Regional dimentions of federalism. On project «To the new model of Russian federalism: regional point of view»

Abstract

The issue of federalism as a specific form of political space's organization is particularly topical for Russia mainly because of the nation's territorial expanses. Federalism is not reducible exclusively to the relationship between the central government and the component regions. The federal system represents a definite status within a polity. Russian Federalism has resulted from interaction between various political projects. In Russia the character of federalism is mostly administrative and juridical and, in some respect, it still keeps its ethnic character. At the same time, serious factors are engaged in contemporary Russian politics that prevent the establishment of a stable regime of the federative system's «self-sustaining». The purpose of new the Gorbachev Foundation's project is to study the status and the prospects of Russian federalism as a key problem in strengthening and further developing democracy in Russia. The goal of the project is to design a normative model of Russian federalism and propose recommendations for its practical implementation, based on an analysis of the positions of the regions and the processes now under way in the public space, involving relations between civil society and political authorities.