Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 17th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview IV. Working Group on PA Reform in CEE&CA Author(s) Yelena Shaskolskaya The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration St. Petersburg Russian Federation Melkishev Sergey, Melkishev Title The problem of the Europeanization in Russian history and the modern administrative reform in Russia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The problem of the Europeanization in Russian history and the modern administrative reform in Russia The problem of the Europeanization is one of the most discussible themes in the domestic political thought and political practice. The attempts to bring the Russian political system close to the European standards has being undertaken since Peter the Great times. One of the most prominent reforms of the first quarter of the XVIII century was the complex of the administrative ones aimed at the construction of the centralized system of public governance in Russia. The reforms resulted in the formation of the highly centralized bureaucratic pyramid, the main features of which still remains in the Russian political system. It is usually said that it was just the “imitative Europeanization”. Since that times the regular attempts of liberal reforms has been made during the long period up to the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. After the totalitarian period the new Russian authorities had to begin the construction of the modern liberal political system, but it is quite clear now that the Russian authoritarian traditions reproduce themselves under all political regimes. The old political paradigm of the dominance of governmental power over society needs to be replaced by the new one of the dominance of society over the governmental power. But the problem is that all Russian modernizations (because of the lack of the civil society) were and are being conducted by the bureaucracy, and if the bureaucracy is not being reforming itself it soon becomes the main hindrance of the reforms. So the political stereotypes in Russia are dominating over the whole administrative system. The main goal of the modern administrative reform in Russia is to put an end to the gap between the old manner of public and municipal governing and the social and economic potential of the country by means of the rise of the quality and efficiency of public governance. These are the main objects of the administrative reform for the period 2006-2008: - the rise of the quality and availability of the public services to the population; - the limitation of the governmental interference into business, self-regulation in economics; - the elimination of doubling functions and seals of the federal administrative bodies; - the rise of mutual confidence between the society and the authorities; - the succeeding of the informational openness of the federal and local bodies; - the reduction of the amount of civil servants, etc. To fulfill these tasks means to make Russia more European country. But the administrative reform is still in its beginning, being strongly opposed by the Russian political culture and mentality of Russian bureaucracy.
