Vol. 26 No. 2 (2024)

The article emphasizes the state’s focus on enhancing state and local management and presents reasonable,balanced,and practical methods to improve its qualityto foster a constructive dialogue between society and the state. The area of state and municipal control is one of the most critical areas for improvement.The author examined modern trends and the normative field of development in the sphere of state control,noting the vast accumulation of experience with transformations and practical control and supervision mechanisms built on its foundation. In addition, the author modeled organizational and managerial decisions and proposed a system of steps that,if adopted and implemented,will «elevate to the next degree» the effectiveness of the country’s control and supervisory systems.

This article examines some of the keypublicadministration and management reforms undertaken in the West since the 1970s.The author uses a strategic analysis,dialectical and non-exhaustive approach; only some of the best-known reforms with potential global impact and implications are considered. The article draws conclusions for future public administration reforms. The main assumption of this article is that, while helping to improve governance processes to some extent to achieve better outcomes, these reforms were strategically designed and served as major instruments of transformation to achieve two broad strategic political-economic and ideological goals with global implications: (1) the transformation of capitalism into “predatory” corporate capitalism through the propagation of the relentless ideology of “market dominance” as the most pervasive global economic institution in the world; and (2) the transformation (after the “collapse”of the USSR as the only global rival superpower) of this capitalism into US-led “predatory globalization”with absolute “hegemonic dominance and rule”as the “unitary ruler of the world” (backed by the US-led NATO war machine) economically, politically, militarily and culturally. The article concludes that the reforms have succeeded in achieving the strategic goals of their architects. However,in doing so,the reforms also created their own antitheses and contributed to the emergence of a “multipolar world order”in the 21st century.

The article examines the history of the domestic tradition of requiring civil servants to take an oath as a spiritual and semantic dominant of public service at all historical stages during its formation and operation. It also analyzes the reasons behind the challenges associated with returning the oath in the Russian Federation’s legal field of public service and suggests a «road map» of consistent organizational and legal measures to guarantee a solid conceptual and legal foundation for the institution of the oath.The results of the author’s analysis of official feedback and the legal foundation governing moral relations in the civil service system point to inconsistencies in the conceptual platform,theoretical and legal framework, failure to carry out enacted political and legal decisions or their interpretive palliatives, and ambiguity or duplication of functions of organizational structures due to incompletely constructed ethical infrastructure as a theoretical and legal frameworkof the civil service being the primarycauses of the inconsistencies.The civil service is currently faced with the difficult task of reviving traditional national values, which calls for an urgent examination of the factors impeding the restoration of the Russian legal system and the centuries-old tradition of swearing civil servants to the oath of office.

The article examines the issue of ambiguityin the correlation between the territorial organization of local selfgovernment and the administrative-territorial division of the state.After analyzing the federal, regional,and local regulatory legal frameworks using cities as an example,we can conclude that the legislators do not differentiate between municipalities (urban districts) and different types of administrative-territorial divisions (cities).If an urban district is located inside city borders,the title «Head of the city» can be used formally.Nevertheless,since these territorial units differ,federal clarification is necessaryregarding the title of the position «Head of the city».The Novosibirsk Oblast was chosen as the study's subject because it is the region where municipal reforms are most widely implemented.Currently,there are differences in the types of territorial entities and the names of municipal service positions.To improve the establishment of a unified system of public authority in the Russian Federation,legislators should define common terminology for the state's territorial organization.

The study of jurisdiction allows us to present the most significant trends in the evolution of modern law.The concept of jurisdiction is a complex issue with various interpretations.There are ongoing scientific discussions about each of the hypostases where jurisdiction appears,and these discussions have considerable implications for law enforcement practice. Conventional legal theory states that national jurisdiction is a crucial component of the legal framework that applies to a single state or commonwealth of states. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many regional and universal international conventions were adopted to regulate jurisdiction disputes in the field of civil law.Theyspecifythe subjects of the courts’ jurisdiction, set forth the procedures for recognizing and executing judgments made by foreign courts, determine the process for enforcing those judgments, and decline to grant exequatur. If a court has the authorityto decide a case involving a foreign element,it must go through a multi-step process to determine which jurisdiction to exercise. The article examines how Russian law and the legislation of several other nations handle the issue of jurisdictional choice, the steps involved in making that decision, and the key doctrines that the court should follow.

