Scientific conference is dedicated to the presentation of the following report: "Problems of governance improvement in conditions of global instability" (09.12.2021)
On December 9, 2021, a presentation of a joint scientific report prepared by the staff of the Center for Territorial Government and Self–Government of the Moscow Region State University and the Center for Integrated European and International Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (with the participation of specialists from the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation) was held.
At the hybrid scientific conference dedicated to this presentation, leading experts in the field of international and domestic governance (representing a number of leading federal and regional scientific organizations) discussed the conceptual and applied problems posed in the context of this work.
The conference was opened by V.B. Kashin, Director of the HSE Center for Integrated European and International Studies. In the speech, he noted the importance of discussing the problems raised in the report, as well as the extreme relevance of a multidimensional interdisciplinary study of all levels of social management. This approach makes it possible to evaluate modern management strategies applied in various countries and parts of the global world.
V.V. Balytnikov, Director of the Center for Territorial Government and Self–Government, presented the main content of the report, placing special emphasis on the need for joint efforts of scientists and practitioners to overcome the mass of ideas and views that have spread in modern society (to the extent of a mental pandemic of mental disorders) based on egoistic denial of social (including legal) norms. At the same time, the urgent need to return social processes to the mainstream of effective management (including legal) regulation was emphasized.
A.B. Likhacheva, Dean of the Faculty of World Economics and World Politics of the HSE, briefly outlined the general forecast of the development of modern global society. She has also formulated the most likely, in her opinion, options for implementing this forecast. At the same time, it was emphasized that the main goal of all levels social management should be to ensure the true welfare of people, which nowadays should be focused the efforts of scientists and practitioners.
O.N. Barabanov, Program Director of the Valdai International Discussion Club, noted the increasing importance of the value factor in modern global politics, emphasizing the surge in not only ideological, but also practical and political polemics around various interpretations of democracy. The speaker stressed that the pandemic highlighted the problem of people's distrust of social power (at all levels of its implementation), concluding that in modern conditions, a new "social contract" is needed at all levels of public administration (based on a system of values acceptable to a particular society, but taking into account the existence of a geopolitical struggle with its value confrontation that has not disappeared anywhere).
A.A. Zaitsev, Deputy Head of the Sector of the Center for Integrated European and International Studies, outlined the basic trends that the coronacrisis particularly actualized within the framework of the spaces of regional international organizations. On the one hand, in his opinion, countries are interested in solving their own problems and secure their position. On the other hand, states, as before, are able to jointly seek answers to common challenges, which are much more difficult to cope with individually. The balance of localization, globalization and regionalization in the international sphere depends on many factors, but remains the basis of the modern development of regional international associations.
V.V. Shtukin, Senior Researcher at the Center for Territorial Government and Self–Government highlighted the current problems of regional international security, especially noting the specifics of the problems of the post-Soviet (meso) Eurasian space. All these problems were systematically superimposed on the COVID-19 pandemic, which, according to the speaker, extremely aggravated the situation.
V.V.Polyansky, Head of the Department of State and Administrative Law of Samara National Research University named after S.P.Korolev raised the problem of ensuring state sovereignty (including in the digital and spiritual spheres). The speaker noted the importance of understanding and realizing external and internal sovereignty as the highest constitutional value, as well as the unproductivity of the theory of limited sovereignty for modern domestic and international relations.
The main problems concerning the national level of public administration were described by the Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Deputy Head of the Center for Public Law Studies of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, corresponding member of the International Academy of Comparative Law Yu.A. Tikhomirov. Defining the state as the dominant political-governing system, it was emphasized that the unity of the nature of public power at all levels of its implementation acts as the conceptual basis of public administration in ordinary, and even more so in extraordinary conditions – such conditions require both greater flexibility of management, and significant improvement in the qualifications of "those who govern", in particular features - public servants (the degree of general competence and the development of special knowledge and skills of which should be adequate to the degree of complexity of modern management, largely carried out in a digital environment).
A.A. Grishkovets, Leading researcher at the Center for Territorial Government and Self–Government, stressed that governance at the national level should be carried out in a broad social context. He sees internal stability as the basis for overcoming global turbulence, which provision will simplify the solution of all other social problems. According to his views, the main task of state power at the present time is the fight against poverty, overcoming legal nihilism and eliminating the alienation of citizens from the state (active social involvement is extremely important to achieve these goals).
A.N. Chertkov, Chief researcher of the Center for Territorial Government and Self–Government, emphasized importance of expanding the powers of the subjects of the Russian Federation, combined with ensuring the growth of their resource capabilities to solve both traditional and new ("anti-crisis") tasks. At the same time, the need to build flexible mechanisms of interaction between different levels of public authority adequate to the current conditions was also emphasized.
An indispensable condition for such interaction is the proper differentiation of law-making and law enforcement powers of various levels of public authority. The material contained in the report by the chief researcher of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation S.M. Zyryanov is devoted to a number these aspects.
S.B. Nanba, Leading researcher at the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, pays particular attention to the importance of the role of local self-government in overcoming crisis situations in general. She outlined the vectors of the development of local self-government in the modern world (in general, reduced to the recognition of the need for a radical modification of the system of local self-government as a whole). An important role in this process is given to the formation of an atmosphere of trust and interaction between the population and local authorities, as well as the implementation of the social functions of local self-government in the conditions of the coronacrisis.
A.A. Sergeev, Chief researcher of the Center for Territorial Government and Self–Government put forward and defends in the framework of the report the thesis that in the early 20s of the XXI century, in the conditions of an unprecedented (for the current generation) pandemic and other challenges of our time, we are on the verge of a deep transformation of the model of the organization of local government. But it is not important whether the updated model will correspond to the intricate provisions of a particular theory. The main question is whether the municipal level of government in its new organizational and legal hypostasis will be able to effectively solve the problems of large and small cities, villages, settlements, and other territories.
V.V. Tabolin, Professor of the Department of Public Law and Legal Support of Management of the State University of Management, noted the critical ambiguity of the course of the urbanization process in the modern world. The growth of urban agglomerations is nowadays a mainstream process, but at the same time it carries not only obvious advantages, but also objective risks. So, it is the crowding of living in the current conditions, according to Professor Tabolin, that contributes to the rapid spread of a new coronavirus infection (although this is disputed by doctors). In this regard, he called for improving the legal and technical requirements for the urban environment so that the mentioned agglomerations do not become "humanhills".
The participants of the discussion (representing scientific institutions at the federal and regional levels) noted the importance of the intersectoral and interdisciplinary nature of the presented report and called for further expansion of practically oriented research on modern management problems.
