New Directions in Political Research on Russia, Russian Politics, 2016 (Special Issue Editor)

Navalny’s Gamesters: Protest, Opposition Innovation, and Authoritarian Stability in Russia (with Irina Soboleva), Russian Politics, 2016

Mind the Gaps: Media Use and Mass Action in Russia (with Sarah Oates), Europe-Asia Studies, 2015

The Putin Factor:  Personalism, Protest, and Regime Stability in Russia, Politics and Policy, 2014.

Looking Beyond the Economy:  Pussy Riot and the Kremlin’s Voting Coalition (with Irina Soboleva), Post-Soviet Affairs, 2013

A Well-Organized Play: Symbolic Politics and the Effect of Pro-Putin Rallies (with Anton Sobolev and Irina Soboleva), Problems of Post-Communism, 2013​

The Art of the Possible: Institutions and Policy Outcomes

This research, with William Bianco, Christopher Kam, and Itai Sened, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), examines the influence of legislator and party preferences on political outcomes from regime transition to policy bundles.  Relying on the uncovered set (UCS), this work models the potential outcome of majority rule decision making in democracies, autocracies, and electoral authoritarian regimes from the US, to the UK, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary and Hong Kong.

“The Bicameral Roots of Congressional Deadlock: Analyzing Divided Government Through the Lens of Majority Rule,” with William Bianco, Social Science Quarterly, 2020

The Uncovered Set and its Applications (with Christopher Kam, Itai Sened, and Regina Smyth), in Elgar Handbook of Social Choice and Voting.  Jac Heckelman and Nicholas Miller, eds., Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2016.

Predicting Majority Rule: Evaluating The Uncovered Set and the Strong Point (with Jacob Bower-Bir, Nicholas D’Amico, Christopher Kam, Itai Sened, and Regina Smyth), Journal of Theoretical Politics 2015

“Party Relevance and Party Survival in New Democracies,” with William Bianco, Christopher Kam, and Itai Sened, International Area Studies Review, 2014

Explaining Transitional Representation:  The Rise and Fall of Women of Russia (with Christopher Kam, Itai Sened, and Regina Smyth), Journal of East European and Asian Studies 2011

Parliaments, Cabinets, and Uncovered Sets (with Chris Kam, Itai Sened, and Regina Smyth), American Political Science Review, 2010

Political Parties and Regime Change

Funded by IREX, NSF, and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, this work analyzes party development through the lens of relationships among voters, candidates, and party elites.  Smyth’s 2006 book, Democracy Without Foundation, explores how the lack of information and resources in the context of electoral institutions designed to preclude Communist resurgence provided disincentives for investment in party organizations.  Smyth completed a follow up study on the evolution of Russian political parties and electoral politics in collaboration with Rostislav Turovsky (HSE).  ​

Legitimising Victories: Electoral Authoritarian Control in Russia’s Gubernatorial Elections, with Rostislav Turovsky, Europe-Asia Studies, 2018

Political Preferences and Party Development in Post-Communist States, Demokratizatsia, 2012

Engineering Victory: Institutional Reform, and Formal Institutions and the Formation of a Hegemonic Party Regime in the Russian Federation (with Anna Lowry and Brandon Wilkening), Post-Soviet Affairs, 2007

Strong Partisans, Weak Parties? Party Organizations and the Development of Mass Partisanship in Russia, Comparative Politics, 2006

Building State Capacity from the Inside Out: Parties of Power and the Success of the President’s Reform Agenda in Russia, Politics and Society, 2002

Programmatic Party Cohesion in Emerging Post-Communist Democracies: Russia in Comparative Context (with Herbert Kitschelt), Comparative Political Studies, 2002