Policy transfer in urban governance: the case of strategic urban planning in Russia

Introduction. The dramatically changing urban landscape of the post-Soviet cities called for the relevant transformations in urban planning instruments - general plans, land use and development rules, territorial development plans. The diffusion of international practices and ubiquitous clashes of interests between the public authorities, developers and citizens pretexted the demand for new governance instruments, such as master plans. Aims. To analyze the policy transfer in the field of urban planning initiated by subnational authorities in the field of urban planning, in particular, the development of new strategic development documents - master plans. Methods. Based on the case-study of Perm - the first Russian city to develop a master plan - the logic of policy transfer is reconstructed through empirical evidence coming from the media reports and interviews with urban planners, architects, government officials and developers. Results. The study demonstrates that learning as a mechanism of policy transfer on a subnational level in Russia is constrained by political and institutional factors. The attempt to develop the master plan of Perm city shows that the effect from political entrepreneurship is short-term under the conditions of weak institutions of political representation and deliberation among multiple stakeholders. Consequently, the main mechanisms of policy transfers are coercion and imitation.