How could one measure the activity of our School? By the results of regional alumni activities, for instance.
They have implemented a number of initiatives and projects during the two-decade history of MSPS. Some won national recognition, others – regional and municipal. Some projects have already been implemented and deemed to be successful. Lots still to be developed. Precisely why we traditionally plan to make a presentation of those in development projects during our Alumni annual meeting.
This year ten regions made presentation on their initiatives. Projects were divided in three issue-related groups in order to facilitate perception and to intensify discussion.
The speakers faced a difficult task, to start with Alexander Sogomonov, moderator, asked them to explain what civil society was and whether there was one. Thus speakers had to prove if their projects contributed to the development of civic activity.
The first, “anticorruption” block, was presented by the alumni from Kaliningrad and Saratov. Ilya Shumanov, a Department Head from the Kaliningrad Administration Office of the Committee for Economic, Finances and Audit, reported the results of the poll. 600 residents of Kaliningrad region and 100 representatives of small and medium business took part in the poll. Most of them were not able to estimate what amount of money was spent on bribes, but the big picture was sad: the average size of “stimulation” paid to Kaliningrad public officers equals almost 5% of the monthly turnover of Kaliningrad businessmen.
Aleksey Raskhodchikov, the Director of the Social Research Agency, showed how the theory might be translated into practice. His project “Students Against Corruption” is about working with students to prevent the giving and the taking of a bribe in Universities.
The second block with a conventional name of “civil society and the authorities” covered projects aimed to establish a legitimate dialogue between the society and the authorities. Oleg Zhedyayev from the Karachayevo-Cherkessian Republic (graduated in 2006) presented his project on interaction between citizens and power agencies in his region. The project triggered a lively discussion as long as this topic is common to most of Alumni projects. The answer to the question raised by Alexander Sogomonov at the beginning came up in the debates.
Yes, there is civil society in this country. Moreover, it is booming in its own way in every region.
Next year MSPS will be launching a radically new project, a big cycle of regional seminars. Experts of the School, alumni, students, authorities, business, mass media will discuss the special needs and ways of development of Russian regions, finer points of the society strata relationships.
Participants agreed to go on with the debates in their own regions, assuring they will provide delegation of the Moscow School a cordial welcome and a high level of dialogue.
The third block of projects deserves a special mention. Yury Glushenkov from Kaluga, Sergey Suslov from Krasnodarsky Krai and Yury Grekov from Moscow prepared their presentation on social initiatives. The last project channeled the discussion to an absolutely new direction: from politics and public life to humanitarian values. “Volunteers on Wheels”, project organized by a group of people having certain resources and the desire to help people around them. Yevgeny Grekov told how easy is to do the important work if you leave political situation and administrative obstacles aside.
Although the personal selfless initiative is important, the spiritual drive is not enough to build a promising civil society. “Good society” demands daily rational work. This was the conclusion the audience came to after the discussion. There is no doubt that the human factor and concern are crucial here, but a clear and well-planned strategy is necessary to take activities onto the plane of development.
The alumni of the Moscow School of Political Studies are implementing more than a hundred projects in different regions of Russia at present. Some of them are presented here (the chart for the Social Projects being initiated and implemented by MSPS students and graduates). For the information on others, contact Vitaly Ivanishchev, the coordinator of the Alumni Association.
Download Chart
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