Diffusion of practic of strategic planning in Russian cities and towns in 1997–2013

Abstract

Information about the diffusion of the administrative innovation of strategic planning in Russian cities and towns with over 100 000 inhabitants in 1997–2013 is collected and analyzed. The study covered 174 cities where official documents on long-term socioeconomic planning. The collected databank of 130 documents shows the dynamics and territorial scope of the process. The main results of the study are as follows: (1) Cities with long-term strategies make up 60% of the analyzed total. (2) In 1997–2005, number of cities with long-term strategies was growing slowly, but in 2006, the growth sharply accelerated after the completion of reforms in municipal self-governance. (3) The territorial diffusion of the innovation followed the center-to-periphery law, i.e., its en masse diffusion was affected by administrative factors and diffusion in any federal districts accelerated after the strategy was adopted by the district capitals. (4) The most rapid adoption of strategic planning was observed in cities with over 250000 inhabitants. (5) There is a direct relation between a city’s success manifested as the absence of a decrease in population and the adoption of strategic urban planning.