The article reveals essential aspects of the legal regulation of personal data processing in the context of digitalization process of the modern economy.The widespread use of personal data in various sectors of the economy raises the question of appropriate legal protection for this information, given the risks associated with confidential information about individuals and legally protected secrets.Although the protection of personal data has historically received a lot of attention in legal doctrine,there are still many issues that require theoretical clarification and reflect the unique aspects of the development of the digital society.The article focuses on the legal norms that govern the processing of personal data and establishes a special legal regime for their protection.The article's goal is to provide suggestions for strengthening the legal frameworkgoverning interactions in the area of personal data protection in light of the circumstances arising from the digitalization of economic relations.The author proposes correcting the normative content of current legislation in the section concerning relatives'right to refuse the use of a deceased person's name. The proposed amendments aim to improve the legal frameworkfor processing personal data in the context of building a digital society.The broadening of the subject composition of those claiming to ensure the legal regime of personal data protection is the essential aspect of developing legislation in this area.

In different historical periods, inheritance law was considered to be an institute of various branches of legislation. Some approaches referred to it as social security law or family law; over time, inheritance law started to be examined in the context of civil law relationships.The inheritance institute, one of the oldest in civil law, is very conservative and changes extremely slowly; however, it should correspond to specific economic relations. Inheritance law is inextricably linked to national traditions and peculiarities,which should be recognized as critical to understanding this branch of lawand its development in Russia.Moreover,the study of inheritance law is impossible without understanding the neighboring civil law institutions,such as various legal dispositions of inheritance in the future,as well as the institution of lifetime maintenance,which has a long historyof enforcement in Russia.The article addresses two grounds of succession: a) succession by law, where the property passes to the people named in the law, and b) succession bywill,where the deceased person names his or her heirs in a unique document called a will.

The article substantiates the critical role that internal factors conditioned byproduction,resource, natural, and sectoral features play in ensuring the sustainable development of regional economic systems and improving their competitiveness (on the example of the Republic of Adygea).These factors include the growth of entrepreneurial activity,the development of reproduction processes in their economic space,and the realization of the potential of the ethno-economy.Numerous strategies and actions have been suggested to enhance and attain sustainable development in this region of Russia, including the identification of the main drivers of the Republicof Adygea’s socio-economic development and an analysis of the factors that have the highest impact on that development.The study’s main findings include an analysis of the current socio-economic situation in the Republic of Adygea,which allowed us to identify the region’s key points of economicgrowth under current conditions.Intraregional factors resulting from production,resource,natural, and sectoral features have been found to playan increasinglysignificant role in maintaining the socio-economic stability of modern Russian regions, particularly in light of crisisogenic factors and their limited budgetary capacity.

Municipal-private partnerships, as a type of public-private partnership, are widely regarded as the best instrument for addressing a wide range of tasks related to modernizing municipal infrastructure and improving the quality of life for the local population.However,as a comparative study of Mongolian and Russian legislation has demonstrated, there are substantial differences in how these laws are implemented in practice. In Russia, local self-government bodies are given more authority to make decisions about the use of municipal property, which, according to the author, is more beneficial to the population of municipalities. However, there are some gaps in the legislation governing these relationships, which justifies discussions about the need for additional development of public-private partnerships at the local government level as well as improvements to the current system. In Mongolia, it should be associated with the expansion of powers of local self-government bodies to make independent decisions on their use, whereas in Russia, it should be related to providing a wide range of forms of their realization,which necessitate systematic normative fixation.Municipal-private partnership can find its embodiment in a variety of organizational and legal forms, each of which has a significant specificity,but all of them are characterized by the long-term nature of the relationship between private and public partners, combining their resources and proportionally distributing the risks arising in the implementation of joint projects.

