|
(Task I.C.P.3)
Proposals for Government Program: "Strengthening Guarantees of Property Rights and Contract Protection"
E.A.Mishina & V.L.Tambovtsev &A.E.Shastitko
The Report has been prepared upon Request N P27-173 of April 2005 (Registration Number ORM-I02-050404-0108), Russian Federation Government Executive Office, for presenting an analytical paper Strengthening Guarantees of Property Rights and Contract Protection. This is a follow-up to research performed last March as requested by the Russian Federation Government Executive Office (N P27 – 103, March 2, 2005) to produce an analytical report covering
Elaboration of Proposals for the Russian Budgeting System Proceeding from Targets, Tasks, Parameters, Agency and Inter-Agency Programs in Relation to Regulated Property Relations. Appropriate proposals were presented in paper Regulation of Property Relations: Problem Structure, Indicators, Guidelines by V.Tambovtsev and A.Shastitko (RECEP Reports, N 2 (6), 2005), which contains theoretical basics for program targets, tasks and steps.
The Report incorporates proposals on the structure of the above program and appendices that provide an assessment of the problem field for protection of property rights, as well as analysis of acute problems to be solved for advancing the legal base for servitudes that seem to offer a legal framework most suitable for the Russian juridical system in view of property rights and reflecting modern trends in the economic theory.
The authors express gratitude to panelists S.B.Avdasheva, A.A.Blokhin, T.G.Dolgopyatova, R.A.Kokoryev, P.V.Moisseyev and Yu.V.Simachev, who took part in the discussion of the report tentative version on June 7, 2005 at the RECEP headquarters and offered a number of helpful comments and constructive proposals, which have been accounted for in this report version.
Introduction
Higher living standards and quality of life, as well as economic growth seem to have been the key features of change in Russia between 1999 and 2004. At the same time, the positive trend obviously lacks stability, which is largely dependent on quality of institutions, primarily those engaged in specification, protection and restoration of violated property rights, control of property rights blurring via actions of the central government and local authorities. The world practice shows that it is those institutions that guarantee long-term sustainability for positive changes in the key output parameters of the Russian economy.
The evolutionary non-programmed path for development of institutions protecting property and contractual rights, which means existence of private interests under unprotected property rights, on one side, and the current policy for complete ruble convertibility, on the other, are likely to shift investments in science-intensive industries beyond Russia, lowering competitiveness of Russian economy. This idea defines the Program strategic target – creation of an effective system for protection of property and contractual rights.
The Program specifics are in the attempt to cover practically all facets of economic life, not limiting the effort by engagement of only government bodies. Absolutely vital for Program’s success is involvement of business and civil society organizations in preparation of appropriate statuary documents, as well as their independent action within the targeted framework.
The Program is also unique due to its sweep over all types of property, including intellectual property, and all property regimes – private, community (municipal) and government. Hence, these aspects are not accentuated in formulation of the Program targets, tasks and steps, except for the cases when a task or a step refers only to one property type or regime.
Conditions essential for Program realization:
- (1) Coordinated action of various agencies involved in specification, protection and control of property rights blurring, as well as business associations and civil society organizations. The condition may and should be created by means of a certain organizational framework (see Section 5).
- (2) Implementation of comparative advantages of various technologies for specification and protection of property rights (see Appendix 1 for definition of the problem field). The program is long-term, so its mechanisms should be resilient to external shocks and the Program components should ensure its accomplishment and comprehensiveness to minimize the risks.
Main risks threatening to block the Program are connected with the drive to preserve low-level protection of property rights on the part of some government officials and non-government property subjects, as the low level makes it easier to attain short-term economic goals of redistributive nature (for details see Section 4).
Due to Program’s scale and complexity, its vertical structure incorporates three levels. Level One defines the goals, whereas Levels Two and Three respectively cover the tasks and key practical steps that should result in conditions for reaching the targets. Steps described within the project context should be developed by federal ministries and agencies, legislative and judicial bodies with involvement and active participation of business and civil society organizations. Horizontally, the Program goals lie in consistency corresponding to stages of the property rights “life cycle”: establishment of rights, their implementation and transfer.
Published on 30 Sep 2005
|
