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When the Whole Is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts:
Russian Developmentalism since the Mid-2000s
Ilya Matveev |
Public Sociology Laboratory
St Petersburg Russian Federation
Corresponding Author
matveev.ilya@yahoo.com
Oleg Zhuravlev
olegzhur@yandex.ru
Abstract
by the
In this articl
focusing on the role of idea the building by
While
cesses on the level of individual industrie regions and project on the whol it failed
ears
ag
reduced to corruption and
Keywords
1 Introduction
‘greatest prece
dence to industrial polic that i
n’s inter
s’
Howeve
Russia led the
wa nationalizing whole industries and launching an array of new policies
a’s new policy orientatio For Cedric Duran
‘t
ductive apparatus’ David Lane noted that ‘T
e’
ca howeve
Many scholars contended that Russia’s turn to
by power
ful political actors than anything els an asserted that ‘Rent
all levels of authority’‘The capture of the
guishing feature of his entire rule’ In the eyes of these scholar predation and
state capture in Putin’s
goal
and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975
alo Alt Stanford University Pres
édric Duran “B
Producing State in Russi” Journal of Innovation Economics Management
“F Capitalis” New Political Economy
The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?
ew Yor Portfoli
a “The Vicious Circle of ” Post-
Soviet 3 6)
Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? ew Yor
In our vie
appropriatio
growt Howeve
during Putin’s
Finall
as we write this articl
In light of thi
we stud
two decade We continue by investi
Finall
the new ilitant Russia’
speculate on the
2 Outcomes
ogether with Brazil)
grou over
the last two decades ee
Russia was in Brazi in India and in Chin
“E An Agenda for Militant Russi” Russian Journal of
Economics 6)
the country’s hich
s)
ésar Hidalgo and Ricardo
)
tion of the country’s ‘the observed
country)
that product) Esteban
behind the
ran
Cé “T ”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 6
-10%
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0%
5%
10%
15%
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Brazil Russian Federa�on India China
growth
‘
d) and those products that they do
s)
the is directly related to the goal of industrial polic which is
ing range of sophisticated goods and service Russia’s and Brazil’s have
India’s has stagnated
in recent years) a’s has grown consistently throughout the
ee
“How and Why Should We Study ‘E
y’?” Our World in Data httpurworldindatr
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Brazil Russia India China
Russia and China
Russia’s added goods lectronic
er vehicles)
while China’s
ee Figure 3)
In principl
d;
Russia’s
decade of the
As
a resul
Peugeo Volvo)
Howeve
ear
Yulia Baronin “Tl’nyh
e”Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya 6
r ondo
Hachette U
0.0%
0.1%
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0.4%
0.5%
Electronics Machinery Vehicles
Russia 2000 Russia 2019
0%
5%
10%
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25%
30%
Electronics Machinery Vehicles
China 2000 China 2019
3 Ideas
‘y s’ in charge of
including
the Central Institute
Tsentral’nii Ekonomiko-Matematicheskii
I)Institut
Narodno-Khozhyaistvennogo Prognozirovaniya)
chief
Russia’s
is Andrei Belouso
‘conservative
that is also present in other state
centralized coordination of innovative activities in the ‘pioneer’ industries;
and conservative welfare policie
Even though broadly statist and interventionist views are very popular in the
the ideational base of the Russian approach to
For on
poo ‘At presen
edge of conventional western theor
Unfortunatel its contributions
e’ As a resul
in Putin’s Russi The ‘Hollow Paradig Perspectiv” Europe-Asia Studies
“C
Europe and Russi” New Political Economy
Ibi
“A and Authoritari
n’s Russi” Journal of Economic Issues
conservative and authoritarian tendencies in Russian politic This led to the
the very role of ideas in the Russian policy process is prob
n’s ‘Ideas hardly
[in Russia]e’
howeve
produces distorted result‘hollow paradig
instead of choosing
‘united
y’
in the policy plans’
it helps to
in order
to avoid ‘authority shifts usually associated with the change in the guiding pol
icy paradig In other word ideological consistency on the part of the gov
to Trenin’s proces
“R ” Washington
Quarterly 3
n’s
Russi”
Ibi n’s role in the
Eas According to Fortescu “[Putin]
side particularly on issues that he does not see as of the highest priorit If that is a valid
y” “Russia’s ‘Turn to
the East’” Post-Soviet 3 6)
n’s
Russi
Ibi
4 Institutions
Since the
been the
aktsionernoe
obshchestvo)
