Hostname: page-component-6dbcb7884d-4vmf6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T15:45:36.514Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Leveraging Policy Capabilities in Russia and Finland during the Pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2022

Esuna Dugarova Open the ORCID record for Esuna Dugarova [Opens in a new window]
Esuna Dugarova*
Affiliation:
PhD, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK Email: esuna@cantab.net
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The current article provides comparative analysis of policy capabilities in COVID-19 response in Russia and Finland by examining key challenges and impacts of the pandemic, and effects of anti-crisis socio-economic measures. It finds that the two countries adopted diverse policy responses that prioritised different segments of society with corresponding budget allocations. Such policy choice has been underpinned by pre-existing national priorities, while largely leveraging established policy legacy, institutions, and instruments within their welfare models. Russia has focused on supporting households through pro-natalist social assistance in line with its demographic concerns and persistent poverty, whereas Finland concentrated on protecting employment via social insurance and labour market interventions amid declining working-age population and labour supply. It is further suggested that improving policy capabilities via investments in comprehensive social security, welfare systems and gender-responsive policies can contribute to better development outcomes, while addressing gender power imbalances in the post-COVID-19 era.

Keywords

Social protection and labour marketgender equalityCOVID-19 pandemicRussiaFinland
Type
Themed Section on Mapping the Shifts in Russian and European Welfare Polities
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 22 , Issue 2: THEMED SECTION: Mapping the Shifts in Russian and European Welfare Polities , April 2023 , pp. 376 - 390
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation (2020) ‘Social policy’, Federal Budget for 2020, Report of the Treasury of Russia as of 01.01.2021, Moscow: Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation.Google Scholar
BBC (2020) ‘Finland to give dads same parental leave as mums’, BBC, 5 February.Google Scholar
BBC (2021) ‘Lockdown anniversary. Five charts on what happened to Russia’s population and economy’, BBC, 25 March.Google Scholar
Béland, D., Cantillon, B., Hick, R. and Moreira, A. (2021) ‘Social policy in the face of a global pandemic: policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis’, Social Policy and Administration, 55, 2, 249–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Béland, D., Dinan, S., Rocco, P. and Waddan, A. (2022) ‘COVID-19, poverty reduction, and partisanship in Canada and the United States’, Policy and Society, DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puac002.Google Scholar
Cantillon, B., Seeleib-Kaiser, M. and van der Veen, R. (2021) ‘The COVID-19 crisis and policy responses by continental European welfare states’, Social Policy and Administration, 55, 2, 326–38.Google ScholarPubMed
Choi, Y. J., Kühner, S. and Shi, S-J. (2022) ‘From “new social risks” to “COVID social risks”: the challenges for inclusive society in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan amid the pandemic’, Policy and Society, DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puac001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, L. and Titterton, M. (2022) ‘Mapping the shifts in Russian and European welfare polities’, Social Policy and Society, this themed section. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, L. and Twigg, J. (2020) ‘Can Russia’s health and welfare systems handle the pandemic?’, Current History, 119, 819, 251–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dugarova, E. (2019) ‘Gender, welfare and childcare in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia’, Journal of Social Policy and Administration, 53, 3, 385–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dugarova, E. (2020) ‘Unpaid care work in times of the COVID-19 crisis: gendered impacts, emerging evidence and promising policy responses’, Paper prepared for the UN Expert Group Meeting “Families in development: Assessing progress, challenges and emerging issues. Focus on modalities for IYF+30”, New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Duma, Russian (2020) No. 926856-7 On Amending Article 13-3 of the Federal Law “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation”, https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/926856-7 [accessed 06.11.2021]Google Scholar
Ellison, N., Blomqvist, P. and Fleckenstein, T. (2022) ‘Covid (In)equalities: labor market protection, health, and residential care in Germany, Sweden, and the UK’, Policy and Society, DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puac004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Tree Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999) Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eurofound (2022) COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch, Database of national-level responses, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/index.html [accessed 20.05.2022].Google Scholar
European Commission (EC) (2020a) ‘State aid: commission approves €2 billion Finnish public guarantee and subsidised loan scheme to support companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak’, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_705 [accessed 06.11.2021].Google Scholar
European Commission (EC) (2020b) ‘State aid: commission approves €3 billion Finnish scheme to support companies affected by coronavirus outbreak’, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_692 [accessed 06.11.2021].Google Scholar
Finnish Government (2020a) Voluntary National Review 2020 Finland: Report on the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Helsinki: Publications of the Prime Minister’s Office 2020: 8.Google Scholar
