Abstract
This article discusses the evolution of government-nonprofit relations at the regional level in Russia against the background of national-level restrictions on NGOs. Russia recently also introduced supportive policies and the article aims to trace the regional administrations’ reactions to the dual realities of the federal government’s posture towards nonprofits. Considerable variation was found in regional government-nonprofit relationships as well as deviation from national policy stances. Using a subnational comparative framework, this article addresses a gap in the literature and lays the groundwork for future cross-national comparisons of subnational variations of government-nonprofit relations in other authoritarian and hybrid political regimes.
Acknowledgements
Maria Myasnikova provided crucial research assistance, which we gratefully acknowledge. The article also greatly benefited from Susan Appe’s comments and other feedback at the 15th JCPA/ICPA-Forum Workshop at Baruch College in 2017 and insightful critiques of the four anonymous reviewers. The usual caveat applies.
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Notes on contributors
Stefan Toepler
Stefan Toepler is Associate Professor of Nonprofit Studies in the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. From 2014 to 2016, he was also a Leading Research Fellow in the Center for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. His research on nonprofits and philanthropy is frequently internationally comparative in nature.
Ulla Pape
Ulla Pape is a post-doc researcher at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on civil society development and social policy in Russia and Europe.
Vladimir Benevolenski
Vladimir Benevolenski is a Leading Research Fellow at the Center for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation. His published research includes economic dimensions of the Russian nonprofit sector and international comparative studies of cross-sectoral cooperation in the delivery of social services.