ZANKO TIGRAN A.

The article investigates the potential for creating the personnel training system for municipal management while considering the demands of the main requesters, including businesses, educational organizations, population, and regional and local governments. The main research methods included document analysis and focus groups, which were implemented at the Presidential Academy as part of the 2nd RANEPA Educational Forum at the end of 2023. The authors have pointed out problems that are impeding the creation of a personnel training program tailored for local government. For example, the system of higher education has a secondary focus on the municipal level - the majority of programs train specialists in public administration. Numerous factors contribute to this issue, including the regulator's lack of interest in it, young people's aspirations to migrate within the municipalities, and the increasing frequency of staff shortages at the territorial administration level. The authors conclude that there is a need to intensify the development of specialized training for the municipal level of government. Some examples include establishing a federal competence center, creating a professional standard for municipal employees, enhancing the teaching staff, and actively involving practitioners from local self-government bodies in career guidance work.

The article examines how automation, digitalization, and digital transformation affect the restructuring of executive powers.The author researched the organizational systems of digital transformation and noticed distinctions in the methods of structuring the main departments of the federal executive power engaged in digital transformation initiatives. Particular attention is paid to the impact of generative artificial intelligence technologies on organizational and reorganizational issues in the activities of public authorities. The article provides forecasts on further use of modern information and communication technologies,including extraterritorial approaches in selecting personnel for the state civil service,as well as the prospects for the emergence of a meta-universe of public authorities. The author separates the concepts of "automation" and "digitalization", emphasizing that the latter has significant effects on service activities, including the implementation of public functions, reducing costs, increasing the speed and quality of managerial decision-making, and, in addition, providing greater access to resources for both civil servants and consumers of public and municipal services. At the same time, the emphasis is not just on digitization of processes, but on changing the logic and approaches to public administration and service delivery.

The article considers the issues of legal regulation and peculiarities of the U.S. civil service organization. The study traces the stages of formation and development of the U.S. civil service and the transition from a «trophy» system to a meritocratic system. The article lists the most correct decisions in the civil service organization that U.S. presidents have made over the past decades. In the U.S., there is a specific civil service management body, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and other collegial structures intended to increase the openness and competitiveness of the U.S. civil service. The study provides current statistics describing the U.S. civil service by the total number of employees, the average length of service, and salaries. The U.S. consistently creates conditions to attract people with disabilities to public service, with the total number of employees with disabilities being close to 10 %. The author focuses on the U.S. civil service position structure and a review of the factor evaluation system to justify assigning a particular position to a specific grade.

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the regulatory framework and features of constructing systems and structures for executive authorities in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. It also examines the systematization of region-wide trends and approaches, identifying best practices, distortions, and drawbacks in the institutional framework of the regional executive authorities. In the course of the research, the author found an excessive spread of the typology of regional executive authorities in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, significant variability of regional systems of executive power, a disparate understanding of the essence and role of certain types of executive authorities in the mechanism of public administration. It is noted that the current federal legislation does not provide prerequisites for developing unified systems and structures of regional bodies of executive power, which, in turn, leads to the complication of management processes within the developing unified system of public administration. The author concludes that it is required to establish common approaches to the typology of executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the standards of their organization, as well as to develop a general list of regional executive powers.

The article discusses the prerequisites, approaches to the creation as well as the experience of starting the implementation of Doctor of Public Administration programs in Russia. First of all, it is noted that MPA level programs first began to be implemented in Russia at the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service of the RANEPA more than ten years ago. Currently, among professional officials a request for Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) top-level training programs has arisen. When developing a new DPA-level educational program for Russia, it was necessary first of all to establish the requirements and criteria for the selection of candidates. Key parameters at the same time were the level and administrative orientation of the education of applicants, mandatory work experience in senior positions. The knowledge of the applicants is checked by comprehensive entrance tests, which include testing of understanding the system and mechanisms of public administration, a practical task to check the knowledge of a foreign language, as well as interviewing and evaluating of the concept of a socially significant scientific project. The first DPA program in Russia has a modular architecture of the educational process. Each of the 12 modules, which take place every two months with an average frequency, is devoted to various aspects of state and municipal administration. At the same time, practical exercises for the development of soft skills are integrated in each DPA module. The key goal of DPA training is to prepare and defend publicly significant research in the field of state and municipal administration.

The article provides an insight into the publications of the NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy. Thefounder of the NISPAcee Journal is the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe(NISPAcee), which was founded in 1994 to analyze the changes in the nature and role of public administration during the post-Soviet political and economic transformations in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the 25 years of its existence, NISPAcee hasmade a significant contribution to the development of national and regional practices of public administration and local self-government in Central and Eastern Europe. By bringing together the best experts in public administration and public policy,NISPAcee has contributed to the creation of academic networks and collaboration to transfer best practices in public administration.NISPAcee also actively organizes conferences, trainings, seminars and workshops on both theoretical and practical aspects ofmodern public administration. This article provides an overview of key publications of the NISPAcee Journal of Public Administrationand Policy for 2018-2019. The editor-in-chief of the NISPAcee Journal Juraj Nemec addressed in his research a comprehensive analysis of publicadministration reforms in Slovakia, in particular, the issues of openness and accountability of authorities, the functioning of the civilservice, as well as the organization of local self-government. With regard to the development of the Slovak civil service, there hasbeen considerable politicization and centralization, which may threaten the fundamental foundations of democratic governance.In terms of the analysis of local self-government, the author emphasizes its significant fragmentation, since there are about3,000 municipalities in the country, many of which have a population of less than 1,000 people.