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Research and educational journal
Published quarterly since 2007
ISSN 1999-5431
E-ISSN 2409-5095
Issue 2023 no3 contents:
THE THEORY AND PRACTICES OF THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
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7–25
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Customer-centricity (client-centricity) is a new concept for Russian public governance. However, since 2022, the implementation of the relevant principles has been brought to the level of a national strategic initiative. The article proposes an analysis of the issues to be considered when implementing customer-centricity in the practice of government agencies and institutions. The article examines the concept of customer-centricity, its relationship with digitalization, differences in the expectations and behavior of private and business clients, the role of the competencies of civil servants, the problems of achieving a positive effect for clients and returning the choice between strict regulation and the variability of public services. Given the lack of confirmed best practice, finding answers to these questions can become a challenge that affects the entire system of relations and mechanisms of public administration.
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26–47
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The article reveals prospects of digitalization of public administration at the level of theoretical and methodological reflection and practical implementation. Analyzing modern public governance concepts ranging from participatory management to smart supervision, the authors conclude that, in the context of socio-technical convergence, public administration should combine the use of algorithmic control with the task of consolidating interests of stakeholders. The promotion of the concept will be determined by the stakeholder’s assessment of the role played by state digital platforms in public governance transformation. In 2021, a survey of experts was conducted to assess two aspects of their development: digital (involving the use of big data and algorithmic control) and network (based on the participation of citizens in the working-out, decision-making and implementation processes). The survey showed that authorities' use of state digital platforms to respond effectively to individual citizens' needs should be accompanied by involving them in solving socially significant problems. Therefore, the co-evolution of digital and network aspects of the functioning of public digital platforms becomes extremely important. Public decision-making should be developed in order to correct the technological bias in the digitization of public and municipal administration. The technological dimension of the digitization of public and municipal governance can be corrected through the development of public decision-making via digital platforms. And to do that, it is necessary to address the problem of stimulating activity of both officials and citizens, to increase the level of trust in the authorities.
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48–71
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For a decade the public authorities in Russia have been failing to fulfill its obligations to young care leavers. The long-term waiting list for public housing is an acute problem of social policy in the country that requires new tools to be solved. Housing vouchers, or lump-sum social payments for the purchase of residential property, at the expense of the Russian regions’ budgets, are supposed to be one of them. The paper aims to evaluate the legal framework of the housing vouchers program from the perspective of opportunities and barriers it has for eliminating the problem. The study used data from the relevant laws and regulations covering all regions, where the housing vouchers were established from 2019 to 2023. The concept of performance-oriented social program and key factors influencing the access to public benefits constitute our theoretical framework. Within it, we examine the range of terms and conditions that should be met by applicants to successfully buy residential properties by means of the housing vouchers. Our findings show that the regulations concerning customer focus, providing lower thresholds for applicants, promoting awareness about the program and its entitlement criteria, and shortening the duration of administrative procedures are likely to contribute to the increase of program performance. On the contrary, barriers that prevent obtaining proper results are due to high transaction costs of claiming support, low purchasing power of payments in the housing market, tight restrictions on how recipients should dispose funds and excessively strict eligibility criteria.
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72–94
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The aim of the study is to analyze the factors that form dysfunctions in the provision of housing for orphans, to evaluate the effectiveness of regional measures of social support for graduates of residential institutions, which make it possible to partially compensate for the risks associated with their housing deprivation. The leading research method was a questionnaire survey of employees of guardianship and guardianship bodies (N=694). On a number of issues, the ratings obtained were compared with the opinions of graduates of boarding schools (N=3868). The research results illustrate the dysfunctions of the social security of orphans, the risks of housing deprivation at the “breaking point” of social support when leaving the orphanage and before receiving their own housing. The presence of these break points is typical for many regions of the Russian Federation and is due not only to insufficient financial resources, but to bureaucratic costs that limit the implementation of flexible models of provision of housing for orphans. The largest variation range between the assessments of guardianship officials and orphans is characteristic of such support measures as the provision of temporary housing and consulting assistance in its selection (in the first group of respondents, the share of positive assessments is 1.7 times higher). Insufficient staffing of guardianship and guardianship bodies, the maximum level of workload for each employee are an additional factor limiting the possibility of providing the necessary social support to orphans. In addition, the study identified individual cases of “reverse” social dysfunctions associated with dishonest behavior, and falsification of the status of an orphan.
