Дискурс Пи (Aug 2019)
Advisory Bodies “at Arm's Length”: Institutionalization of Autonomy (On the Example of the Sverdlovsk Region)
Abstract
The article discusses how the autonomy of advisory bodies in the executive system is ensured. It is based on the approach to the analysis of institutionalized advisory bodies developed within the framework of the theory of policy advice. The aim of the work is to identify the specifics of the formation of advisory bodies in the Russian administrative tradition. The analysis is based on a package of legal documents regulating the formation of public councils at both the federal and regional levels (using the example of the Sverdlovsk region). The analysis showed that the autonomy of Russian public councils is ensured by shifting responsibility for their formation from executive bodies to the Public Chambers as institutionalized representatives of civil society. At the federal level, the expansion of the powers of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation is recorded in the law "On the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation" dated April 4, 2005 No. 32‑FZ. Specification of these powers was carried out through the Standards of activity of public councils under federal executive authorities(Model Regulations) in 2014, 2015 and 2018. However, the low legal status of the Standards did not fully ensure the "reset" of public councils under federal authorities in the interests of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. At the regional level, as the experience of the Sverdlovsk region showed, in some cases the Public Chambers managed to consolidate their powers by law. In accordance with the law of the Sverdlovsk region dated December 19, 2016 No. 151-OZ "On public control in the Sverdlovsk region", the regional Public Chamber received the right to form half of the members of public councils from its members and experts. An analysis of how the autonomy of public councils in the Russian administrative tradition is ensured was carried out for the first time.
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