Authors

Marina Khmelnitskaya³; Leo Granberg¹; Ann-Mari Satre²; Ulla Pape⁴; Katharina Bluhm⁴; Stanislav Klimovich⁴;  ¹ University of Helsinki, Finland;  ² IRES Uppsala University, Sweden;  ³ Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland;  ⁴ Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Discussion

Governance in Russia currently generates considerable amount of scholarly interest. Governance is a process in which the Russian state, ran by its authoritarian regime, meets diverse societal actors while developing and implementing policies. Using original data collected during extensive fieldwork in several Russian regions, participants of this panel discuss aspect of the governance process at the local level. Ann-Mari Satre examines how women at the local level have experienced and responded to the conservative trend in gender and social policy promoted by the national leadership since 2012. The study shows that their acceptance or resistance of this change generate four types of responses. Research by Khmelnitskaya, Satre and Pape analyses the process of governance in Russia focusing on social policy initiatives of family and income support and using policy ideas as an analytical lens. The authors demonstrate that while traditional values dominate the communication of policy ideas at the local level, the coordination of ideas necessary for policy implementation still allows some influence of the progressive feminist position. Papers by Stanislav Klimovich and Katharina Bluhm, and by Ulla Pape investigate how Russian big businesses position themselves as welfare providers at the local level and create mutually dependent collaborations with the local authorities in Russian monotowns, an important pillar of electoral support for the Putin’s regime.