Finnish Government (2020b) Strengthening Wellbeing and Equality During and After Coronavirus Crisis, Helsinki: Publications of the Finnish Government 2020:27.Google Scholar
Gazeta (2020) ‘Pandemic losses: a record drop in business profits’, Gazeta, 12 August.Google Scholar
Giattino, C., Ritchie, H., Roser, M., Ortiz-Ospina, E. and Hasell, J. (2021) ‘Excess mortality during the coronavirus pandemic’, Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid [accessed 6.11.2021]Google Scholar
Greve, B., Blomquist, P., Hvinden, B. and van Gerven, M. (2021) ‘Nordic welfare states – still standing or changed by the COVID-19 crisis?’, Social Policy and Administration, 55, 2, 295–311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higher School of Economics (HSE) (2021) Black Swan in the White Mask, Analytical report on COVID-19 anniversary, Moscow: Higher School of Economics.Google Scholar
Institute for Economic Policy (IEP) (2020) Monitoring of the Economic Situation in Russia, 20 (122), Moscow: Institute for Economic Policy.Google Scholar
Interfax (2021) ‘The Ministry of Labour informed that most of the poor in the Russian Federation are families with children’, Interfax, 4 June.Google Scholar
International Labour Office (ILO) (2021a) World Social Protection Report 2020–22: Social Protection at the Crossroads – in Pursuit of a Better Future, Geneva: International Labour Office.Google Scholar
International Labour Office (ILO) (2021b) Building Forward Fairer: Women’s Rights to Work and at Work at the Core of the Covid-19 Recovery, Policy Brief, Geneva: International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Johns Hopkins University and Medicine (2021a) ‘Russia’, Coronavirus Resource Center, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/russia [accessed 06.11.2021].Google Scholar
Johns Hopkins University and Medicine (2021b) ‘Finland’, Coronavirus Resource Center, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/finland [accessed 06.11.2021].Google Scholar
Kabeer, K., Razavi, S. and van der Meulen Rodgers, Y. (2021) ‘Feminist economic perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic’, Feminist Economics, 27, 1–2, 1–29.Google Scholar
Kela (2021) Pocket Statistics 2021, Helsinki: Kela.Google Scholar
Mesiäislehto, M., Elomäki, A., Närvi, J., Simanainen, M., Sutela, S. and Räsänen, T. (2022) The Gendered Impacts of the Covid-19 Crisis in Finland and the Effectiveness of the Policy Responses, Helsinki: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).Google Scholar
Ministry of Finance (2020) Finland State Budget Proposals, https://budjetti.vm.fi/indox/sisalto.jsp?year=2020&lang=fi&maindoc=/2020/aky/aky.xml&opennode=0:1:11:265:1151: [accessed 06.11.2021].Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2020a) A People-Centred Perspective on Employment Barriers and Policies: Faces of Joblessness in Finland, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2020b) OECD Economic Surveys: Finland, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2021) Economic Policy Reforms 2021: Going for Growth, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
RBC (2020) ‘The Ministry of Labour announced the number of the poor in Russia’, RBC, 12 October.Google Scholar
RIA (2020) ‘The Ministry of Labour told how many families received payments for children between 0 and 16 years old’, RIA, 6 July.Google Scholar
Roik, V. (2017) ‘Social budgeting in Russia: from paternalistic to insurance paradigm’, Population, 1, 75, 4–13.Google Scholar
Russian Government (2021) Operational Report on Implementation of the Federal Budget and Budgets of State Extrabudgetary Funds in January – December 2020, Moscow.Google Scholar
Russian Ministry of Finance (2021) ‘Brief information on implementation of the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation’, Document on annual information on implementation of the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation (data since 1 January 2006), Moscow: Ministry of Finance of Russia.Google Scholar
Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation (2020) ‘Structure of revenues and expenditures of the budget of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation for 2020’, Moscow.Google Scholar
Soon, S., Chou, C. C. and Shi, S. -J. (2021). ‘Withstanding the plague: institutional resilience of the east Asian welfare state’, Social Policy and Administration, 55, 2, 374–87.Google ScholarPubMed
TASS (2020) ‘Around 1.6 million SMEs and the self-employed received support in 2019-2020’, TASS, 20 December.Google Scholar
TASS (2021) ‘More than 2.5 trillion rubles was directed to support Russians during the pandemic’, TASS, 12 May.Google Scholar
THL (2021) Toimeentulotuki 2020 - Toimeentulotuen saajien määrä kasvoi odotetusti, Tilastoraportti 18/2021, 4.6.2021, Helsinki: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), https://www.julkari.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/142659/Tr18_21.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [accessed 06.11.2021].Google Scholar
THL (2022) OSF Statistical Report, 15/2022, https://thl.fi/documents/189940/1449591/TR_15_2022_tables.pdf/3f43ff65-3d77-6efc-88f6-2c6759e1a2e2?t=1651732250087 [accessed 20.05.2022].Google Scholar
World Bank (2020) Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020: Reversals of Fortune, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
World Bank (2021) Russia’s Economic Recovery Gathers Pace, Russia Economic Report, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Yerkes, M. A., Remery, C., André, S., Salin, M., Hakovirta, M. and van Gerven, M. (2022) ‘Unequal but balanced: highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work–life balance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Finland and the Netherlands’, Journal of European Social Policy, DOI: 10.1177/09589287221080411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar