Regional practices of business and the authorities interaction (the Russian North-West case)[Региональные Практики Взаимодействия Бизнеса И Власти (На Примере Северо-Запада Рф)]

The coordination of interests, cooperation and confrontation between the local authorities and business within the rural society play an important role in the development of rural Russia. The authors believe that the function of creating the rural business climate belongs to the regional authorities, while the local self-government lacks the levers of interaction with entrepreneurs. The success of entrepreneurial activities in agriculture is determined both by the strategy of local (and regional) leaders in the industry, and by human and social capital of rural enterprises’ managers. There is an obvious “patrimonial” model of management, in which the head of the district develops an internal policy based on one’s own goals and objectives with an eye on the regional requirements. This policy either encourages the development of agriculture at the local level, or only supports its preservation without any prospects for growth. Such conclusions are based on the results of long-term studies in the peripheral agricultural areas of non-Black-Earth regions of the Russian Federation. Despite the territorial proximity and similarity of geography and climate, each area under study has its own strategy for the development of agricultural business. Thus, the most interesting and various practices can be observed at the district level due to the specific conditions for the local agricultural enterprises. The authors confirmed their initial assumption that it is necessary to conduct a typological analysis of territories and to form clusters of similar (in many ways) areas to develop a single model of rural development for the Russian Federation.