They are terribly far from the people

Officials have become in Russia a special caste in Russia of the bureaucracy is becoming more and more every year. And this is expressed not only in doubling compared to the Soviet period of the number of officials - from 660 thousand to 1 million 300 thousand, but also in “high -quality” transformation: bureaucracy has become a special class living according to its own laws. Such conclusions are contained in a study conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with the representative office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Russia. However, as the same study showed, officials themselves are convinced that they act in the interests of the people and the country.

In the spring of this year, Vladimir Putin made a sharp criticism of modern Russian bureaucracy in his message to the Federal Assembly: "Our bureaucracy is to a large extent an sometimes closed and arrogant caste, which understands state interests as a kind of business." This conclusion was clearly confirmed by two surveys conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian representation of the Ebert Foundation. The first was massive: throughout Russia, 1,500 citizens representing 11 social groups were interviewed. The second survey was conducted only among civil servants and lower and middle -level officials.

The results showed that bureaucracy really turned into a special estate, living in its own interests and according to its own laws. “This category of people feels not in the structure of society, but over it,” explains Mikhail Gorshkov, director of the Institute of Sociology.

Administrative reform undertaken by the president did not help to modify the bureaucracy. As the survey has shown, more than 66% of Russians do not see any significant changes in the work of the authorities. Moreover, 32% of respondents note the strengthening of the arbitrariness of bureaucracy and ordinary officials after building the vertical of power began. 48.5% of respondents complain that most of them are far from the interests of society, 47.6% - that they often behave dishonestly and dishonestly; 37.9% of respondents consider officials to be rude, and 46.9% - sales.

At the same time, officials themselves see themselves in a completely different light: they believe that they are worried about the fate of the country, imagine themselves to be hardworking, initiative, professionals of their business with good organizational abilities. True, all these qualities do not affect the result of their work. More than 60% of Russians and every third official note the low efficiency of the work of state bodies. But if citizens believe that the reason for this is the lack of fear, impunity, low professional training of civil servants, then officials blame the imperfection of the legislation, greater workload and low salaries. It is curious that, meanwhile, this does not prevent them from enjoying life. According to the study, more than half of the officials reckon themselves with prosperous citizens: they are quite satisfied with the quality of food, housing conditions, their leisure. The rest of the population in all these parameters evaluates the quality of their life on "bad."

According to surveyed citizens, it is possible to fight the arbitrariness of officials if they take their activities under enhanced public control. And as the chief controller, 43% of respondents call the president. However, as State Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov notes, "the leader of the state is not able to tame the bureaucracy." “Control functions should belong to democratic institutions,” the deputy is convinced. “And now in the country all these institutions are below sewers. Moreover, the president himself weakens the influence of parliament, parties, and federal media. In the presence of command and intelligent authorities, it is difficult to fight the bureaucracy.” Doctor of Economics Alexander Buzgalin believes that in Russia they will not be able to correct this situation for a long time. "The Russian bureaucracy has four paradoxes: the more liberal reforms are realized, the more power the power of the bureaucrats; the stronger the power of officials, the more common the illegal mechanisms of their activities. This requires a hard hand, but the more this requirement is manifested, the greater the number of bureaucrats."

11/01/2005 / Lyudmila Novikova, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 208 dated 02.11.2005.