Issue 2023 no2 contents:

The Message of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly dated February 20, 2019 establishes the requirement to provide public services in a new "proactive" mode. This regime is more convenient and accessible to the Citizens', and requires development of a legal framework that does not currently exist. Proactive public services algorithms legal regulation model is the purpose of this paper. The goal includes clarifying the concept and content of proactive public services, developing their typology, differentiating its legal regimes and designing a legal model for data processing. In order to achieve the goal, a set of methods was used: formal legal, the method of legal interpretation, as well as the comparative legal method. Research results suggest the typology of proactive services; proposals for differentiating the legal regimes of personal data processing and big data for the provision of proactive services, a legal model of data processing. The significance of the research work lies in an innovative comprehensive study of the legal interpretation and typology of proactive public services, and the definition of the legal regime of data processing used to provide proactive public services.

The implementation of Russia's national development objective "Digital Transformation" implies achieving "digital maturity," including in public administration. Following this decree, public administration is becoming one of the areas where the implementation of digital technologies is very active. The Russian government has approved and is applying methods for assessing digital maturity. However, while both assessing and taking measures to further digitalize public administration, the opinion of citizens as its beneficiaries is not sufficiently taken into account. To address this gap, RANEPA developed an original methodology for a nationwide representative survey of citizens aimed at identifying their assessment of the effects and risks of the public administration digitalization. The survey focuses on citizens' views not only on public services and facilities (as is most often the case), but also on all types of digital interaction between citizens and the state. The survey was conducted in 2022 and 2023, and the paper compares the results. For example, according to the 2023 survey, in the last year, 86.0% of respondents used digital technologies when interacting with the state (2022: 88.2%). Citizens are also prepared for the use of digital technologies: 83.9% believe they are ready for possible digital interactions with government (2022: 81.7%). The results of the survey can be used to assess the digital maturity of government and develop measures to improve it.

The article discusses the regulation and practices of allocating the volumes of medical care in the system of compulsory medical insurance (CHI), as well as their compliance with the concept of strategic purchasing of medical services recommended by the World Health Organization and other public institutions. The results of a survey of territorial CHI funds of Subjects of the Russian Federation (TFOMS) on the practices of allocating the volumes of medical care among medical organizations are presented. It is shown that these practices are dominated by distribution based on historical values. According to the concept of strategic procurement of medical services, regional distribution practices in general do not meet the requirements for efficiency, which involve the performance of medical organizations and other factors of effective healthcare organization. At the same time, the results of cluster analysis indicate the presence of differentiated approaches to the use of distribution criteria at the regional level. Despite the lack of the criteria for active (strategic) allocation in the Rules of CHI, the TFOMS survey indicates that such criteria are used in regional practices. However, their role in comparison with other groups of criteria considered is noticeably lower. At the same time, the cluster analysis confirms the presence of differentiated approaches to the combination of criteria in the regional CHI systems.

The article discusses the global and Russian experience in the development of various approaches for the influence of society on the budgetary process. These are the participation of public organizations in the discussion of the regional or city budget (public budgeting) and the distribution of a small share of the budget by the boards of residents (participatory budgeting). The experience of the project “A budget that can be understood and influenced”, implemented by the St. Petersburg Humanitarian and Political Science Center “Strategy”, is briefly presented in the article. The foreign and domestic experience of another related approach for the civic participation in the activities of the authorities - the participatory design of urban space - is analyzed. In case of municipal formations of St. Petersburg, the authors analyze the reasons why municipal deputies choose not participatory budgeting, but participatory design while seeking ways of civic inclusion in decision-making. Expert interviews were conducted with deputies of four municipalities of St. Petersburg, and the cognitive mapping method was used to analyze the texts of the interviews. The reasons for deputies to make such a choice appeared to be the vagueness of the normative support for participatory budgeting, which increased the risk of intervention of the prosecutor's office, disagreements among deputies in municipal councils, as well as obstacles with the availability of expert support. The article discusses the problems of developing an ecosystem of public participation in the government activities.

The paper considers the higher education financing models used in different countries. The funding mechanisms, as well as the role of the state in financial resources allocation, are discussed. An analysis of a wide range of research papers shows that there are two key financing models in accordance with a typology of budgetary financing approaches: institutional and demand-based. In the institutional model of higher education funding, the object of financial flows is represented by universities, while in the demand-based model it is students. The models may include different sets of mechanisms to fund. Each mechanism, in addition to the conditions for obtaining budget funds, contains an institutional framework which determines the procedure for spending funds for the needs of the university. The results of the analysis demonstrate that the format of the higher education budgetary financing system is a derived element from the institutional landscape of the state and the form of public finance management. At the same time, the role of the state is largely determined by policy aspects related to the structure of funding and the level of universities autonomy.