state corporation gosudarstvennaya korporatsiya)
organization established by the federal la
state ownership can be broadly divided into energy producers
Rosneft) Rosato United Shipbuilding
Corporation) berban )
Rusnany)
n’s patron
age networ p’s
the national productive capacit Putin recognized the need to the
e; howeve
and red tap Recognizing
and accelerating this trenn’s entourage lobbied to
The resulting institutional arrange
‘personalized state ownership’
and the oversight of the state’s Instea
e;
practice In
principl Putin’s
Howeve
institutsional’n” Pro et Contra
and “P
l’n” Voprosy ekonomiki
institutsional’n
treating
As a resul
corruption was in ‘trillions of rubles’ such as
Rosneft’s Igor Sechi Roste
other particu
y’s Foundatio Howeve no such inves
‘t t’s
“pilot organization”
t’ This is arguably caused by political reasons as wel
within the Russian patronal syste
tie
corporation Howeve
fessional bureaucratic corp n’s Ministry of International Trade
and Industry )
resulted in sprawling goal
taneous proces
Instea
Putin often repeated that state
n’s
Indee
v’s tenure as presiden Howeve the
“A t’ trillion
i” httpil
State-Led Coercive Takeovers in Putin’s Russia: Explaining the Underlying
Motives and Ownership Outcomes npublished PhD Thesi The London School of
Which he often doe as in the case of the standing the
largest oil producer in Russi and Transnef
are headed by Putin’s close associate
and the Japanese Miracle
’”
httpil
previous policy of
n’s inner circl They defeated Medvedev’s
In
frustration with the progress of privatizatio ‘T and
then the country’s
sary at ale’s g’s d’ Putin
so he torpedoed Medvedev’s
refor creeping continue cor
s)
as a whol the world’s is a paradig
regio has a long histor
a factory vetera participated in the privatization of
Howeve the controlling
Putin’s close associat
Rostekhnologii
)
with strictly its previ
ous private owne
This changed with
Rostec’s
spending and closing the pilot shop that had previously helped to introduce
Cited in Ilya Matvee “Stat Capita
n’s Russi” in Berch Berberogl eThe Global Rise of Authoritarianism
in the 21st Century ondo Routledg
In fac those few privatizations that did happen during Medvedev’s tenure eventually led
)
Howeve
including fraud associated with activitie
technological advances to productio this
a state ban
y’s previous private owner reproduced
while Roste
with In our vie
italis
this
It
’s
As a resul
illion rescue
of ’s The ban
acteristic of the Russian state sector as a whol it engaged in sprawlin poorly
For
according to one stud
Igor Popo l’ eboevye poter
poteryat’ ” Forbes.ru httpw orbe
“Schetnaya palata zavershila rassledovanie situatsii v e”
Vedomosti httpwrticle
Howeve these institution such as
Rusnan eventually signed an agree
ing coordination within this particular part of the state secto
institutions have also increasingly focused on supporting innovatio In a
later stud
institution The response of the entrepreneurs was generally positiv they
sector with the ‘big three’ berban
note the creation of the ‘ns’
howeve the govern
such as
s) leads to
of a private ban The authors conclude that ‘a
either through
s’ In other word
Stil
patronage and corruption as other parts of the state secto
‘[T]h consolidation and reproduction
of the elit It is
crat
and Denis Ivano “R
vitiy vernoi dorogoi?Voprosy ekonomiki
” Voprosy ekonomiki
“atsional’ny’
uslu” Voprosy ekonomiki 3) httpor
Ibi
Russi” Journal of Economic Issues
ncluding ) Indee one journalistic article revealed
These
v’s
epo)
tor and in the accounts of
Financial
ing to enterprises and the general publi Instea
atsional’ny”
olotye deti Rossi” Kommersant Den’gi httpwt
o
Children of
director of the
senior vice president
and
The head of
subsidiary)
Sergei Ivanov
The son of Sergei Ivano
of the boar
The son of Sergei Ivanov
Deputy head of
Deputy head of
current
boar
ainly
Repo
In other word instead of serving the state’s
owned that i the shift of
y’s
building on the regional leve In fac
t) in
the local industr a
locall and
a consultancy for investors operated by the
This set of institutions allowed the region to attract sus
t;
e’a’s regional
Heavy infrastructure spending coupled
During the
in the social spher particularly in educatio
5 Policies
While the
particularly on the federal leve has been largely unsuccessfu
One area in
“The Rise of Finance under State
” Post-Communist Economies 3
e’s wor
a’s Electricity Sector Liberalizatio” Studies in Comparative
International Development and Post-Soviet Power: State-led Develop-
ment and Russia’s Marketization
describes the ‘ds’ in the electricity sector on the regional level that
Ilya Matvee “Bs?”
