Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.31297/hkju.17.4.3
The Crisis of The Bureaucratic State and the Failed Attempts to Overcome it in The Russian Public Service
Alexander V. Obolonsky
orcid.org/0000-0002-3052-6543
; Professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation
Sažetak
The paper integrates several theoretical and practical issues into the general context of the contemporary crisis of the bureaucratic state and a quest for new patterns of governance. Several subjects are considered: various aspects of the decline of public trust in government, including the civic “desacralisation” of the state, the paradox of the positive influence of social distrust on political development, and the dependence between trust and corruption. Noting the serious efforts undertaken in several leading countries during the last 30 years in order
to overcome this crisis, and the recent changes in their public management as a kind of administrative response to the situation, the author concludes that most of these steps, because of their purely technological character, did not pose a real alternative and could not solve the problems in accordance with current public needs and expectations. The main part of the article is devoted to the case of
Russia – a description and analysis of five rounds of unsuccessful efforts to create a genuine public service in post-Soviet Russia and an analysis of the reasons for failure. Despite some partial improvements, the general results are judged to be a dramatic failure, causing the appearance of fully-fledged bureaucratic state with all the inevitable negative consequences. The most malignant foes of reforms in Russia are not the people who failed during the first stages of changes
but the “early-winners”; i.e., those who managed to acquire gains in the 90s and have tried to save their current privileged positions by any means, including the so-called “administrative resource” and other abuses of power. The Russian experience also seems quite interesting compared with all other post-socialist East European countries. The common denominator of the author’s approach is an appraisal of the current condition of bureaucratic state institutions and personnel as unsuited to contemporary public expectations and demands, and
a vital need to make them much more responsive and cooperative. Namely, it seems obvious that a new world is opening up with respect to the place and role of executive public officials.
Ključne riječi
governance; public service reforms; public trust; Russia
Hrčak ID:
193941
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.12.2017.
Posjeta: 1.165 *