High-ranking officials of Russia’s social ministries: Recruitment channels and careers

The article considers recruitment channels and careers of high-ranking officials of social ministries of the Russian government. The study is based on the biographical database of 104 deputy ministers and department directors from six ministries and shows that bureaucratic professionalization is the key feature of the officials’ career, and federal administration is the main channel for their recruitment, since the majority have already worked in their ministry for some time before taking their current position. These trends may indicate the importance of meritocratic selection based on competence. However, officials with a career primarily in the federal administration, especially in one ministry, are a minority. There is interdepartmental mobility in social ministries, with a number of officials coming from financial ministries, which can increase their influence on the social bloc, contributing to the formation of its policies in a neoliberal spirit. After the administrative sphere, the most significant supplier of officials are social organizations subordinate to ministries (institutions of science, education, health care, social security, culture and sports). Business plays a relatively modest role as a channel for recruiting officials for social ministries, especially compared to economic ministries. In general, work experience in business, regional administrations and social organizations is more widespread, while intradepartmental recruitment is less common among deputy ministers. Moreover, there are ministries with pronounced intradepartmental recruitment and ministries with relatively developed recruitment from business; in some ministries there are intersections between ministers and their subordinates in previous careers, which may indicate a patrimonial nature of selection.