Public policy training and development of MPA/MPP programs in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The article reviews the evolution of Master level public policy and administration education in the Russian Federation in the past 25 years. It focuses on the changes in the curriculum, the main institutions in public policy and administration graduate training (the Russian Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration, the Moscow State University, and the Higher School of Economics), and the legal framework regulating the standards for teaching and research in the field. It shows that despite the increasing popularity of graduate level training in public administration and public policy, programs only selectively represent standards practiced elsewhere in the world. MPP/MPA training in Russia has diverse origins, borrowing from the Continental tradition of the study of administrative law, an increasing popularity of business education and management practices, as well as current demands of the Russian state to develop managers in a variety of policy fields. The selective representation of international standards in various programs has resulted in some convergence and some isomorphism with those standards, but there remain many particularities in the Russian tradition and the current Russian situation in higher education.