Instruments of subordination and the quality of public goods provision: case-study of Petrozavodsk, 2016-2021

Instruments of subordination and the quality of public goods provision:
case-study of Petrozavodsk, 2016-2021


Turchenko M.S.,

European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia, mturchenko@eu.spb.ru


elibrary_id: 821906 | ORCID: 0000-0001-8535-5473 | RESEARCHER_ID: A-8499-2016

Article received: 2021.12.23. Accepted: 2022.06.14


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2023.03.10
EDN: ULAFXC

Rubric: Russia today

For citation:

Turchenko M.S. Instruments of subordination and the quality of public goods provision: case-study of Petrozavodsk, 2016-2021. – Polis. Political Studies. 2023. No. 3. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2023.03.10. EDN: ULAFXC


The reported study was funded by RFBR. The number of the research project is 20-011-00600.


Abstract

The article is built upon a case-study of Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. In 2015, the regional authorities dismissed the Petrozavodsk city mayor and replaced popular mayoral elections in the city with the procedure of appointing a mayor chosen by the City Council from nominees put forward by the competition committee. The study describes the tools at the regional authorities’ disposal enabling them to fully embed emasculated local self-government into the subnational “power vertical”. Among such tools there are both informal practices, allowing the regional authorities to supervise local policies, and more formalized leverages. The latter includes: (1) the control over the competition committee in charge of selecting new mayors through its chairperson, (2) the restoration of a special office within the local self-government structure designed to be occupied by a governor’s team representative, (3) putting a governor’s subordinate at the mayoral position, (4) filling self-government offices with former servants of the regional government. The scrutiny of mechanisms employed by regional authorities to subordinate local self-government enriches the literature studying the entry of authoritarian practices at the municipal level. The article also analyses the relationship between models of local heads selection and the quality of public goods provision. The case of Petrozavodsk shows that three out of four of the city’s urgent issues (lack of public housing for low-income citizens, a lack of municipal kindergartens, non-fulfillment of storm drainage repair) remained unresolved under the appointed mayor. Thus, the study provides no strong evidence to affirm that the appointed head of the city performed better than the elected one. This conclusion is in line with quantitative findings, indicating that there is a lack of robust relationship between models of local heads selection and the quality of public goods provision.

Keywords
local self-government, power vertical, direct elections, instruments of subordination, public goods, Petrozavodsk.


References

Beazer, Q.H., & Reuter, O.J. (2019). Who is to blame? Political centralization and electoral punishment under authoritarianism. The Journal of Politics, 81(2), 648-662. https://doi.org/10.1086/701834

Beazer, Q.H., & Reuter, O.J. (2022). Do authoritarian elections help the poor? Evidence from Russian cities. The Journal of Politics, 84(1), 437-454. https://doi.org/10.1086/714775

Buckley, N., Garifullina, G., Reuter, O.J., & Shubenkova, A. (2014). Elections, appointments, and human capital: the case of Russian mayors. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 22(1), 87-116.

Campbell, A. (2006). State versus society? Local government and the reconstruction of the Russian state. Local Government Studies, 32(5), 659-676. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930600896277

Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219-245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363

Gel’man, V., & Lankina, T. (2008). Authoritarian versus democratic diffusions: explaining institutional choices in Russia’s local government. Post-Soviet Affairs, 24(1), 40-62. https://doi.org/10.2747/1060-586X.24.1.40

Gel’man, V., & Ryzhenkov, S. (2011). Local regimes, sub-national governance and the ‘power vertical’ in contemporary Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, 63(3), 449-465. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2011.557538

George, A.L., & Bennett, A. (2005). Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Gilev, A., & Dimke, D. (2021). ‘No time for quality’: mechanisms of local governance in Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, 73(6), 1060-1079. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2021.1945537

Golosov, G.V. (2011). The regional roots of electoral authoritarianism in Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, 63(4), 623-639. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2011.566427

Golosov, G.V., Gushchina, K., & Kononenko, P. (2016). Russia’s local government in the process of authoritarian regime transformation: incentives for the survival of local democracy. Local Government Studies, 42(4), 507-526. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2016.1154848

Goode, J.P. (2010). The fall and rise of regionalism? Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 26(2), 233-256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13523271003712583

Imai, K. (2017). Quantitative social science: an introduction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Moses, J.C. (2010). Russian local politics in the Putin–Medvedev era. Europe-Asia Studies, 62(9), 1427-1452. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2010.515791

Moses, J.C. (2015). Putin and Russian subnational politics in 2014. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 23(2), 181-203.

