New Voices on Eurasia with Guzel Garifullina | People Behind the Scenes: The Face of the Russian State at the Subnational Level

What kinds of people does the Russian state apparatus consist of? The state is not faceless, and individuals in decision-making positions, even at the local level, can have enormous consequences – particularly if the same features are seen across localities and regions and are institutionally encouraged. In her talk, Guzel Garifullina will discuss how selection rules in recent decades have shaped the face of Russian subnational leaders – governors and mayors. She will also look at the most numerous part of the Russian state – subnational bureaucracy – and present recent findings on institutionalized incentives, attitudes, and characteristics of bureaucrats at this level. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the implications that the identified features may have on the current behavior of state agents as the Russian state is facing new challenges associated with the war.

Guzel Garifullina is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2021 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies (University of Rochester) in 2021-2022.

Guzel’s research focuses on local politics and governance in Russia, and she uses a variety of tools, including lab and survey experiments and analysis of detailed observational data to conduct comparative studies of authoritarian institutions. Her work appeared in Post-Soviet Affairs, Comparative Political Studies, Demokratizatsiya, and Europe-Asia Studies.