Fluctuating capacity of policy advice in Russia: testing theory in developing country context

ABSTRACT

Theories and concepts developed and empirically tested in the context of North American and Western European countries do not always easily transfer to another political landscape. The concept of “policy advisory system” is not an exception. On the one hand, policy processes and policy styles are not unique for each country; therefore, some generalizations can be made. On the other hand, studding particularities of policy process in a specific country can enrich theories, developed for general cases. Applying existing theories to a new context also goes a long way in verification and potential falsification – the fundamental requirement for a scientific process. This article aims to contribute to the debate on the topic of policy advisory system by comparing the development of three policies in Russia, each involving policy advisors to some extent. Based on this analysis, lessons are drawn regarding the conditions under which policy advisors can impact policy changes in an environment, alternative to “western.”

KEYWORDS:

• Policy advisory system
• policy analysts
• policy advisors
• think tanks
• policy impact
• policy change

Acknowledgement

Author expresses their gratitude to Valentina Kuskova, Head of International Laboratory for Applied Network Research, for her valuable contribution to preparation of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dmitriy G. Zaytsev is an associate professor and a leading research fellow at the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. He received his PhD in political science from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Science. His current research focuses on political and policy networks, text mining and semantic analysis, policy advisory systems and think tanks, democratization in post-communist societies, and models of political changes. He has published numerous articles in journals and chapters in books and edited volumes.

Notes

1 Moscow State University, Saint-Petersburg State University, Moscow State Linguistic University, Moscow State Law University, and Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod.

2 Decree No. 596 of 7 May 2012.

3 For priority area “Life Sciences” – Siberian State Medical University of the Ministry of health of the Russian Federation; for priority area “Industry of Nano systems” – Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; for priority area “Sustainable Development of the Natural Resources” – Lomonosov Moscow State University; for priority area “Energy Efficiency” – National research nuclear University; for priority area “Transport and space sciences” – Tsiolkovsky Russian State Technological University.

Additional information

Funding

The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and supported within the framework of a subsidy by the Russian Academic Excellence Project “5-100.”