Social factors of the political careers building and of the ineffective management of the regions and municipalities

The paper is devoted to the author’s conceptualization of some results of the research conducted by Russian Political Science Association (RPSA) in 2012 by the grant of the Institute of Public Planning. In particular, the paper attempts to describe the essence of the real social institutions that defi ne political career in the Russian regions, and justifications of how these institutions determine the inefficiency of the system of government. Modern Russian regional and local elites are not united, they are divided into cliques and clans vying for access to various resources, including political, economic and social. In a similar manner the structures of cliques and clans in regional and local elites defi ne the high importance of informal connections and relationships in their renovation, rejuvenation, in the recruitment of new members in them, and how important are the social positions their members, both new and old. Russian regional and municipal elites are closed in the sense that the administrative, political, social and other careers are implemented almost exclusively within their communities. Exceptions are rare; in particular, usually a leader from the local level has a very little chance to rise in the career up to the regional level, and to rise in the career from the regional up to the federal level. Understandings of the problems to be resolved are determined by the interests of cliques and clans of the elite social groups, and not by the interests of public and state. Therefore, in the post-Soviet period many important problems of regions and municipalities are not solved for decades, and among citizens is growing alienation from politics and authorities.