Import of Scientific Policy Instruments in Contemporary Russia

• Main Authors: Margarita V. Kurbatova, Sergey N. Levin, Kirill S. Sablin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ltd. "Humanities Perspectives" 2021-09-01
• Series: Журнал институциональных исследований
• Online Access: http://hjournal.ru/en/journals/journal-of-institutional-studies/2021/262-no-3/2224-import-of-scientific-policy-instruments-in-contemporary-russia.html
• ISSN: 2076-6297; 2412-6039

Characteristic features of contemporary scientific policy of Russia in the context of its instruments import are highlighted in the article. Instruments are analyzed as institutions according to the D. North interpretation. It was revealed that the main imports are the instruments those ensure the accountability of the academic community (academia). Grant funding system, scientometrics and academic excellence programs are these instruments. In the conditions of contemporary Russia the accountability of scientists and scholars to society turns into accountability to the vertical of power. The motivation of its representatives includes both the idea of public benefits as well as the task of private efficiency maximizing when to select the goals and instruments of scientific policy. It is shown that the selection process includes three main levels: political, governmental and departmental. Imported instruments are gradually transformed in accordance with the interests of the actors participating in the vertical administrative bargaining at all these levels. The goals set at the political level to strengthen economic and political positions of the country in the world are gradually being replaced with the tasks of maximizing the private efficiency of high-ranking participants in this bargaining. As a result, a qualitative modification of the sphere of science occurs. It is not just about the limitation of academic community autonomy, but about its incorporation into the vertical of power in the conditions of contemporary Russia. This fact leads to the changing of motivation and structure of academia. Academic researchers and scholars are gradually being replaced by politicized academic administrators and specific academic entrepreneurs. They are differ if compare them with the western academic entrepreneurs. The latter are focused on the competitive economic markets, while the first concentrate their attention on the redistribution of resources within the framework of vertical administrative bargaining.