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95–121
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Addressing regional problems in the field of environmental protection is carried out within the framework of targeted environmental programs, documents reflecting the essence of the ongoing regional environmental policy. Approved indicators monitor the effectiveness of its implementation. In many regions, the results of the implementation of previous programs are disappointing, which is due to many reasons. The following questions remain unanswered: how the national and territorial interests are combined in the development of programs, how the content of the program tasks and the indicators of their effectiveness correspond to the targets of these documents? The hypothesis of the study is that the imperfection of regional environmental programs complicates their effectiveness. The purpose of the study is to analyze the content of the used indicators that are fixed in the environmental programs of the most economically developed regions of the Far Eastfor identification of the highest priority regional environmental tasks and the focus of their solution to improve the system of indicators in subsequent revisions of environmental protection documents. The information base includes regulatory documents in the field of environmental security in Russia, statistics data, rules and regulations on the development, implementation and evaluation of effectiveness state and municipal programs, national and regional programs on "Environmental protection" of the Far East subjects, adopted for the period 2020-2025. Having analysed 211 indicators proposed in the regional programs in order to determine the share of the most significant for environmental protection, the correlation of their content with the specifics of regional development has been established. It has been determined that more than 50% of all indicators relate to direct improvement of the environment. During the analysis, the main shortcomings in the selection of the indicators have been identified: 16% of indicators are not correct in content; 41% of indicators do not have clear quantitative benchmarks, which does not always make it possible to assess the achievement of objectives. The solution of the indicated issues will allow expanding the theoretical knowledge in terms of the formation of regional environmental policy and enriching the practice of regional interpretation and solution of accumulated problems, which is demanded due to the limited number of works in this area.
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122–154
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Regional practices for protection the rights of indigenous peoples are the issue that requires reflection in line with the state ethno-national policy of modern federal states and in particular – the subjects of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF).The purpose of the study is built around identifying the existing areas of regional systems for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples in the field of public administration. Based on this goal, the authors identify the tasks related to the doctrine of a regional system for protection the rights of indigenous peoples, determining the basic elements of these regional systems through the case study of the Russian Arctic and comparing common features of these systems with the goals of sustainable development. The solution of these tasks was based on the Russian federal legislation analysis, regulatory and legal acts of the Russian Arctic regions, as well as relevant scientific literature. The analysis led to the conclusion that the regional system for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples as a regional institutional and legal model varies depending on the specificity of each region, their distinctive features and process of development.By monitoring the current regional legislation and the law enforcement and management practices, the main elements of this system were identified.The goals of the regional systems for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples in the Russian Arctic coincide with the sustainable development goals defined by the UN, including the fight against poverty, infrastructure development, responsible consumption and production. The theoretical and practical significance of the study lies in the generalization of regional experience in the field of protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as the development of a doctrinal definition of a regional system for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.
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155–180
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The article presents a review of approaches to assessing the business climate for innovation. Composite indexes are considered the main tool for comprehensive monitoring of a wide range of external environment factors that determine the favorability of the business climate for innovation. The paper discusses the opportunities and limitations of analyzing the innovation climate using international rankings; and formulates the main requirements for such projects for targeted use to analyze national innovation systems and improve state regulation of innovation. The paper identifies and analyzes 16 international projects that indirectly or directly provide an aggregated country-level assessment of the conditions and (or) results of innovation activities. It is shown that the approaches of indexes developers to determine the innovation climate often have no theoretical justification, and only some of the projects are characterized by publicly verifiable methodology, sustainability of assessments and transparency of initial data. The Global Innovation Index, which satisfies most of the formulated criteria, stands out in this row. Based on the Global Innovation Index example, the empirical part of the article uses its longitudinal data for 2017-2021 to identify strengths and weaknesses of the national innovation system of Russia, taking into account benchmarking of development dynamics across a wide range of countries covered by the harmonized observation. The obtained results reflect the analytical potential of international innovation rankings, as well as allow identifying factors which may contribute to or hinder the achievement of the global innovation leadership and formulating policy recommendations.
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