ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to identify not only the reasons for failure but first of all the principal peculiarity of Russian administrative reforms. In a nutshell, it is characterized by counteraction to a specific type of enterprise and by attempts to carry out bureaucratization in a Weberian sense, increasing the role of formal rules. The chapter shows that the former Soviet and present Russian authorities, concerned with the economic situation, were pressing for the reinforcement of control both outside and inside the state administration; however, these efforts have failed. It gives an explanation of non-controllability from the point of view of the Russian tradition of state administration. The chapter characterizes the main trends of administrative reforms of the 1990's. It discusses the possibility of gradual improvement on the basis of the second best solution. The continuous failure to carry out the rules and inability to influence the economy has been a severe disease of the Russian system of state administration.
