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SEMINARS

The Seminars constitute the School’s core activity and are the main tool for spreading the School’s ideals and values. They are designed to encourage independent thinking as well as to foster a democratic view of the world and instill democratic practices in participants.

The School’s seminars can either be dedicated to general themes (such as the rule of law, human rights, and essentials of civil society, Nation-State and free market economy) or they can deal with the practicalities of democracy. They are held both at regional and federal levels at locations throughout Russia, as well as abroad in a variety of European and American cities.

Speakers at the seminars include leading politicians, members of parliaments, high-ranking officials, successful businessmen, well-known journalists and academics from all over Russia, Europe and the United States.

The participants come from all regions of Russia, and also from Armenia, the Baltic states, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central Asian states, Georgia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Serbia, and Ukraine. They include members of the national, regional and municipal legislatures; officials and administrators; journalists; leaders of NGOs, and businessmen.

Each seminar lasts from two to seven days, attended by between 100 and 150 specially selected participants with and average age of 35. The students work extremely hard: daily sessions usually last from 9am to 10pm with two hour-long lunch breaks and several coffee breaks each lasting about 15-30 minutes. Each session lasts from 1.5 to 2 hours, and consists of: 1) a lecture or report on one of the program’s issues, 2) an open discussion on the theme. All discussions are recorded in digital format, and synchronous translation is provided if needed. Without exception the students report that it is a mind-opening and life-changing experience.

Over two hundred seminars have been held since 1993 in various Russian regions as well as in the United States and European countries (including Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Sweden, which have become traditional venues for our seminars). Today, the MSPS runs about 25 seminars per year.

FEDERAL SEMINARS

Federal Seminars, entitled Law, Politics, Economy and Mass Media, are the core programme of the School. During one year participants attend two seminars at the Golitsyno conference centre (Moscow region) and a closing seminar in Western Europe. Those who complete the core programme receive a diploma signed by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the Director of the School.

REGIONAL SEMINARS

In 1993-2006 the School's regional seminars, titled Federalism, Regional Politics and Local Self-Government, have been held in regional centres with participants coming from all neighboring regions. Participants of these seminars were selected through the School’s own regional network, and through contacts with local authorities.

Regional seminars from 1993-2006 focused on the interrelations between central and local authorities, the separation of powers at different levels, the legal regulation of the activities of local democratic institutions; social reform in the regions, the specific features of civil society in the provinces, and the work of the local media.

In 2007-2008 MSPS updated the format of the regional workshops. Lecture sessions were replaced by round table discussions to encourage the active involvement of seminar participants and create a framework for further dialog and action.

In 2008, MSPS supported 30 regional workshops (20 seminars and 10 round tables). On average, each regional workshop was attended by 40-50 people.

It became common practice for representatives of local and regional authorities, local business and regional organizations interested in the subject under consideration to chair these local meeting sessions. The School made every effort to encourage maximum involvement by participants in the discussions, in order to ensure that the deliberations accurately reflected a wide-based range of experiences and expressions of interest.

Through its regional seminars the School has established a number of regional partnerships that continue to promote democratic change and the development of the open society within the regions.

For example:

• In the Republic of Dagestan, thanks to active role of the School and the seminars it has organized, the "Global Dagestan" Project was launched (organized jointly by MSPS, the European University in St. Petersburg and the Ministry of Information and Nationalities of Dagestan Republic). Relevant research has been conducted mostly by the academics from the European University and supported at the local level by young researchers drawn from participants in the School’s seminars in Makhachkala (about 50 people). The aim of the project is to create a ‘virtual map’ - the database for each of the numerous Dagestan villages with the emigrants who originated from these villages. Such a database will create a ‘map’ of the Dagestan diaspora throughout the world and help the government and local activists improving the image of the region.
  
  The "Waste Management Council" in Irkutsk is a community and discussion club. There is increasing evidence that community-based approaches to waste management can promote more sustainable development. Grassroots efforts can be more successful than top-down programs created by bureaucrats or experts with little or no community participation. Irkutsk businessmen and "green" activists guided by the knowledge they received at a series of regional seminars organised by the School, found it necessary to undertake a serious study of local and international experience as well as advanced technology in this field. They turned to the School to help in organizing the Council, in order to engage experts in waste management and consult with them on restructuring the current system in the most efficient way.

   

• In Vladivostok, MSPS staff and alumni along with local business and emerging young politicians meet regularly to discuss the creation and implementation of a general development plan for the city.
  

   

• In Astrakhan, a number of regional NGOs, under the leadership of several environmental organizations, are meeting with local and regional authorities and local businesses and unions to organize a series of workshops on the environmental and ecological development of the Volga streambed and spearhead improvements in public transport management in the city.
  

   

• In the Voronezh region the Young Human Rights Movement and local and regional business are in negotiations with MSPS staff and alumni to sponsor a series of workshops on the creation of independent arbitration courts in the region.

Members and alumni are also encouraged to identify relevant projects in their regions and implement them locally.

Participants of the School’s programmes enjoy several annual seminars conducted in Western countries. These seminars offer the participants the opportunity to see democratic and civil society institutions at work and witness decentralization and subsidiarity principles in practice.  The seminars are conducted in a study tour fashion and show the inside details of a working civil society, giving essential experience and understanding to seminar participants. Many of them have become traditional venues (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, UK and the USA).

This is a fundamental aspect of the School’s approach — the exposure of its participants to the best of European and American experience.