Content №2 от 2006
Federalism and Russia’s economic development
The system of center/region separation of powers in Russia has not yet been completed and is still the object of lawmaking activity, political dialogue, legal debates and professional discussions. The recent changes in economic and other spheres create favorable conditions to use the benefits from federalism as a long-run factor and resource. At the same time, the dynamics of center/region relationships is imprinted with the 1990s failed attempts at decentralization and is subordinate to the idea of building the “power vertical”. The power vertical, in case of excessive central regulation, may jeopardize the economic advantages of decentralization, and that just at the time when the true opportunity to have them realized has appeared and when the objective of economic and social modernization requires mobilization of long-term resources of economic growth, which, to a high extent, are in the sphere of state governance.
