Issue 2021 no4 contents:

The article deals with the topical issue of assessing the efficiency of customs administration as one of the tools for the development of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter - the EAEU). It is noted that there are significant differences in approaches to assessing customs administration in the EAEU member states, which creates obstacles to further integration of the EAEU. A comparative analysis of the existing systems for assessing the activities of the customs authorities of the EAEU countries is carried out, which implies the need for unification and standardization of customs operations and procedures, customs administration in general. Based on a comparative analysis of the customs practice of the EAEU countries, as well as existing international experience in unifying the work of customs administrations for the development of economic integration, a proposal was put forward based on the case study of the EU to harmonize the systems for assessing the efficiency of customs administration in the Eurasian Economic Union as a tool for its economic development.

The article analyzes the perception of the nature of relations with the state by Russian small entrepreneurs and, in particular, the success of state support provided to small businesses during the pandemic. The data for the analysis were obtained during the summer (2021) survey of 580 small business owners, a sample of which was formed from the database of the Institute's project "Public Opinion Foundation" "Sociology of Small Business (SMBiz Project)". This database was gained in years of all-Russian population surveys conducted on random samples.

The main hypotheses of the study were confirmed. They are formulated as follows: (1) Small business is not homogeneous in its attitude to the policy pursued by the state, which can be influenced by different circumstances and factors (experience in business, its success, location, etc.). (2) Participation in certain state support programs increases the level of confidence in the state and has a positive effect on the assessment of its policy. (3) The measures implemented by the Russian state during the pandemic have had different coverage and different effectiveness in the perception of their beneficiaries.

In the concluding part, evidence and recommendations are formulated for the bodies implementing the policy on SMEs in Russia.

Development of the third sector in Russia is accompanied with its maintenance of open-access state registries of non-profit organizations. Compared to the NPO registries in other countries, those in Russia appeared 10-15 years later and became new tools for the development of the non-profit sector. The purpose of this article is to categorize the functions of NPO registries in other countries, as well as suggest those attributed to Russian NPO registries. The following hypothesis is put forward in the article: Russian NPO registries have similar functions as registries in other countries, but they are currently not being fully implemented. There are four registries in the focus of the research: the registry of NPOs by the Ministry of Justice of Russia and three types of registries of socially oriented NPOs – recipients of state support, providers of social services, and providers of social care services. The research was carried out by analyzing legal acts which set up the registries, as well as analyzing the registries located on the Internet. The following functions have been suggested: collecting, systematizing and disclosing the information on the third sector; aggregating the data on supply and demand for NPO services; promoting cooperation of NPOs with the state and intersectoral partnerships; promoting government support to NPOs; as well as ensuring accountability of NPOs to the state and society. The hypothesis was confirmed: the functions are not fully implemented due to the lack of clearly defined goals when setting up registries, weaknesses of their structure and formats. Several recommendations were formulated to enhance the system of existing registries and their structure.

The research is aimed at developing ideas and approaches to the implementation of the city manager model in modern Russian conditions. The research focuses on professionalization of municipal management, the practice of contractual hiring of city managers.  There has recently been the acute controversy whether it is appropriate to implement the "city manager" model in modern Russian conditions, as there are cases of conflict interactions in political practice with the participation of a city manager. to the current study aimed to determine whether it is possible to balance interests and level conflict risks while optimizing the system for selecting and retaining professional personnel in municipalities. In order to answer this question we carried out a qualitative analysis of modern domestic and foreign studies, selected with the principle of  scientific sources differentiation, as well as an expert survey of the heads of local authorities (582 experts from 76 regions of the Russian Federation), which made it possible to eliminate the "gap" between the theoretical substantiation models of a city manager in scientific literature and its real application in modern conditions. As a result of the study, the advantages and disadvantages of the "city manager" model were found, and the key mechanisms for reducing conflict risks during its implementation were identified. Based on the results obtained, we developed recommendations for changing the practice of hiring a city manager, which will eliminate the element of competition and confrontation in his interactions with the Head of the municipality, defining the hierarchical statuses of the two key figures of the municipality.

The article examines the methods of public governance during the first wave of coronavirus infection in the context of ensuring the national tax security. The authors use the experience of Russia and Poland – two post-socialist countries having the same foundations of administrative and legal systems. The purpose of the paper is to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of public governance methods used by public authorities to support the economic systems of Russia and Poland from the point of view of their impact on national tax security. The methodological basis of the research is the philosophical theory of security within the framework of which the characteristics of such phenomena as security risks and threats, as well as the principles of its provision, have been developed, The authors also used the formal legal interpretation of legal acts to select normative legal acts fixing the applied methods of public administration as well as to clarify their provisions in accordance with the rules of formal logic and jurisprudence. The comparative method was used to select and compare with each other Russian and Polish normative legal acts, Russian and foreign doctrinal sources in the field of theory and practice of public administration, administrative and tax law. The empirical basis of the research consists of normative legal acts and state statistics of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Poland, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The characteristics of tax risks caused by the coronavirus pandemic are revealed, and their correlation with threats to tax security is established. The authors’ classification tax risk governance methods in the context of the coronavirus pandemic is carried out, administrative and economic measures that directly and indirectly affect the tax system are also characterized by the authors. Conclusions are made about the effectiveness of the main tax risk governance measures applied in Russia and Poland, while the Russian measures differ in a wide variety and a high proportion of proactive support measures. The theoretical and practical significance of the research lies in the fact that it allows to identify the existing potential of governance decisions in the event of another wave of a pandemic or the emergence of new crisis phenomena in the economy, accompanied by a reduction in supply and demand in the markets (military conflicts, natural and man-made emergencies, etc.).

One of the key tasks of the authorities at all levels is to increase competitiveness and accelerate economic growth. In foreign literature, a lot of works are devoted to the study of innovations and their role in the development of states. A number of authors consider the problems related to the direct management of innovation systems, researching and analyzing from different points of view. The purpose of this article is to acquaint the interested circle of readers with the evolution of approaches to the management of innovative systems from the national level to the local one, with the current research results and their directions.