{"title":"A tale of two councils: the changing roles of the security and state councils during the transformation period of modern Russian politics","authors":"E. Schulmann, M. Galeotti","doi":"10.1080/1060586X.2021.1967644","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT There is general agreement that both the Security Council and State Council are significant institutions in Putin’s Russia, but less clarity as to what this means, beyond that each provides opportunities for consultation with specific segments of the elite. Even this modest consensus was confounded in 2020, when both councils seemed to offer potential post-presidential roles for Putin himself, and underwent significant changes. This article describes the legal and administrative evolutions of both bodies, assesses their roles, and considers them from the perspective of a limited access order. It tackles the problem of institutions in undemocratic systems and the thin line between the decorative elements of the political system, and the bodies in which real administrative power is vested. We argue that they have a significant informal role as sites for the negotiation of power and resources and remain potential actors in the ongoing power transformation of the Russian political system.","PeriodicalId":46960,"journal":{"name":"Post-Soviet Affairs","volume":"37 1","pages":"453 - 469"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Post-Soviet Affairs","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2021.1967644","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
ABSTRACT There is general agreement that both the Security Council and State Council are significant institutions in Putin’s Russia, but less clarity as to what this means, beyond that each provides opportunities for consultation with specific segments of the elite. Even this modest consensus was confounded in 2020, when both councils seemed to offer potential post-presidential roles for Putin himself, and underwent significant changes. This article describes the legal and administrative evolutions of both bodies, assesses their roles, and considers them from the perspective of a limited access order. It tackles the problem of institutions in undemocratic systems and the thin line between the decorative elements of the political system, and the bodies in which real administrative power is vested. We argue that they have a significant informal role as sites for the negotiation of power and resources and remain potential actors in the ongoing power transformation of the Russian political system.
期刊介绍:
Quarterly publication featuring the work of prominent Western scholars on the republics of the former Soviet Union providing exclusive, up-to-the-minute analyses of the state of the economy and society, progress toward economic reform, and linkages between political and social changes and economic developments. Published since 1985.