Encouraged but controlled: governance networks in Russian regions

ABSTRACT

The article examines the role of civil society in Russian governance networks, focusing on power relations between state and non-state actors. The analysis is based on empirical evidence from concrete governance networks in two major cities, St. Petersburg and Samara, that handle complex social issues – integration of migrants, drug prevention, and child protection. Power asymmetries are reflected in tight state control of governance networks’ agenda, membership, and opportunity to affect policy. The governance networks are first and foremost advisory bodies with very limited decision-making authority.

KEYWORDS:

• Russia
• governance
• migration
• drug policy
• child protection

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants of the NETGOVRU project, and in particular Asbjørn Røiseland, for comments on previous versions of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Aadne Aasland is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences with a background in Russian and East European Studies. He is currently the leader of a three-year international project on network governance in Russia. Aasland has worked extensively on welfare developments and social policy, living conditions, social exclusion, ethnicity issues, migration and HIV in Russia and other post-Soviet states.

Mikkel Berg-Nordlie is a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences. He has a master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and is writing a Ph.D. in history at the University of Tromsø – Arctic University of Norway on indigenous governance in the Murmansk Region and border-transcending Sámi politics. Berg-Nordlie’s research is focused on ethnic minority politics, particularly indigenous issues, migrant issues, governance structures, and media discourse.

Elena Bogdanova is a researcher at the Centre for Independent Social Research (CISR) and a doctoral student at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF). In CISR Elena is leading a research group “Law and Society”. She is teaching a course on Russian legal culture in the UEF. Bogdanova has worked in a number of research projects on social justice, social policy towards children, and on social care about elderly people in Russia.

Notes

1. One aspect of the administrative reform launched by the Russian government in 2001 was an outsourcing of some traditional state functions to civic institutions (see Tarasenko 2015).

2. The study is part of a three-year Norwegian–Russian research project on network governance in Russia funded by the Research Council of Norway under the NORRUSS programme (Project no. 220615).

3. Interviews and observations have been performed by Anastasiya Meylakhs, Olga Tkach, Alexander Kondakov, Olga Olisova, Elena Baeva, Polina Bochkova, Jørn Holm-Hansen, and the authors.

4. The actual numbers are contested, but the Federal Drug Control Service estimated eight million drug users in 2013 http://ria.ru/beznarko/20130628/829653738.html (accessed 5 December 2015).

5. http://izvestia.ru/news/564615; http://www.St.Petersburg.aif.ru/society/136323 (both accessed 5 December 2015).

6. http://www.fskn.gov.ru/pages/main/prevent/13250/ (accessed 5 December 2015).

7. The Russian Federal Anti-Drug Strategy until 2020 outlining the structural set-up can be found at http://www.stratgap.ru/pages/strategy/3662/4434/4437/index.shtml (accessed 5 December 2015).

8. http://www.fms.gov.ru/about/statistics/data/details/9482/ (accessed 5 December 2015).

9. For more on the latter, see Osipov (2013).

10. http://irkutsk.rfdeti.ru/upload/ff5c34440fe1feb70ffdf6bf4fa989c4.pdf (accessed 4 December 2015), 127.

11. Sirotstvo v Rossii: problemy i puti ikh razresheniya. Issledovanie (2011). Moscow: 49, available at http://sirotinka.ru/download/sirotstvo_v_rossii.pdf (accessed 4 December 2015).

12. See, for example, Federal Law No. 272 “On measures against persons involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights and freedoms of citizens of Russian Federation”, also known as the “Dima Yakovlev Law”, 28 December 2012.

In January 2013, the United Russia party initiated the project “Every child is important for Russia” (Rossii vazhen kazhdyi rebenok).

13. See http://teoria-practica.ru/rus/files/arhiv_zhurnala/2014/16/sociology/rusakova-odinokova.pdf (accessed 4 December 2015).

14. The Order of the President of RF No. 761 “On National Strategy of Action for Children 2012–2017”, 1 June 2012.

15. For example, the Coordinating Council on Implementation of the “National Strategy for Action for Children 2012–2017”, 11 September 2012.

16. Fictitious name.

17. For the selection process in Samara, see http://news.smbc.ru/others/2014/10/07/66324.html (in Russian, accessed 5 December 2015).

18. Fictitious name.

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of a three-year international research project “Network governance: A tool for understanding Russian policy-making?” funded by the Research Council of Norway under the NORRUSS programme [Project No. 220615].