2
directly encouraged by politicians to repress societal forces, are depicted as responsible
for widespread human rights’ violations in their everyday practices.
6
There is no denying that this picture of Russian law enforcement is at least
partially, if not substantially, true. There are countless documented examples of both
types of behavior by law enforcement agencies. This paper takes these negative facts as
given, but seeks to call attention to a more positive phenomenon taking place in cities
across Russia: the direct engagement of civil society organizations and law enforcement,
particularly the police, in joint efforts to improve the performance and change the norms
and values of state officials involved in administering justice.
The goals of the paper are correspondingly modest. Empirically, I seek to add a
little gray to the generally black picture painted of the relationship between Russian civil
society and law enforcement. Theoretically, I describe a causal mechanism generally
neglected in the burgeoning literature on national and transnational civil society,
specifically how non-governmental organizations can work from the bottom up, and from
the inside out, to try to strengthen the rule of law and ultimately democracy.
Methodologically the approach is inductive, in that I try to give a theoretical anchor to
practices that I discovered in interviews with individuals in Russia. Practically, these
efforts are important, not only because of the many problems with Russian law
enforcement, but also because there are “uncivil society” actors, in particular extremist
groups, working just as hard to transform law enforcement in illiberal and anti-
democratic directions.
6
Amnesty International, Rough Justice: The law and human rights in the Russian Federation (London:
Amnesty International Publications, 2003); Amnesty International, The Russian Federation: Denial of
Justice (London: Amnesty International Publications, 2002). Both at:
http://www.amnesty.org/russia
Convention