Parliamentary communication. The case of the Russian Gosduma

Abstract

This study attempts to capture the characteristics of parliamentary debates in the Russian State Duma (Gosduma) according to the following criteria: quality of data (e.g. editorial specifics of the transcripts), turn-taking system, forms of address, internet communication and TV coverage. The comparison of the Russian findings with the British Hansard Report reveals a striking contrast: the Russian data manifests a far broader range of variation in many respects, which is obviously due to much more liberal or even completely lacking regulations.It seems to be a fair assumption that these diverging attitudes can be partly explained by the different prestige of both institutions in their respective societies:in particular, as can be seen in numerous examples quoted, the Gosduma resents the lack of attention, if not the disrespect it experiences from government representatives, television, as well as the broad public.