First meeting of the Council for strategic development and priority projects, the creation of which Vladimir Putin announced at the St. Petersburg economic forum in may this year, will be held on July 13. But because of neo-liberal bureaucrats is likely that the Council will turn from a means of overcoming the crisis in the obstacle, and presidential ideas will differ with the implementation.
Official language signed by the President on June 30 of the decree on establishment of the Council follows, that he will deal with the formation of the socio-economic agenda of the next political cycle in Russia, the launch of which is scheduled after the elections of 2018.
The main areas of work of the Council at the St Petersburg forum outlined by Putin himself. To traditional health care, education and housing policy now added non-oil exports and support for small and medium businesses. Extension of the problem scope of the state’s attention – the first difference of the current on from a similar Council for national projects in 2008. Then the priority was exclusively social services (not yet affected by the crisis, the budget allowed to do so), but on Wednesday, the Kremlin will pay attention to the policies on increasing labour productivity may, for example, infrastructure of individual territories.
About the need to move to the state strategic planning (GSP) in the pilot regions a year ago, Putin said. The idea immediately found support in the Academy and in the government the idea began to actively promote the economic”statists” led by Sergey Glazyev. Therefore, there is reason to believe that, on the one hand, the Council under the leadership of President, committed to the implementation of the GSP may not be another bureaucratic structure, mired in inefficiency and red tape. The new body will be able to offer at the regional level plastic compromise of power and small business, form an overall system of checks and balances, able to withstand the crisis.
On the other hand, this goal may interfere with responsible for the work of the new Advisory body. Operational management of the Presidium of the Council has been entrusted to Dmitry Medvedev, that is, despite his “presidential” status, to coordinate the implementation of new projects with the formation of the budget will be the government. Liberals and technocrats are unlikely to want to develop a system of horizontal ties for the sake of reforms. Instead, they are accustomed to adjust the approved macroeconomic agenda under the possibilities, which seems the most likely scenario.
However, to begin with, there was a complete degeneration of the administrative Council, in its composition in addition to financial-economic bloc of the government included presidential envoys, speakers of both chambers of Parliament, some governors and the public. Their collective participation is expected once a quarter, will occur when the adjustment policies of the Council and aktiviziruyutsya discussion about the development of the country. The rest of the time fully independent Advisory body, the Council will not, and authoritative opinion it can be heard only in the periods of attendance at meetings of the President. The conclusion that suggests itself when the government talk about the design principle of the strategy Council. This means that to determine the course and the main areas will be the working group headed by the Chairman of the Economic Council under the President Alexei Kudrin, and the mechanism of achievement of the course – the actual Ministers strategists. In other words, won promoted by German Gref, the project approach to the reform of “vertical of power” when the control of the authorities in order to optimize would be to keep some priorities, and about two hundred direct orders of the President will be safely forgotten.
The government and officials of lower rank in the spring openly claimed that they cannot cope with the implementation of “may decrees” of the President. In the corridors of power complain that it is not ready to play by similar rules: set by the President in 2012 have compressed the period of performance, is too clearly formulated, and the worst – assume personal responsibility for the sabotage or the impossibility of implementing. The idea of the project office concept of the GSP has nothing to do, although directly not contradict her. However, there are some doubts that Russia at the current stage of socio-economic development have the ability to experiment in the experiments of crossing a snake with a hedgehog and to demonstrate to the world a successful innovative approaches to technology policy. Moreover, it is questionable when it takes a team of Gref.
Apparently, the Council was not created to find real solutions to the political and economic cycle after 2018, and for all other purposes, among which is the discussion and elaboration of alternative strategies for the preservation of the system of bureaucracy intact, which directly contradicts the presidential plan. Moreover, assessing quasilinearly the agenda of the current government, it can be assumed that Council members would not dare to openly Express views that would run counter to the vision of Putin. However, the discussion of the actual agenda of the Council, certainly, will be carried out in the framework of the virtual reality in which bureaucracy will be more convenient to operate. Apparently, therefore, the project office of the government is already trying to link the activities of the Board with the hasty implementation of the Strategy-2030 in conditions when the majority of Russians relatively timid even look for tomorrow.
It is possible to conclude, in order for the Council to appropriate socially acceptable practice, not the liberal smoothed by theory, it is necessary that its work was coordinated directly by the President. Similar experiences had already taken place in 2008, when Putin took over the leadership of the Executive branch and in the mode of “manual control” engaged in the response to the crisis and social negativity.
How random it looks, the appearance of poorly compatible with design practice liberals “strategic planning” in the name of the Council, it will be clear after the decisions of its first meeting and transformation in the work immediately after the election. After their graduation it will be time not just to meekly listen to the top command, but to analyze and to act thoughtfully on the ground. This practice will show whose approach to the reform of public administration in the end prevailed: the President’s proposed flexible strategy tips that can change depending on the circumstances, or the idea of the Cabinet on the abstract strategy Council in the form of cumbersome institutional mechanism capable of his creativity to scaring business and the economy as any crisis.
