Russia’s Federal Administrative Elite: Educational Characteristics

Abstract

Denis Tev — PhD in Sociology, Senior Research Fellow, Sociological Institute, RAS. Address: 25/14, 7th Krasnoarmeiskaya St., Saint Petersburg, 190005, Russian Federation. E-mail: denis_tev@mail.ru

This article presents the findings from a study of the educational characteristics of Russia’s federal administrative elite, which is defined as the set of persons occupying key positions in the presidential and executive power structures. It is found that the initial higher education attained by the elite is quite heterogeneous. Although, in general, training in technical or natural sciences prevails, the share of officials with a technical education in government structures is below the average. The same educational distribution is found among the youngest administrators, among whom economic and legal training prevails. It is argued that the weakening technocratic tendency and the growing prevalence of economic and legal education among the elite is, in part, due to the radical social transformation that has changed the demand for different types of knowledge in Russian society and among its ruling groups. It is also revealed that graduates of Moscow (and to a lesser extent St. Petersburg) universities are overrepresented in the administrative elite, which may be due to several factors: the specifics of the recruitment process, the high quality and prestige of education that these universities provide, and the positive association between the graduation from these universities and employment opportunities in Moscow. Moreover, there are a group of universities which play a leading role in training professional officials—Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University and MGIMO. The study also reveals that in such key segments of the elite as the government, the share of graduates from these three universities is significantly higher than among the total pool of officials.