.jpg)
printClientelism and Informal Networks of Regional Elites in Russia:
Network Analysis of the Case of Sverdlovsk Oblast
Melnikov K.V.,
Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia, melnikovrezh@gmail.com
elibrary_id: 913396 | ORCID: 0000-0001-7200-659X | RESEARCHER_ID: AAB-7492-2020
DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2021.06.12
Rubric: Russia Today
For citation:
Melnikov K.V. Clientelism and Informal Networks of Regional Elites in Russia: Network Analysis of the Case of Sverdlovsk Oblast. – Polis. Political Studies. 2021. No. 6. P. 171-188. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2021.06.12
Abstract
Studying informal aspects of politics in Russia and post-Soviet states more broadly has become an influential research trend. The concepts of clientelism and informal networks often serve as a theoretical framework for such an analysis. Despite obvious connotations, students of informal networks only rarely take advantage of methodological tools provided by Social Network Analysis (SNA). They not only allow scholars to visualize a network and to calculate its basic statistic characteristics, but also puts forth more rigorous requirements for the operationalization of the informal network, thereby making it a logically conceptualized category and not just a metaphor, as it is often presented in the literature. By using SNA tools, the presented paper studies informal networks of administrative elites of the Sverdlovsk Oblast. Having experienced a relatively rapid economy recovery following the collapse of the USSR, the region’s success in bargaining with federal elites over the advancement of its legal status in the 1990s and long-term into the office of its first governor brought forth explanations that emphasize the power of elite networks in this region. This article aims to test these assumptions quantitatively. To that end, we analyzed informal networks of the heads of the executive agencies and provided three temporal snapshots. These correspond to the terms of the two governors that held the office: Eduard Rossel and Alexandr Misharin. The informal networks were based on biographical data, which we collected and recorded into the database. This database consists of 665 rows, which contain information on the career paths of 78 officials. After identifying the intersections of the career paths of these individuals prior to them occupying elite positions, we built networks based on them. We have analyzed the structures of these networks, their density, the presence of communities, and centrality measures, which allowed us to see how different the patterns of the networks can be depending on the strategies of their leaders.
Keywords
informal networks, patron-client relationships, clientelism, patronage bureaucracy, political regime, network analysis, regional elites, SNA.
Дополнительные материалы
References
Carter T. 2015. Networks and Regional Leadership in El’tsin’s Russia: The Case of Eduard Rossel’ in Sverdlovsk Oblast, 1989-1999. PhD Thesis. University College London.
Easter G. 1997. Redefining Centre-Regional Relations in the Russian Federation: Sverdlovsk Oblast’. – Europe-Asia Studies. Vol. 49. No. 4. P. 617–635. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668139708412463
Easter G. 1999. Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Eisenstadt S., Roniger L. 1984. Patrons, Clients and Friends: Interpersonal Relations and the Structure of Trust in Society. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511557743
Fortunato S., Castellano C. 2009. Community Structure in Graphs. – Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. P. 1141-1163. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3_76
Freeman L. 1978. Centrality in Social Networks Conceptual Clarification. – Social Networks. Vol. 1. No. 3. P. 215-239. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(78)90021-7
Gautier Morin J., Rossier T. 2020. The Interaction of Elite Networks in the Pinochet Regime’s Macroeconomic Policies. – Global Networks. Vol. 31. No. 2. P. 339-364. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12300
Keller F. 2016. Moving Beyond Factions: Using Social Network Analysis to Uncover Patronage Networks among Chinese Elites. – Journal of East Asian Studies. Vol. 16. No. 1. P.17–41.
Keller F. 2018. Analyses of Elite Networks. – The Palgrave Handbook of Political Elites. London: Palgrave Macmillan. P. 135-152. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51904-7_11
Koronenko V. 2011. Introduction. – Russia as a Network State: What Works in Russia When State Institutions Do Not? Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. P. 1-19.
Ledeneva A. 2013. Can Russia Modernise? Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978494
Medard J. 1976. Le rapport de clientèle: du phénomène social à l’analyse politique. – Revue française de science politique. Vol. 26. No. 1. P. 103-131. https://doi.org/10.3406/rfsp.1976.393655
Newson A., Trebbi F. 2018. Authoritarian Elites. – Canadian Journal of Economics. Vol. 51. No. 4. P. 1088–1117. https://doi.org/10.1111/caje.12362
Raghavan U., Albert R., Kumara S. 2007. Near Linear Time Algorithm to Detect Community Structures in Large-Scale Networks. – Physical Review E. Vol. 76. No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.76.036106
Reisinger W., Willerton J. 1988. Elite Mobility in the Locales: Towards a Modified Patronage Model. – Elites and Political Power in the USSR. Aldershot: Elgar. P. 99-127.
Scott J. 1972. Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia. – The American Political Science Review. Vol. 66. No. 1. P. 91-113. https://doi.org/10.2307/1959280
Seidman S. 1983. Network Structure and Minimum Degree. – Social Networks. Vol. 5. No. 3. P. 269-287. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(83)90028-X
Willerton J. 1987. Patronage Networks and Coalition Building in the Brezhnev Era. – Soviet Studies. Vol. 39. No. 2. P. 175-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668138708411685
Aleskerov F., Kurapova M., Meshcheryakova N., Mironyuk M., Shvydun S. 2016. A Network Approach to Analysis of International Conflicts. – Political Science (RU). No. 4. P. 111-136. (In Russ.)
