Public administration faces diffusion of strategic approach into governance in different states. Thus, Russian developing state endeavors introduction of its long-lasting national strategy into governance, and public administration of the state, first since soviet time. In 2008 Russia has adopted strategy until 2020 and goes through the first cycle of its implementation. This occurs along with existing experiences of formulation and implementation of national strategies in other national entities (UK, Switzerland, Ireland, Finland, EU 2020 strategy, and others). Each country organizes strategy formulation and implementation process in its own way. Institutional theory states, that effectiveness of state activity (one modern type of which, as shown by examples, is formulation and implementation of national strategy) is defined by its legislative framework, which places strategic activity into general system of state decision making, and its organizational structure. According to new public management theory, better legitimacy of governance is observed in organizations with higher levels of public involvement into governance processes. The study will describe configuration of civic involvement to the formulation of national policy strategy. This includes analysis of publicly presented laws and organizational structures by parameters of strategic process openness for public participation and mandative character of the state strategy from one side. And media analysis of public attitudes to strategic process in order to compare which configuration of public involvement has better public support from the other side. The research will contribute to understanding which schemes of strategic process provide better legitimacy in public discourse. This experience will be useful in other countries, which tend to introduce strategic elements to their domestic public administration practices, including Russia.
