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NORRUSS-Nordområdene og Russland

The Russian welfare state under quadruple influence: stability or conflict?

Alternative title: null

Awarded: NOK 5.5 mill.

The project applies an actor-oriented approach to analyse welfare state reforms and their effects on political and social stability in Russia. It combines a macro perspective of welfare system reform and developments with micro level analysis of their ef fects and how they are perceived. The research will be carried out on three basic policy arenas in the Russian welfare state. These are a) the pension system, b) housing, and c) primary education. Three main theoretical intakes will be applied, related t o i) socio-economic interest groups, ii) the character of the Russian state (statism), and iii) international policy transfer. Moreover, the studies will be carried out at three levels of government (federation, federation subject, city). The main re search questions are: How do various societal actors influence the development of the Russian welfare system? Does their influence differ between welfare policy fields and between different types and levels of locality? How massive is the potential for br oad protest activity against welfare reform at local and national levels, and what do welfare system developments imply for the continued stability of the Russian polity? The research team has members from Norway, Russia, Finland and the USA. The proj ect will be innovative by its focus on the interrelation between Russian welfare reform and political stability. Also, the fact that the project systematically studies and compares three core welfare arenas on which controversial reforms are on the agenda , makes it fill a void in the literature on contemporary Russia. The project applies data triangulation and combines document and policy analysis, explorative and semi-structured interviews, media discourse analysis, as well as a survey of public attitud es. Case study method structures the research. A model of quadruple influence will be applied, along which four types of inputs to the welfare state are analysed in their interaction.

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NORRUSS-Nordområdene og Russland