Interaction of civil activists with institutions of power and local selfgovernment in the regions of Southwest Siberia: Mechanisms and problems

Abstract

The work deals with the study of the civic activism sphere and issues of interaction between civil society institutions, local self-government and state power in the regions of Southwest Siberia. The study was carried out on the basis of the reports analysis of the Public Chambers of the regions, official resources of institutions supporting civil initiatives, regional media and information agencies, pages of civil associations in social networks. The study also used the results of an expert survey of leaders and moderators of civil associations conducted in 2021. The study showed that the central and regional authorities consider it necessary to control the forms of manifestation and the main directions of civic activity and coordinate the actions of its subjects. To achieve this goal, existing institutions, primarily Public Сhambers, are involved, as well as new ones are created in order to directly support socially useful initiatives. The forms of interaction are also very diverse — from providing opportunities for dialogue in the form of discussion platforms and round tables to direct resource support for specific projects. On the other hand, the main goal of self-organizing civil communities remains the solution of “urgent” local problems, which is the focus of their current activities. Although the situational relevance of the raised agenda may attract a large number of supporters to them, they do not pretend to participate in political power and are integrated into the proposed models of relationships. However, the interaction is complicated by the fact that associations of civil activists are often informal, poorly institutionalized and are not considered by the authorities as equal participants in political relations.