PLANS OF REFORM 151in resolving such difficulties, nor does he clarify a good many otherpoints concerning the rights of the Duma vis a vis the ministers.
Extreme as it may sound, we cannot forebear pointing out that the
position of the imperial ministers towards the Emperor on the one
hand and the Duma on the other is strongly reminiscent of the situation
of the members of the Cabinet of the President of the United States.
Is should be mentioned in this connection that while Speransky was
acquainted with the American Constitution, there is no evidence that
he consciously copied American institutions.
Unfortunately, Speransky gives little detail on the executive func-
tions and institutions at the local level. His proposals are vague and
quite inadequate for an improvement of the very seriously deteriorated
provincial administration. In all probability, he was reserving for a
later date a thorough examination of this aspect of Russian admin-
istration. In the Plan of 1809 he was content with indicating a few
guiding ideas and principles. The central executive agencies, ministries
and the like, have their equivalents or representatives on the local
levels; and the sum total of these agents constitute the provincial and
local administrations. On each level we find a number of bureaus to
take care of each of the functions of local administration: police,
public economy, treasury, postal services, state peasants, etc. The
bureaus are the local agents of the respective ministries by which they
are nominated. They render account to the Councils elected by the
local Dumas in much the same way as the ministries do to the State
Duma. The local administration, Speransky feels, should not be sub-
divided too much among various offices, so that the number of
bureaus and officials staffing them can be kept at a minimum. Yet, the
people should also have easy access to the agencies and agents governing
them, and for this purpose the existing division of the country is
inadequate. Indeed, the Empire is divided along geographic lines,
without regard to the density of the population. To obviate this
inconvenience, the Plan gives a simpler and more rational scheme. 1
The Empire is to be divided into provinces (guberniia), each with a
population of 100 to 300 thousand souls. In turn, the provinces are
subdivided into two to five districts (okrug), depending on the
population, and the districts into several townships (volost') and towns
1 Areas which have some special distinct characteristics (social, economic, political)
and are located on the periphery of the Empire should be given their own
particular organization. Such areas, which Speransky proposes to call regions
(oblas!'), include Siberia, the Caucasus, Astrakhan, the Urals, Georgia, Orenburg,
the lands of the Don Cossacks.