Revisiting demand, politicization and externalization in authoritarian political regimes: policy advisory system in Russian practices

ABSTRACT

This study contributes to debate on three related questions in Policy Advisory System research. Is the Policy Advisory System concept applicable in countries other than developed democracies? How does it function in a state-centred authoritarian regime? How does the authoritarian environment affect tendencies such as “politicization” and “externalization”? These questions are addressed using materials on the current Russian governance structure and advisory practices, focusing on two broadly defined “governance subsystems” in the Presidential Administration of Russia, “Political Bloc” and “Economic Bloc”, both acting as regular customers for advisory communities. One finding is the phenomenon of “Dual Demand” from the same centre of power—“stability” for “Political Bloc” and “innovation” for “Economic Bloc”—which contributed to creation of two different clusters of policy advisory agencies with different statuses. Other findings include transformation of “politicization” to policy control mechanisms and attempted “externalization” turning into the reverse—“internalization”—bringing independent advisory organizations under the supervision of government structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy advisory system
• authoritarian regime
• policy demand
• politicization
• externalization
• Russia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Nina Belayeva is Professor of Public Policy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. She received her PhD in Law and Public Policy from the Institute of State and Law of USSR Academy of Science. Her current research focuses on civil society, participation, protest publics in comparative prospective, global governance, Russian and global think tanks and analytical communities. She is teaching various aspects of human rights, conflict management and civil society influence on policy-making in comparative prospective at Bologna University, University of Turin, Science Po Grenoble and at the European Regional Master Program in Human Rights and Democratic Governance – ERMA, at the University of Sarajevo.

Notes

1 Vladimir Putin assumed duties as president of Russia on 31 December 1999—the day of resignation of the first Russian

president, Boris Yeltsin.

2 Its founders are the state educational and research institutions: NRU HSE, the Working Centre for Economic Reforms under the Government of Russia, the Institute of Economic Analysis and the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of Russia.

3 According to the Charter of the University, the founder and owner of the University’s property is the Russian Federation.

4 RANEPA was formed in compliance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 20, 2010, No. 1140.