East European Politics 3
ubsidies and credits) as
well as trade restrictions
t’s highly interventionist
have steadily increase Indee
Russian’sear
tion of cheap carbs read and potatoes) has decrease
the
increase is particularly pronounced)
egre and Christel Elvesta “T
” Eurasian Geography and
Economics 6)
“T y”@H
httptlaiarvard
s, kg
/
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2000 2020
Policies in other areas have been less successfu howeve
a’s strategy of ‘turning to the
East’
of the [Russian Far East]eep Asia at ba”
’
tion led to the generally unsuccessful result
6 Militant Russia: Developmentalism after 2014
ilitant Russia’‘sy’ in Ira
In additio the gov
‘a
good technolog and capital’
particularly Chin
In principl
country’s
high
The dange howeve
cal gap with the rest of the worl There are opportunity costs associated with
resulting in subpar product
restricting foreign direct
Stephen Fortescu “Russia’s ‘Turn to the East’ ” Post-Soviet
3 6)
Mall “E An Agenda for Militant Russia”
Richard Connoll Russia’s Response to Sanctions: How Western Economic Statecraft Is
Reshaping Political Economy in Russia
‘strategic’
cal transfe
politically
driven allocation of credi
Russia’s
‘c
s’
‘i we did
t’ Howeve
Manturov’s
illio yet
illio les
In any cas
has been
essentially stable for the last ten years as is shown in
recover howeve
practically
note howeve
possibly indicating the
Adnan Vatansever has shown that the
Ibi
Cited i “C ” Vedomosti
httpwopiniorticle
Ibi
Matvee “Stat Capita
Putin’s Russi” 3
“V” Voprosy eko-
nomiki
Russia’s
)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
response to the Western sanction In essenc
its securitization goal
t’s desire to
sanctions in response to Russia’s By
the end of the yea Russia’s
for any successful lon The growth of innovation
Adnan Vatanseve “Put over a barrel? ‘St’ sanction
Russia” Energy Research & Social Science httpor
rs
Connoll Russia’s Response to Sanctions
t)
year if not decade
7 Conclusion
On the one han
tools needed to achieve its goal
vast federal bureaucrac
tries as well as private businesses ready to do the state’s biddin The country’s
diversifying production and achieving
sustainable lon growt the stron interventionist state is
part and parcel of the Russian political cultur And ye despite all thi suc
agriculture)a) and projects
gas plant in Siberia)
In this articl One has
Another is the design of
the state sector which is essentially divided between Putin’s cronie encour
the state secto
y)
drown in lavish state funding
al‘hung up’ on
s)
for instanc where the general aversion to state intervention
‘he’ “S
against the Curren s”
Politics & Society 3
The state sector
n’s patronage networ
not connection The role of the
private sector should be increased;
utual hostages’ situatio The coordina
Finall institutional and policy
ing over the contradictions and inconsistencie
howeve
the desired results in the conditions of Russia’s international isolatio
response to Russia’s
othe Russia’s into the global trade and tech
This
opportunity should be seize
Acknowledgement
The article has been produced as part of the research project ‘C
Protest Actions in Soviet and Spaces’
