Th e following paper deals with the issue of the Russian administrative reform of the 2000s. Th e subject of analysis is the relationship between the extent of inclusivity in the reform process and its outcomes. To study this relationship we start by focusing on the federal stage of the reform's design, outlining institutions, involved actors and their strategies. We claim that due to the closed nature of the reform, its offi cial Conception was highly incoherent. Following this, we turn our attention to the implementation of the reform in the Russian regions. We illustrate this process by outlining one case of the reform in the Republic of Karelia, based on interviews with representatives of bureaucracy, civil society and the expert community. Here we also demonstrate that greater engagement by interested groups results in better implementation of reform. Th en we introduce simple regression to trace the relationship between two major directions of administrative reform -one based on the new public management idea of cost effi ciency and the other grounded in the public governance call for greater community participation. Our model shows that these directions are hugely contradictory due to the logical incoherent Conception of the reform. We suggest some possible solutions to deal with this problem to some extent, which will require an even broader set of actors involved in the reform process. Th erefore, looking at examples from the federal and regional dimensions of the Russian administrative reform, we argue that a more open regime within a policy subsystem with a broader circle of participating actors will lead to a more coherent content of policy change and better implementation of the initial conception.
The article discusses the global and Russian experience in the development of various approaches for the influence of society on the budgetary process. These are the participation of public organizations in the discussion of the regional or city budget (public budgeting) and the distribution of a small share of the budget by the boards of residents (participatory budgeting). The experience of the project “A budget that can be understood and influenced”, implemented by the St. Petersburg Humanitarian and Political Science Center “Strategy”, is briefly presented in the article. The foreign and domestic experience of another related approach for the civic participation in the activities of the authorities - the participatory design of urban space - is analyzed. In case of municipal formations of St. Petersburg, the authors analyze the reasons why municipal deputies choose not participatory budgeting, but participatory design while seeking ways of civic inclusion in decision-making. Expert interviews were conducted with deputies of four municipalities of St. Petersburg, and the cognitive mapping method was used to analyze the texts of the interviews. The reasons for deputies to make such a choice appeared to be the vagueness of the normative support for participatory budgeting, which increased the risk of intervention of the prosecutor's office, disagreements among deputies in municipal councils, as well as obstacles with the availability of expert support. The article discusses the problems of developing an ecosystem of public participation in the government activities.
The article examines the creation of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation (CCRF) and the evolution of its activities in the context of the social-political evolution in Russia during the last fifteen years. The Civic Chamber activities are analyzed using the authors’ conception of mediator-institutes. The Chambers’ activities are normatively based on three federal laws, therefore it is a serious element of the paternalistic model of interaction between the government and society in Russia. The gradual change of balance between ‘active’ and ‘loyal’ members of CCRF towards the ‘loyal’ part is noticed. This shift is a result of changes in the political regime as well as changes in the chambers’ membership. During the last seven years half of its composition is formed from the representatives of Civic Chambers of the subjects of the Russian Federation, who passed through double control for loyalty.
The basic directions of contemporary research in the field of public policy are the subject of analysis. The experience of World and Russian public policy research is analyzed. The concepts of governance, political cycles, policy learning, advocacy coalition, multiple streams, boundary organizations are in the focus of analysis, as well as digital participation. In field of Russian researches network public policy, municipal public policy, concept of mediator institutes as well as influence of digitalization are subject of analysis. The institutional basement for public policy development (university chairs and research committee of Russian Political Science association) are object for analysis also.
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