Welfare Governance, Service Delivery & Non-State Actors in Contemporary Russia

In the 25 years since the Soviet Union collapsed, radical economic and political reforms in the Russian Federation have led to major, sustained changes in the nature of welfare provision and social assistance there. These changes have seen a move away from the Soviet model of heavy subsidies and broad state social provision to a mixed model based on means-testing, privatisation and the increasing involvement of non-state actors in the provision of social services. While some scholars have examined the more elite-level political and economic factors which have influenced welfare reform in the region, there has been little attempt to gauge the practical impact these changes have had on access to social services in these countries, both in terms of those who use such services and those who deliver them.

The ongoing changes within Russian welfare provision, including increased efforts by the authorities to involve commercial and non-commercial entities in the delivery of social services, call for a new conceptualisation of the emerging welfare regime in Russia that goes beyond existing ideal types of welfare state and encompasses this wider range of welfare providers and recipients. The paper examines patterns of provision of both state and non-state welfare and explores two research questions: (1) What is the role of non-state actors in delivering social services in Russia and what are the implications of this role for access to service provision? (2) How can the changing structure and characteristics of welfare provision and access to welfare in Russia best be described?