Issue 2021 no1 contents:

The article presents the experience of developing the annual Administrative Pressure Index, a working tool based on official date aimed at evaluating and adjusting the law enforcement practice of state control and supervisory bodies operating in the Russian Federation. Within the framework of the Index, we analyze the proportion of organizations being inspected, the harshness of treatment (proportion of warnings and fines for the violations), the proportion of extra fines imposed without inspections, as well as the change in the amount of fines imposed by control and supervision authorities. The Index indicators are assessed both at the federal and regional level of the Russian Federation. Currently, the Index analyzes the work of the state bodies that execute the most massive types of control and supervision. The analyses of the Index indicators in 2019 and 2020 together with the federal and regional authorities and prosecutors showed significant differences in the law enforcement practice shown by territorial offices within each of the state bodies, including those related to violations of the current regulation by the officials. The development of the Index provided new opportunities to the commissioners for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, prosecutors and authorities to reduce the administrative pressure on business and economy.

One of the most important areas of the "regulatory guillotine" reform is the development of new regulatory structures for each sphere of public relations or type of state control (supervision). The research is based on a hypothesis about the possible desire of the authorities to preserve the current regulatory systems. The main purpose of the study is to assess the general level of the proposed regulatory structures from the point of view of their compliance with the Methodology for the implementation of the action plan ("Roadmap") for employing the mechanism of "regulatory guillotine", as well as to show the possible results and risks of their adoption in its current form in the potential improvement of control (supervision), focus on the most dangerous objects (entities) control, including in terms of whether mandatory requirements are related to potential risks of harm (damage) to protected values and sources of risk. The source of empirical data for the analysis was comprised of the drafts of new regulatory structures prepared by regulatory authorities and Supervisory authorities involved in the reform.
The study examined 73 regulatory structures prepared by 26 Federal regulatory agencies and regulatory agencies.The study made it possible to draw a conclusion about the systemic shortcomings of the new regulatory structures and suggests substantive and organizational measures to improve the quality of the developed structures.

The article is dedicated to creating a promising methodology for developing long-term strategies in Russia. A comparative analysis of long-term strategies in Russia and in Western countries was carried out according to the following criteria: declared values, understanding of progressiveness, a place and a role in the society, content, indicators. The essential difference between domestic and foreign documents is demonstrated. Thus, a key focus of foreign strategies is human-oriented development, the creation of an environment of equal opportunities in which each resident will be able to maximize their potential. In Russia strategies are more oriented at achieving indicators of higher documents, full compliance with higher documents and formal provisions of laws. The fundamental distinction is a completely different approach to understanding progress. In the developed countries’ strategies the progress is perceived as sustainable development, improving the quality of life, maintaining the vitality of ecosystems and creating an environment for unlocking human potential, in many Russian ones it is seen as economic growth, industrial development and attracting investments at any cost. Such a mismatch leads to the discrepancies in the set of indicators, the quality and composition of structural blocks, key development tools, its nature, etc. It is shown that a promising methodology of strategic planning can be based on an environmentally-oriented (research program of ecological economics) and human-oriented approaches, as well as integrate modern tools of direct democracy. This methodology was used by the authors in designing strategies for the socio-economic development of Russian regions and cities in recent years.

The article discusses the differences in the tariffs in the DRG-based hospital payment system, which remain between the subjects of the Russian Federation after the introduction of this system. Since 2018, the public policy has been stepped up to reduce territorial disparity between tariffs. In 2019, the “two keys” rule was introduced: the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund received the right to agree on tariffs for paying for medical care, approved in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The article analyzes the effectiveness of this policy. The estimates of the variation in the tariffs for inpatient care and in the modifying factors used in their calculation in 2017 and 2019 are presented. The study analyses the tariff agreements on compulsory medical insurance, concluded in the subjects of the Russian Federation. The results of the analysis show that the interregional disparity between these parameters has decreased but remains large.  The reasons that cause it are 1) interregional and intraregional differences in the expenditures of medical care providers for the treatment of similar cases, which are not eliminated during the period of the introduction of the DRG-based hospital payment system; and 2) the need to ensure the increase in salaries for medical workers according to the governmental targets. The problem statement of further reduction of existing differences in tariffs is derived from analyzing the possibilities of long-term modernization of regional health care systems to smooth out existing interregional differences in the spatial, territorial, material and financial factors of ensuring state guarantees for the provision of free medical care to the population.

The lack of systematic work to determine the level of development of the competencies of state civil servants in the field of information security in the context of digitalization increases the risks of the Russian state authorities in this area. The existing gaps in legislation, in methodological support from regulators, in the practice adopted in the civil service, and the relevance of the problem, confirmed by the federal project "Information Security", led to the need to develop a standard assessment tools and methods for assessing the competencies of state civil servants in information security. The article describes the scientific and practical approaches to the development of the methodological apparatus of assessment and the results of its pilot implementation in 2019–2020. The article describes the scientific and practical approaches to the development of the methodological apparatus for assessing competencies in information security and the results of its pilot implementation in 2019–2020. The subject of the research is methodological tools, including evaluation tools (tests, cases), methods and procedures for organizing the assessment of information security competencies for evaluating candidates and employees. The results of the analysis of foreign practices, the survey of the demand for methodological tools in government bodies, the analysis of the regulatory and methodological support for the assessment of information security competencies are presented. This conceptual approaches to the development of competency models, assessment tools and assessment procedures taking into account the requirements of normative acts in the field of information security, the characteristics of the target groups of employees estimated and evaluation purpose. The approbation of the methodological apparatus confirmed its practical value for the authorities. It is assumed that the use of methodological tools will make it possible to obtain the necessary analytical information to determine the tasks and select programs for the development of competencies, which may also be in demand in educational organizations engaged in the training of state civil servants.

The traditional role of city authorities and their interaction with civil society have changed significantly in recent years. There is a shift in emphasis from urban management to urban governance, where urban governance increasingly focused on the synergy of various institutions in addressing the challenges of urban development.
This review article examines the main concepts and modern research in the field of urban governance. Particular attention is paid to the clustering of research, the main ideas (management of a sustainable city and partnership of urban stakeholders), the practice of implementing models of urban governance.