Regulatory Guillotine as an Instrument of Anti-Corruption Policy

The study analyzes the potential impact of the “regulatory guillotine” mechanism, which should be launched from January 1, 2021, on increasing the effectiveness of the anti-corruption policy in the Russian Federation in the field of state regulation of economic activity by reducing the preconditions for administrative corruption that are consistent with institutional signs. In this study, we studied the international experience of using the mechanism of the “regulatory guillotine, the course of its development in Russia, implementation problems, as well as possible implementation scenarios, which gives the study special relevance, practical and scientific value. The study clearly shows that the redundancy of mandatory requirements for business entities in the control and supervision sphere is not only a source of growth in the economic costs of business and administrative rent for control authorities, but also leads to an increase in corruption risks for business. The threat of imposing high fines or administrative suspension of activity allows officials of regulatory authorities to put pressure on entrepreneurs and receive informal payments in various forms. A significant part of the mandatory business requirements, the total number of which is in the millions, is obviously outdated, does not correspond to the level of technology development, and is also characterized by insufficient social justification, which is confirmed by the results of various studies used in this work. In this regard, the “regulatory guillotine” as a mechanism for reviewing and updating the mandatory requirements seems to be an effective tool to reduce the level of administrative corruption and create prerequisites for improving the socio-economic situation in Russia.