I'd forgotten
Back in October 2005, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on something called the Public Chamber in Russia.I had heard nothing about this organization since then. Then I ran into an old e-mail and wondered what had become of the Public Chamber. There's apparently still not much to tell, but it seems like there might be somewhere down the road.
Questions, it seems to me, revolve around whether the Public Chamber will become a powerful actor in the regime or a bit of facade for civil society in an undemocratic system.
At the time I first read about it, I compared the Public Chamber to Iran's Guardian Council. That impression came, in large part, from the Kommersant article.
A Chamber to Serve the Homeland
"There are almost three months remaining until the Public Chamber will be fully formed. But it is already clear that that body concocted by the Kremlin will not be as important in and of itself as it will be as another step toward its ideal of fully eradicating elections in Russia.
"The order by Russian President Vladimir Putin appointing the first 42 members of the Public Chamber was signed on September 28...
"In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in September 2004, [Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Vladislav] Surkov explained why the Kremlin needs to appoint a Public Chamber when its function (guaranteeing citizen collaboration with state organs, public control over the activities of those organs, consultation on proposed legislation in the State Duma) is supposed to be fulfilled by the elected parliament. 'Yes, it is supposed to and it does it. But in its own way. The birth defect of parliamentarianism is its glancing at elections, past and future. Parliamentary discussions always and everywhere result in populism to some degree and, in our rather low level of political culture, they often turn into farces. The experts in the Public Chamber will be less dependent on political conditions, which will allow them to be more objective and correct the poorly conceived decisions of the authorities,' he said...
"The mention of the 'birth defect of parliamentarianism' is key to the discussion. The authorities do not like elections. They are inconvenient for them: they can't keep track of them all, money is being spent without their knowledge, the elections may or may not come out right. It would be much simpler if balanced people could be appointed to watch over the elected...
"This leads to the conclusion that Chamber No. 3 (following the State Duma and Federation Council) is intended not to reinforce civic society, but to heal the above-mentioned 'birth defect' by rejecting any elections that may bring to power irresponsible populists instead of balanced people..."
The only textbook I have that mentions the Public Chamber is Introduction to Comparative Politics by Kesselman, Krieger, and Joseph (4th ed., 2007). In a section on civil society, the authors describe the Public Chamber as a "new initiative... created in 2005 by legislation proposed by the president... [T]he organization is presented as a mechanism for public consultation and input, as well as a vehicle for creating public support for government policy. It appears," the authors continue, "to reflect a corporatist approach that might serve to co-opt public activists from more disruptive forms of self-expression." (p. 192)
Russia Profile offered this description in January 2006: "As part of the ongoing conversation about civil society in Russia, on July 1, 2005, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill authorizing the creation of the Public Chamber, a 126-member body designed to provide oversight of the Duma. The stated purpose of the new body is to provide oversight of governmental bodies and the executive branch, offering expertise in relation to new legislation, and 'organizing cooperation between the citizenry and federal organs of state power.' The Chamber can issue nonbinding advice to the government on domestic policy and legislation and request investigations into suspected wrongdoing...
"Few analysts think that the Chamber will be anything more than a rubber stamp for the Kremlin's policies, with scholars from the Moscow Carnegie Center calling it 'a very useful, thoroughly domesticated, element of civil society in bureaucratic form' and journalists declaring that only 4 of the Chamber's members are completely free of the Kremlin's influence..."
When I searched for news reports about the Public Chamber, I found a year-old Kommersant article: Russia: Public Chamber Notes Crackdown on Independent Media
"The Public Chamber is going to hold a monitoring of freedom of press in Russia, Pavel Gusev, editor-in-chief at Moskovsky Komsomolets, said, referring to international reports which put Russia below number 100 in terms of freedom of speech. At the same time, Russia has the world's largest number of killed journalists, second only to Iraq..."
A paper presented at the International Studies Association in March 2008 by James Richter (who also presented a paper on Russian civil society in 2006) dealt with the Public Chamber.
The paper's abstract was,"The reassertion of the Russian state under Vladimir Putin has been described by political analysts close to the President as an exercise in 'sovereign democracy.' The basic premise of this philosophy is that true democracy can occur only in a state that is truly sovereign. The state's efforts to maintain internal sovereignty, moreover, depend to a large degree on its ability to defend its external sovereignty.
"In this respect, Putin's policy may be regarded as a response to the challenges of globalization, but it contains a key contradiction. On the one hand, Putin recognizes the need for Russia to participate in the global economy, but at the same time he still envisions the Russian nation as an organic community under the state that must maintain its cohesion in order to survive. He therefore finds himself praising the individual initiative necessary to engage the global economy successfully even as he creates barriers to insulate society from the fragmenting effects of global market and social forces.
"No where is this tension between seeking to promote individual initiative while keeping it under control more apparent than in the Public Chamber, a corporatist-type body designed to invite social organizatons to consult and monitor government agencies even as it insulates these organizations from the influence of foreign donors. By examining the Public Chamber, one can see how the Putin administration, in response to globalization, seeks to monitor how 'divides' are crossed between Russia and the world, by whom and for what purpose."
President-elect Dmitry Medvedev met with the members of the Public Chamber a few weeks ago.
According to a report from Reuters (UK) [Russia's Medvedev urges stronger role for civil society], he told the Public Chamber members that civil society groups should have a bigger role in forming policy and holding the government to account.
The article noted that "some observers have predicted the next president may adopt a more consensual style than former KGB spy Putin."
Medvedev is quoted as saying "Our task is to create a system which would allow civic structures to participate in working out state policy and appraising its quality," and that the opinion of minority groups represented by public organizations and professional unions should be taken into account.
"Medvedev told the Public Chamber he wanted civil society groups to help scrutinize legislation before it came into force, saying officials were not always able to assess the social impact of new laws."
It seems to me that we need to keep our eyes and ears open for more details about the Public Chamber in Russia. It's significance might change as a new president takes over, either as a forum for consensus building or a way for Putin to exercise more power.
Labels: civil society, politics, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:51 AM
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