SHADOW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Abstract

There is a strong position of informal institutions positive assessment in science literature dedicated to the history of public administration in Russia. Researchers emphasize that the existence of horizontal mechanisms of informal redistribution and the methods of softening the strict regulation made the planned economy of the USSR viable. At the same time informal rules and made with using personal relations managerial decisions in contemporary Russian public administration are condemned as the signs of corruption system thought several authors admit it as inherent for our national economy. The empirical basis of the article is the interviews with civil servants, public officials and business representatives, who highlighted the cases of municipal management and local living standards improvement through informal interactions between local and government authorities and between public authorities and business. According to our research, for example, social responsibility of enterprises in Russia is extremely high, but locates in informal area. The shadow public administration allows authorities to avoid strict and incomplete regulation, to make public administration mobile, to coordinate the activities of public authorities at the municipal unit. In other words, the informal administration appears as a reaction on formal government and municipal management disadvantages: there is an avalanche of challenges that could not be timely tackled through formal rules.