Institutional Continuity in the Russian Strategic Planning System

The article examines the phenomenon of institutional continuity within Russia’s strategic planning system, tracing its evolution from the Soviet planned economy of five-year plans to the modern model of management by objectives through national projects. The study aims to identify elements of institutional continuity in Russia’s strategic planning system that manifest in modern national projects and assess their impact on the effectiveness of public administration. Based on historical-genetic, comparative-historical, and structural-functional analysis, key inherited institutional characteristics that maintain their influence at all planning levels were identified and systematized: the dominance of political goals over economic ones, rigid centralization of the management vertical, the directive nature of goal-setting, a mobilization-based implementation mechanism, and an orientation towards quantitative rather than qualitative results. It is shown that during the implementation of national projects, these inherited traits generate specific systemic dysfunctions: low adaptability to external challenges (as was confirmed during the pandemic), systemic simulation of activity, a gap between declared goals and real socio-economic effects, and the reproduction of a cost-intensive economic model. Despite the identified positive aspects of continuity (management coordination, predictability, personnel continuity), institutional continuity acts as a structural factor limiting the effectiveness of state strategic management. Prospects for improving the system’s efficiency are associated with a transition from the inherited logic of centralized directive management to a flexible model based on decentralizing responsibility, creating incentives for achieving high-quality, socially significant results, and implementing feedback mechanisms focused on the final outcome. Prospects for a further research are related to the development of specific mechanisms for such a transformation.

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