Does Performance Matter? Working Meetings between Putin and the Governors

• In Event: Putin's Russia and Autocratization

Abstract

Following a wave of popular protests in December 2011, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev reinstated direct gubernatorial elections. The re-institution of gubernatorial elections coincided with the introduction of new key performance indicators (KPIs) and evaluation procedures. Though these were intended to foster regional social and economic development through the provision of federal transfers, the Kremlin may actually use its KPIs and evaluation procedures to dismiss governors. How have Putin and the governors discussed performance during their periodic, one-on-one working meetings? Considering the increased fiscal constraints that the Russian state has experienced over the past decade, we hypothesize that Putin and the governors discuss KPIs as a means of ‘performing’ governance and reducing public scrutiny. A preliminary term frequency analysis of 363 Russian-language meeting transcripts shows that performance matters during these elite discussions. Terms related to construction and regional investment appear frequently. We plan to use natural language processing to cluster transcripts from 2012-2024 and determine whether these meetings affect the likelihood of gubernatorial promotion or demotion.

Authors

• Kathleen Gergely, Indiana University

• Andrey Yushkov, Indiana University