The quality of government

Good governance ( English good governance ) is a new concept of public administration that does not have an exact equivalent in the Russian language. The theory was first proposed in 1997 in documents of the United Nations Development Program. In these documents, effective public administration is considered as the exercise of economic, political and administrative power in order to manage the affairs of the country at all levels. It is assumed that governance is based on the principles of separation of powers, democracy, the election and succession of senior officials, accountability of executive institutions, the rule of law, political pluralism, inclusiveness and transparency, participatory, independent media, has a democratic character. At the same time, management effectiveness is understood as achieving goals on time and with minimal public resources. The combination of democracy and efficiency mutually suggest and condition each other. “Good Governance” refers to the degree to which public servants are in compliance with core government values. The concept of “core values” takes on different meanings depending on which approach to public administration (legal, political or managerial) is used to evaluate the performance of public servants.

Widely used in the world, the UN methodology for assessing “good governance” takes into account the key values ​​of various approaches:

• Values ​​of a Legal Approach
  • The rule of law - the existence of fair laws and effective protection of human rights, especially for democratic minorities.
  • Equality and non-discrimination (equity and inclusiveness) - an equal approach to all citizens.
• Political Approach Values
  • Participation - participation of citizens in the process of making state decisions, both directly and through civil society organizations
  • Efficiency (responsiveness) - administrative processes at a reasonable time ensure engagement and enable the participation of all interested parties.
  • Consensus oriented — mediation mechanisms and other methods are used to achieve common agreement in decision-making in the interests of all members of society.
• Management Approach Values
  • Efficiency and effectiveness (effectiveness and efficiency) - authorities produce results that satisfy public expectations, and at the same time make the best use of the resources at their disposal, taking care of the reproduction of these resources.
• Universal Organizational Values
  • Transparency
  • Accountability

Along with political, legal and managerial values ​​in the UN methodology, one can distinguish “universal organizational values” (transparency and accountability), which do not relate to the specific content of the activities of government bodies, but to the solution of the agency problem characteristic of any organization. It is the simultaneous presence of transparency and accountability that is a prerequisite for solving the problem of public administration quality and allows for the implementation of key values ​​of public administration. Without the necessary information on the activities of public servants, it is impossible to manage them (use the “carrot and stick”). Without the ability to manage information on the activities of public servants does not have a useful use.

The construction of an electronic state affects, first of all, the implementation of the universal organizational values ​​of the state (transparency and accountability), only indirectly affecting the implementation of the remaining values ​​of public administration. In the electronic state, transparency is ensured by providing citizens with access to state information , accountability is ensured by giving official information disclosed information within the framework of state accounting , as well as by auditing state information systems that will allow for the implementation of state accounting requirements and access to information.

The report of the World Economic Forum in 2013 contains requirements for the functioning of public administration in the new environment. In particular, the report refers to the FAST principle (flatter, agile, streamlined, tech-enabled), which is proposed to be taken as a basis for assessing the performance of public authorities (flatter - “flat”, affordable; agile - mobile, streamlined - well-established, clear organized, and tech-enabled technically equipped). The FAST principle assumes that public authorities should, retaining all their basic basic qualities, strengthen them through the application of more innovative, effective and efficient practices. In the activities of public administration bodies there should be less “fuss and rush”, but more efficiency in the transition to a better quality of public servants and to a “responsible government” ^[1] .