Varieties of Governance in hybrid regimes. Enterprises, state and civil society in contemporary Russia

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Katharina Bluhm, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Sabine Kropp; Professor Claudius Wagemann, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 388732203

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

Russian companies need to legitimize themselves in a twofold way: On the one hand, they are confronted with the expectations of governors, municipalities, and employees to fulfil social, cultural, or infrastructural tasks in their operation areas. These activities are usually framed as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). On the other hand, large companies are tightly integrated into the power vertical of the authoritarian regime, which draws on business to improve its policy output and bolster its output legitimacy. Despite the increasing intervention of Russian authorities into the economic sphere, companies are part of a mutual, albeit asymmetric resource exchange with state actors and (loyal) non-profit organizations (NPOs), in which all three sides pursue their respective interests. The findings of the project reveal that Soviet legacies have sustained the multifunctional role of Russian enterprises in providing public goods and social welfare. They are still relevant in that they shape the expectations of regional authorities and the population towards the companies as social welfare providers. The patterns of resource exchange found in this project, however, reveal novel regional patterns of state-business-relations, in which (loyal) NPOs are involved as new actors, while companies use novel contractual and financing arrangements. Thereby, informal patronage networks and the formal institutionalization of triadic resource exchange is compatible and mutually reinforcing. The motives for and regional patterns of institutionalization are the core interest of this research project, which, in theoretical terms, links strands of research on authoritarianism, welfare states, and corporate sociology to each other.

Publications

• Die Entwicklung der Zivilgesellschaft im europäischen Vergleich. Die Arbeit der Zivilgesellschaft, 31-48. Velbrück Wissenschaft.
  Pape, Ulla
  
• Gesellschaftliche Unternehmensverantwortung abseits der gewohnten Pfade: Wie Staat und Wirtschaft in Russland zusammenarbeiten. Russland-Analysen, 376, 2-5.
  Pape, Ulla & Klimovich, Stanislav
  
• How business associations shape policy making in Russia. The use of social responsibility strategies in state-business negotiations, Panel “Organized Civil Society and Policy Processes in the Post-Soviet Space”, Dreiländerkonferenz SVPW, DVPW, ÖVPW, ETH Zürich, 13.02.2019.
  Pape, U.
  
• Shifting the Boundaries between State and Business: How the Russia Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Uses Social Investments as Bargaining Chips”. Workshop „Unternehmen und NGOs in der russischen Regionalpolitik“, FU Berlin, 29.05.2019
  Klimovich, S.
  
• Subnational Variations in Government-Nonprofit Relations: A Comparative Analysis of Regional Differences within Russia. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 22(1), 47-65.
  Toepler, Stefan; Pape, Ulla & Benevolenski, Vladimir
  
• Towards sustainable development. Russian Business and the Sustainable Development Goals, Panel “Russian CSR and Sustainability Agenda”, International HSE April Conference, 10.04.2019
  Pape, U.
  
• Business-State Interaction in Russia’s Regions. An Analysis of Socio-Economic Cooperation Agreements, Workshop “The Varieties of Power in the Economy”, Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology, NRU Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, 03.07.2020
  Pape, U., Klimovich, S. & Bluhm, K.
  
• Business-State Relations and the Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Russia’s Regions. Russian Analytical Digest (RAD), 254, 7–11.
  Klimovich, S. & Pape, U.
  
• Providing welfare at the periphery: Business companies and local populations in Russia, International Research Conference “Interaction. Integration. Inclusion” International Laboratory for Social Integration Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics, 21.12.2020.7. Klimovich, S. & Pape, U. “The Institutionalization of Corporate Social Responsibility in Russian Firms. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis”. ZOiS Forschungskolloquium, ZOiS, 12.02.2020
  Pape, U.
  
• Defending business interests in Russia, v. 1.0, Discuss Data
  Klimovich, S. Kropp, S. & U. Pape
  
• Socio-Economic Cooperation Agreements and State-Business Relations in Russia’s Regions, v. 1.0, Discuss Data
  Bluhm, K., Klimovich, S. & U. Pape
  
• Corporate Philanthropy and Social Development in Russia's Regions, International Society for Third Sector Research Conference 2022, Panel: Philanthropy in Ukraine, Russia, and Africa, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 14.07.2022
  Pape, U.
  
• Defending business interests in Russia: collective action and social investments as bargaining chips. Post-Communist Economies, 35(1), 17-40.
  Klimovich, Stanislav; Kropp, Sabine & Pape, Ulla
  
• Federal Regression and the Authoritarian Turn in Russia. Emerging Federal Structures in the Post-Cold War Era, 73-94. Springer International Publishing.
  Klimovich, Stanislav & Kropp, Sabine
  
• Formal contracting and state–business relations in Russia. A case study from Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. East European Politics, 39(1), 57-79.
  Pape, Ulla; Klimovich, Stanislav & Bluhm, Katharina
  
• Legitimation strategies of Russian companies: a bricolage of social responsibility. East European Politics, 39(1), 15-38.
  Kropp, Sabine; Klimovich, Stanislav & Pape, Ulla
  
• Nonprofit advocacy in Russia’s regions. Journal of Civil Society, 18(1), 1-22.
  Pape, Ulla & Skokova, Yulia
  
• Russian companies as welfare providers, BASEES Annual Conference 2022, Roundtable: Governance in Russia: Development, Welfare and Rights in Russian Regions, 09.04.2022
  Pape, U.
  
• “Variation of Principal-Agent Relations in Russian Federalism”. Paper presented at the session “Comparative Federalism”. 2022 APSA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 15.09.2022
  Klimovich, S.
  
• Asymmetrical resource exchange. Business, state and social welfare provision in Russian regions. East European Politics, 39(1). (2023)
  Kropp, S. & Bluhm, K.
  
• Corporate Grant Competitions and Corporate Volunteering in Russian Regions, v. 1.0, Discuss Data
  Pape, U.
  
• Flexible authoritarian governance in Russia, v. 1.1, Discuss Data
  Khmelnitskaya, M., Pape, U. & A.-M. Sätre
  
• Flexible authoritarian governance in Russia: The politics of ideas on family policy. Advance online publication on Project MUSE
  Khmelnitskaya, M., Sätre, A. & Pape, U.
  
• Introduction to the symposium “Asymmetrical resource exchange. Business, state and social welfare provision in Russian regions”. East European Politics, 39(1), 1-14.
  Bluhm, Katharina & Kropp, Sabine
  
• Mind the Gap between the Governor and the People: The Common Agency Problem in Russian Authoritarian Federalism. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 53(2), 301-324.
  Klimovich, Stanislav
  
• Variation of principal-agent relations in Russian federal autocracy. Regional & Federal Studies, 34(5), 687-711.
  Klimovich, Stanislav
  
• Why are state-business relations formalized in Russia’s authoritarian regime? A set-theoretic analysis (by B. Bender, K. Bluhm, S. Klimovich, S. Kropp, U. Pape & C. Wagemann); Paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference, Chicago, April 13-16, 2023.
  Kropp, S.
  
• “Towards a theory of authoritarian federalism”. Workshop „Neue Forschungsthemen im Bereich Föderalismus & Multilevel Governance“, RWTH Aachen, 25.02.2023
  Klimovich, S.
  
• Beyond Cronyism: Local Governance and Welfare Provision by Large Companies in Russian Monotowns. Europe-Asia Studies, 76(9), 1439-1462.
  Klimovich, Stanislav & Bluhm, Katharina