The demographic situation in Russia is characterized by negative birth rate trends. The actual indicators of the total birth rate do not correspond to the expected indicators outlined in the country’s and regions’ strategic development documents. The article describes the approach to pro-natalist policy as a newsocial institution in Russian culture.The authors outline the components of this institution.The current state of pro-natalist policy formation in Russia is demonstrated by its ongoing evolution, the introduction of new components and relationships, and the frequent amendments to legislation concerning the promotion of the birth rate and support for families with children.Understanding the institutional structure of pro-natalist policy will facilitate a methodical approach to its formulation, thus creating conditions for increasing efficiency and enabling social relations to be forecasted and organized. To strengthen the institution of the family and increase the number of people involved in relationships within the institution of pro-natalist policy,various social institutions,organizations,civil society,and the media must be involved in implementing state tasks related to birth rate and parenthood.These are the most important ideas that should be reflected in the functioning of the institution of pro-natalist policy in the very near future. Demographic problems must be addressed as a national concern with a systemic institutional approach.

The article is based on the materials of a sociological survey undertaken in the fall of 2023 to identify the assessments and expectations of graduates of the professional retraining program for candidates to the federal reserve of managerial personnel over the past three years, as well as reservists whose term in the reserve will end during the year.The methods of quantitative survey(online questionnaire) and qualitative survey (in-depth interview method) were used. Based on the analysis of the obtained data, it was concluded that the expectations of reservists correspond to the leading trends of workwith personnel reserves in public administration. The key categories are goal-setting and result orientation, and the underlying basis is to increase the demand for reserve participants.The reserve management system itself also requires conceptual development.

The article presents an analysis of existing methods for assessing the personnel of state and local government bodies and proposes newforms for assessing the personnel.The challenge of accelerating Russia’s socioeconomic development necessitates hiring experts possessing creative minds and adaptability.The need to change traditional approaches to evaluating the professional performance of public civil and municipal servants is addressed by examining modern personnel assessment methods in commercial organizations. Applying traditional HR technologies during the hiring process, adaptation period, and performance analysis impedes the growth of efficiency in state and municipal services.The author suggests implementing frequent, thorough performance reviews for publicemployees using the KPI,«360 degrees»,and BARS methods.The new algorithm for implementing innovations is expected to bring about organizational changes in the operations of personnel services in state authorities and local self-government bodies,including the permanent integration of the proposed activities.Updating the methodological toolkit for personnel assessment using the KPI,«360 degrees»,and BARS methods will enhance the efficiency of state authorities and local administrations.

The article focuses on the challenges of providing education for individuals with disabilities in general higher education institutions while adhering to a particular educational process regime, i.e., using auxiliary aids or receiving assistance from others. Of course, people with disabilities are a specific group of students,and as such,their educational objectives differ from those of general education.There is a growing need for higher education institutions to focus their efforts on helping students develop a variety of professional and communication skills that theycan use both during and after their education.This raises the question of the functional adaptability of the modern training system in addressing the problem of disabled people’s professional socialization.In this case,the goal of acquiring long-term and diverse professional and communicative skills for future professions and the work team should take priority. The article suggests modifications that go beyond just making educational programs more flexible for students with disabilities. Setting and achieving a goal such as professional socialization increases the variability of educational program content and,as a result,the level of social demand.

«Russia’s Foreign Policy. History and Contemporaneity», a book written by Doctor of Philosophy, Professor V.S. Buyanov, examines the foreign policy of the Russian state during the main stages of its history: Ancient Russia, the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation. It is one of the fewbooks that attempts to understand the most significant foreign policyprocesses and phenomena in both historical and modern Russia from a philosophical and ideological perspective,in addition to presenting historical events and facts.Based on the Concept of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation,approved by the Presidential Decree of March 31, 2023, and other strategic documents, the book reveals the fundamental guidelines of international activities in modern Russia. The study highlights notable shifts in the Russian Federation’s foreign policypriorities both before and after the start of the special militaryoperation in Ukraine. The author draws attention to the difficult tasks that the country’s foreign policy and foreign economic agencies face in the context of the ongoing attempt to isolate Russia in the international arena. Russian internationalists contribute significantly to strengthening the sovereignty and true independence of the Russian Federation by developing interaction with friendly countries and peoples of the Eurasian and other continents, maintaining and strengthening partnerships and cooperation relations with states that stand on positions of benevolent neutrality,and responding appropriatelyto anti-Russian policies of unfriendlycountries.