The Hows and Whys of Reforming Russian Federalism

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This article is the republished version of:

The Hows and Whys of Reforming Russian Federalism

Notes

English translation © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2018 “Kontrapunkt.” “Zachem i kak reformiruiut rossiiskii federalizm,” Kontrapunkt, 2018, no. 11, pp. 1-8.

Translated by Lucy Gunderson. Translation reprinted from Russian Politics and Law, vol. 56, nos. 3-6. DOI: 10.1080/10611940.2019.1784624.

1. See, for example, N.M. Dobrynin, Noyi federalzsm: model’ budushchego gosudarstvennogo ustroistva Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2003).

2. See B. Grewal and P. Sheehan, “The Evolution of Constitutional Federalism in Australia: An Incomplete Contracts Approach,” CSES Working Paper, November 2003, no. 2; A. Benz “German Dogmatism and Canadian Pragmatism? Stability and Constitutional Changes in Federal Systems,” Polis, 2008, no. 65.

3. E. Gibson, ed. Federalism and Democracy in Latin America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).

4. See, for example, M. Govinda Rao and N. Singh, “Federalism in India: Political Economy and Reform,” Conference on “India: Ten Years of Economic Reform” at the William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan, September 2011.

5. R.H. Russell, Constitutional Odyssey (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004); N. Behnke, “Föderalismusreform in Deutschland, der Schweiz und Österreich,” in Föderalismusreform in Deutschland. Bilanz und Perspektiven im internationalen Vergleich, ed. J.V. Blumenthal and S. Bröchler (Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 2012), pp. 37–58; D. Braun, “Verfassungsänderung trotz vieler Veto-Spieler: Föderalismusreform in der Schweiz,” in Jahrbuch für Handlungs- und Entscheidungstheorie, ed. T. Bräuninger, S. Shikano, and J. Behnke (Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag 2009), pp. 87–118.

6. G. William and K. David, “21st Century Federalism: Proposals for Reform,” Center for Effective Public Management at Brookings, January 17, 2014 (available at https://www.brookings.edu/research/21stcentury-federalism-proposals-for-reform/; accessed January 30, 2018).

7. H. Bronwyn, “Schooling Federalism: Evaluating the Options for Reforms,” Melbourne School of Government, August 2015 (available at http://bespoke-production.s3.amazonaws.com/msog/assets/b4/19b510db6d11e58244af312943873d/MSoGSchoolingReform5.pdf; accessed January 30, 2018).

8. N. Behnke and S. Kropp, “Arraying Institutional Layers in Federal reforms: Lessons from the German Case,” Regional and Federal Studies, October 2016, vol. 26, pp. 585–602.

9. Op. cit.

10. I. Busygina, “Governors in the Federated System of Russia,” Osteuropa, 1997, no. 6(47), pp. 544–46; K. Stoner-Weiss, “Central Weakness and Provincial Autonomy: Observations on the Devolution Process in Russia,” Post-Soviet Affairs, 1999, no. 1(15), pp. 87–106; V. Tolz and I. Busygina, “Regional Governors and the Kremlin,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 1997, no. 4(30), pp. 401–26.

11. O. Kryshtanovskaia, “Authoritarian Modernization of Russia in the 2000s,” in What Does Russia Think, ed. I. Krastev, M. Leonard, and A. Wilson (London: European Council on Foreign Relations, 2009), p. 27 (available at http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR16_What_Does_Russia_Think.pdf; accessed January 30, 2018).

12. Quoted from A. Brown, “Vladimir Putin and the Reaffirmation of Central State Power,” Post-Soviet Affairs, 2001, vol. 17, p. 51.

13. O. Kryshtanovskaia, op. cit., p. 28.

14. J. Bendar, The Robust Federation: Principles of Design (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

15. This is generally the court that issues judgments on conflicts between the federal center and constituent entities.

16. I. Busygina and M. Filippov, “Problema vynuzhdennoi federalizatsii,” Pro et Contra, May–August 2009, nos. 3–4, pp. 125–38.

17. Decentralization in a unitary state means that the central government delegates certain powers to lower levels at its discretion. Federalism, on the contrary, stands out for its fundamentally different means of separating powers, functions, and duties. The main difference is that federalism assumes equality of the parties at the federal and local levels in at least some areas, and specifically in those areas where the parties have established treaty relationships. The formation of treaty relationships means that the parties are advocating for their own interests, competing with each other for powers and resources, and bargaining, agreeing in the end to a compromise.

18. Reforms to consolidate constituent entities are developed in the Federation Council (Valentina Matvienko is a proponent of revamping the map). In addition, experts from the Saint Petersburg Politics Foundation support combining regions (see N. Protsenko, “V Rossii mogut poiavit’sia ‘supersub″ekty Federatsii,” Vzgliad, April 26, 2016 (available at https://vz.ru/politics/2016/4/27/807577.html; accessed January 30, 2017). Kudrin’s Center for Strategic Research also studied revamping the country’s map by merging entities and creating modern urban agglomerations.