Reuter, O.J., Buckley, N., Shubenkova, A., & Garifullina, G. (2016). Local elections in authoritarian regimes: an elite-based theory with evidence from Russian mayoral elections. Comparative Political Studies, 49(5), 662-697. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015626439

Ross, C. (2007). Municipal reform in the Russian Federation and Putin’s “electoral vertical”. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 15(2), 191-208.

Ross, C. (2008). Local politics and democratization in Russia. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203891452

Turchenko, M. (2017). The rise and fall of local self-government in Petrozavodsk. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 25(2), 155-174.

Young, J.F., & Wilson, G.N. (2007). The view from below: local government and Putin’s reforms. Europe-Asia Studies, 59(7), 1071-1088. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130701607086

Zavadskaya, M., & Shilov, L. (2021). Providing goods and votes? Federal elections and the quality of local governance in Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, 73(6), 1037-1059. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2021.1932760

 

Adiev, A.Z., & Tsibenko, V.V. (2018). District vs region: race for power and self-government in Nogai district of Dagestan (event analysis of the 2017 election campaign). Polis. Political Studies, 6, 112-126. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2018.06.08

Gel’man, V., Ryzhenkov, S., Belokurova, E., & Borisova, N. (2008). Reforma mestnoi vlasti v gorodakh Rossii, 1991-2006 [Local government reform in Russian cities, 1991-2006]. St Petersburg: Norma. (In Russ.)

Kazantsev, K.I., & Rumyantseva, A.E. (2020). Ot izbraniia k naznacheniiu. Otsenka effekta smeny modeli upravleniia munitsipalitetami v Rossii [From election to appointment. Assessment of the effect of changing the model of municipal management in Russia]. Moscow: TSPUR. (In Russ.) https://cpur.ru/research_pdf/R_local_government_from_election_to_appointment_.pdf

Shevtsova, I.K., Gilev, A.V., & Zavadskaya, M.А. (2022). When mayors object: factors of municipal autonomy in a centralized state. Universe of Russia, 2. P. 75-96. (In Russ.)

Simoyanov, A.V., Gorodnichev, A.V., & Vorobyev, A.N. (2019). Transformation of the regional political regime in Moscow oblast: municipal reform and its impact on the electoral process. Bulletin of Perm University. Political Science, 1, 33-46. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2019-1-33-46

Turovsky, R.F. (2015). Russia’s local self-government: the agent of the government in the trap of insufficient funding and civil passivity. Polis. Political Studies, 2, 35-51. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2015.02.03

Zuykina, A.S. (2016). Evolution of the regional authorities’ strategies in relation to municipalities in Perm krai under the conditions of centralization (a case study of inter-budget transfer distribution). Bulletin of Perm University. Political Science, 3, 155-179. (In Russ.)

Zuykina, A.S., & Kochneva, Yu.K. (2017). The competitions for the municipal head positions in the Perm region: effects of procedural rules. Bulletin of Perm University. Political Science, 3, 169-183. (In Russ.) 

Content No. 3, 2023

See also:


Turovsky R.F.,
Russia’s Local Self-Government: the Agent of the Government in the Trap of Insuffi cient Funding and Civil Passivity. – Polis. Political Studies. 2015. No2

Offerdal A.,
On Nordic Local Government - Development and Prospects. – Polis. Political Studies. 1999. No2

Gavrilov G.A.,
Some Particular Features of the Elections in Several-Members Districts. – Polis. Political Studies. 2006. No4

Pankevich N.V.,
Local Self-Government Within the State Governance. – Polis. Political Studies. 2016. No2

Belousov A.B.,
Paradoxes of the Power Vertical: Retrospection, Imagination, Trauma. – Polis. Political Studies. 2020. No6

 
 

Archive

   2024      2023      2022      2021   
   2020      2019      2018      2017      2016   
   2015      2014      2013      2012      2011   
   2010      2009      2008      2007      2006   
   2005      2004      2003      2002      2001   
   2000      1999      1998      1997      1996   
   1995      1994      1993      1992      1991