INTER-REGIONAL FOUNDATION FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES PROJECT
«THE INSTITUTE OF PARLIAMENTARISM»

December 1999 elections to the State Duma as well as the 2000 elections to the local legislatures resulted in a major turnover of the lawmakers on both the federal and regional levels, bringing to the Russian political stage a new generation of policymakers. The efficiency of the legislative activities of the new deputies depends to a great extent upon their knowledge of the internal Russian as well as international lawmaking practices.

This is all the more important since the State Duma is challenged by the task of adjusting the Russian domestic laws to the international standards to enable Russia to continue its integration into the world community, expand its cooperation with the European Union and prepare itself for a possible joining the World Trade Organization.

A direct dialogue with the foreign lawmakers and law experts is one of the most efficient ways of acquiring the international experience in democratic government.

The Inter-Regional Foundation for Information Technologies (IFIT) has started its project «The Institute of Parliamentarism» to facilitate such an inter-parliamentary dialogue through a series of seminars, «round table» discussions and workshops with international participation of the legislators, government officials, academic scholars and experts, as well as through an exchange of ideas and relevant information, providing an information support for the State Duma deputies.

The first such seminar on «Russia at the Turn of the Century» was held in Moscow on 14–15 October, 2000. Over fifty lawmakers, politicians and scientists from Russia, Sweden, Germany, Finland and other European countries discussed such topics as «Political, economic and social development of Russia in the XXI century», «Information Openness as a Factor of Democratic Development of the State and Civil Society in Russia», «The Current State and Prospects of the Russian Economy and Defense Complex». The participants in the seminar have agreed on the usefulness of the meeting and expressed their interest in a continuation of the IFIT project.

The second seminar on «The System of Governance in Russia in the International Context» (April 21–22, 2001) was attended by leading Russian and foreign experts, political scientists, federal and regional-level policymakers, and mass media representatives, who spent two days discussing the crucial issues relating to functionality of the domestic political institutions, in particular, and prospects for the Russian political system, in general.

The third seminar on «Fiscal Federalism in Russia» (November 16–18, 2001) attracted a vivid interest among Russian and foreign experts, policymakers, and mass media, and enabled the participants to look into the principal phases of the ongoing effort to establish the desired fiscal federalism in Russia, make assessment of the policy-formulation and implementation blunders committed in the recent period, and suggest concrete measures to be undertaken in order to improve the mechanism of inter-budgetary relations in the coming years.

IFIT plans to hold the next seminar in June 2002 in Moscow. Preliminary topic of the seminar is «Problems of Municipalism in Russia».

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