CIVIC AND SOCIAL INITIATIVES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF DIALOGUE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN RUSSIA1

Under condition of dominance of the Russian etatist political model, crisis of democratic institutions, problems of civil and political rights' exercise by certain social groups, and with a relatively low level of political and civic engagement, the wide dissemination of civic and social initiatives could engage citizens in the tackling problems at the local, regional and federal levels.By the means of activity approach, case study and taking into account citizens' motivation the author defined civic and social initiatives in Russia, made an analysis of its features, illustrated the main spheres of civic activism as well as studied the some results of specific initiatives.The author specifies modern forms of interaction between government and civic initiatives in Russia (mutually profitable partnership, imitative cooperation, conflict and confrontation), main platforms for civic initiatives' articulation and feedback with governing bodies.The activity approach is one of the main research methods which consider political and civic sphere in its dynamics. This approach is the methodological basis of theory of political decision-making, considers politics as a process of elaborating, adopting and implementing of sociopolitical decisions by attracting citizens to these processes. This study applies principles of the collective action theory, the rational choice theory, some provisions of the resource mobilization theory. The author uses principles of the system approach to understand the role of civil society, civic and social initiatives in the modern Russian political regime.At the present time civic activism and civic initiatives in the Russian Federation are in a state of institutionalization and search for the most effective ways of interaction with the power structures. Political level remains largely closed to civic initiatives and is tightly controlled by the government, but it actively interacts with members of civil society's institutions while solving key social problems.