Chapkovskii P. 2011. Sotsial’nye seti i administrativnoe rekrutirovanie v Rossii: na primere federal’nogo pravitel’stva 2000-2008 [Social Networks and Administrative Recruitment in Russia: The Case of the Federal Government in 2000-2008]. MA Graduation Thesis. Saint Petersburg: European University in Saint Petersburg. (In Russ.)
Chirikova A., Ledyaev V. 2017. Governance in Russian Town. Moscow: HSE. 416 p. (In Russ.) https:// doi.org/10.17323/978-5-7598-1579-2
Fisun O. 2010. Rethinking Post-soviet Politics from a Neopatrimonial Perspective. – The Political Conceptology: Journal of Metadisciplinary Research. No. 4. P. 158-187. (In Russ.)
Gelman V. “Encounter with an Iceberg”: Concept Formation and Misformation in the Study of Russian Politics. – Polis. Political Studies. 2001. № 6. P. 6-17. (In Russ.)
Gelman V. 2015. The Vicious Circle of Post-Soviet Neopatrimonialism. – Social Sciences and Contemporary World. No. 6. P. 34-44. (In Russ.)
Gilev A. 2016. Vvedenie. Chernye koshki v temnykh komnatakh: issledovaniia politicheskogo patronazha v obshchestvennykh i gumanitarnykh naukakh’ [Introduction. Black Cats in Dark Rooms: Studies of Political Patronage in the Social Sciences and Humanities]. – Patron-clientskie otnosheniia v istorii i sovremennosti: khrestomatiia [Patron-Client Relations in History and the Present: A Chrestomathy]. Moscow: ROSSPEN. P. 6-41. (In Russ.)
Gimpelson V., Magun V. 2004. Serving the Russian State: Prospects and Constraints for Young Civil Servants’ Careers. – The Russian Public Opinion Herald. Data. Analysis. Discussions. No. 5. P. 19-36. (In Russ.)
Kazantsev D., Aseev S. 2020. Social Network Analysis of Youth Political Organizations of Novosibirsk Oblast and Altai Krai. – South-Russian Journal of Social Sciences. No. 1. P. 64-85 (In Russ.)
Kirillov A. 2008. Political History of the Urals and the Ural Federal District. 1985-2007. Yekaterinburg: Ural’skii rabochii. 544 p. (In Russ.)
Mukhametov R. 2018. Regional Ruling Elites: Dynamics and Specifics (on the Example of Sverdlovsk Region). – Management Issues. No. 6. P. 13-19. (In Russ.)
Padgett J.F., Ansell Ch.K. 2016. Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434. (Russ. ed.: Padgett J.F., Ansell Ch.K. Ustoichivoe deistvie i pod”em Medichi. – Patron-klientskie otnosheniya v istorii i sovremennosti. Moscow: ROSSPEN. P. 41-116).
Ryabchenko N. A., Katermina V. V., Gnedash A. A., Malysheva O. P. 2018. Political Content of Social Movements in the Online Space of Modern States: Analysis Methodology and Research Practices. – South Russian Journal of Social Sciences. No. 3. P. 139-162. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31429/26190567-19-3-139-162
Smorgunov L.V., Sherstobitov A.S. 2014. Politicheskie seti: teoriya i metody analiza [Political Networks: Theory and Analysis Methods]. Moscow: Aspect Press. (In Russ.)
Startsev Ya.Yu. 2009. Lichnostno-orientirovanniie vzaimodeistviia v gosudarstvennom i munutsipal’nom upravlenii [Personally-Oriented Interactions in Public Administration]. – Organy vlasti v sisteme sotsial’nykh vzaimodeistvii: sotsiologicheskii, politicheskii i upravlencheskii analiz [Public Agencies in the System of Social Interactions: Sociological, Political and Managerial Analysis]. Ekaterinburg: UAPA. P. 31-59. (In Russ.)
Content No. 6, 2021
See also:
Petrov S.I.,
STATE GOVERNANCE AND POLITICAL NETWORKS. – Polis. Political Studies. 2014. No4
Shebanova M.A.,
International bureaucracy as the stratum of transnational political elites. – Polis. Political Studies. 2012. No1
Matsiyevsky Yu.V.,
Trapped in Hybridity: Ukraine’s Regime Transformations after the 2014 Revolution. – Polis. Political Studies. 2018. No1
Round Table of the «Polis» Journal, Gaman-Golutvina O.V., Avdonin V.S., Sergeyev S.A., Chernikova V.V., Sidenko O.A., Sokolov A.V., Evdokimov N.A., Tupaev A.V., Slatinov V.B., Zhukov I.K., Kozlova N.N., Rassadin S.V., Chugrov S.V.,
Regional political processes: how «subjective» are subjects of the RF. – Polis. Political Studies. 2013. No5
Ponedelkov A.V., Starostin A.M.,
Russia’s Regional Administrative-Political Elites: the Past, the Present, the Future. – Polis. Political Studies. 2008. No6
.jpg)
.jpg)