The Role of Ideological Factor in Improving the Quality of Municipal Management System in the Modern Russian Society

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 669-672

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

The Role of Ideological Factor in Improving the

Quality of Municipal Management System in the

Modern Russian Society

Svetlana A. Tikhonovskova *, Tatiana I. Barsukova , Vladimir Yu. Maksimov , Natalya A.

Levchenko , Vaagn M. Asryan , Konstantin V. Vodenko

Department of Personnel Management, Platov South-Russian State Polytechnic University (NPI), Novocherkassk, Russia

Department of Sociology, North Caucasus Federal University, Stavropol, Russia

Department of Public Administration, Stavropol State Agrarian University, Stavropol, Russia

Department of Personnel Management, Platov South-Russian State Polytechnic University (NPI), Novocherkassk, Russia

Institute of Sociology and Regional Studies, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Department of Personnel Management, Platov South-Russian State Polytechnic University (NPI), Novocherkassk, Russia

Received: 15/07/2019

Accepted: 01/09/2019

Published: 03/09/2019

Abstract

The article studies the role of the ideological factor in improving the quality of municipal management in the Russian society.

The authors dwell on the necessity for reconsidering the conceptually complex and contradictory situation that is connected to

determination of relations of state management, municipal management, and local self-government. Though the legal acts establish

the status of municipal management as a part of local self-government, it’s not being a part of the system of public authorities and

connection to direct participation of population, development of municipal management in Russia is influenced by the ideological

factor at the level of the liberal, conservative, and populist ideologemes. The research results show that the liberal model of municipal

management was corrected in favor of “smart conservatism”, which reflects the social and managerial realis of the Russian society.

The authors come to the conclusion that in the current situation the ideological factor plays a significant role in improving the quality

of municipal management, has the role of a “filter” on the path of quick organizational innovations in the system of municipal

management, which is connected to increase of the risks of populism as anti-system ideology and limited usage of the liberal model

of municipal management as municipal corporation.

Keywords: Municipal Management, Local Self-Government, Quality, Liberal Model of Management, Conservative Model of

Management, Ideological Factor, Populism

problems”, municipal management becomes the object of

Introduction

“

consideration” and practical action as to the level of critical

The discussion regarding the contents, character, and

analysis and offer of alternatives to “influence of the state”

and spontaneous self-organization”. It is possible to state that

municipal self-government causes public interest and requires

systemic expert evaluation, as, on the one hand, it acquires

popularity and the models of centralization draw attention,

and on the other hand, there’s a vivid striving for excluding

municipal management from the interaction with the system

of state and regional management, creating the conditions for

goals of municipal management has not just the socio-

economic component but, as experience of discussions in the

public and legal sphere shows, Russian society discusses the

ideological factor. The positions of the interested parties,

political parties, public organizations, and bodies of state and

municipal management inevitably include the issue of the

ratio of state and municipal management and differences in

coordination of formulas of municipal and local self-

government.

“

unlimited” participation of population in local self-

government.

The existing law (Federal law “On the general principles

At present, due to growth of populism and ideology in the

general form, which is a “simplified solution of complex

of organization of local self-government in the Russian

Federation” dated October 10, 2003, No. 131-FZ) established

the general principles of functioning of municipal

management as a component of local self-government, aimed

at implementation of professional activities on satisfaction of

Corresponding author: Svetlana A. Tikhonovskova,

Department of Personnel Management, Platov South-Russian

State Polytechnic University (NPI), Novocherkassk, Russia.

E-mail: tihonovskovas@yandex.ru.

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 669-672

needs and provision of services to municipal community. In

this context, municipal management has large differences

from local self-government in the elective structure according

to the principle of representative democracy and, at the same

time, has autonomy as to local self-government within the

implanted functions. The observed collision between the

treatments of the notions of municipal management and local

self-government causes implications related to determining

the spheres of competence of municipal self-government and

local self-government, хthough dependence of municipal

self-government on local self-government as the initial

management. This could be explained by the risks of

regionalism and separatism, which had real influence on the

state of managerial processes in the country, but one must

also note the fact that municipal management as a sphere of

socio-expert thought, was at a certain moment “compressed”

within purely legal procedures. By default, municipal

management was excluded from the sphere of “politization”

and conflict of interests, but the emerging models of

municipal management and simultaneous real formation of

the channels of budget, tax, and economic dependence of

municipal management in “power vertical” led to inclusion of

the mechanisms of politization of municipal self-government,

even if the issue was political configurations, interests of

local elites, and attitudes and evaluations of population’s

participation in the system of local management.

One might suppose that the ideological factor in

development of municipal self-government developed from

the liberal matrix of “freedom and self-regulation”. The

difficulty of putting it on the schemes of municipal self-

government consisted and still consists in the fact that

municipal management belongs to democratic institutes, but

the current Russian institutional system does not contain a

window of possibilities for building the “soft” institutional

environment and achievement of compromise between the

increase of legality and formal norms, on the one hand, and

social realia, on the other hand (2).

“

matrix” of formation and control is beyond doubt.

Ideological factor, as a certain ratio of ideological feature

and influence, is manifested in perceiving and constructing of

the effective schemes of municipal management and at the

level of understanding of the ratios between municipal

management and local self-government and in the fact that

attitudes towards municipal management and its social

effectiveness and authority “pass” through the ideological

factor and through the “ideal models” of municipal self-

government, which are based on ideological constructs.

Realization of the organizational & normative and structural

parameters of municipal management is very actual for the

Russian society; also, studying the ideological factor is very

important in the context of determining the scenarios of

municipal management and the role in the system of

interaction of the state, society, and personality (13).

In other words, the liberal model of municipal

management, which is treated as a totality of organizational

normative and structural norms, which allow establishing

Materials and Methods

contractual relations between municipal management and

local community, should work according to the method of

The authors use the method of “ideal types” of M. Weber

(

2014); ideological factor is treated as a model that embodies

“

municipal corporation”, with the criteria of effectiveness,

invariance of procedures, phenomena, and factors that are

involved in formation and functioning of municipal

management and have the systemic and structural

consequences, which include organization, structure, goals,

and functions of municipal management. The authors use the

openness, and coordination of interests, which allow

supporting the regime of provision of services to the local

community and ensuring access to the resource of municipal

management for interested groups (10). The difficulties

connected to implementation of the liberal model of

municipal management lead to the situation when the existing

system of municipal management in the Russian society acts

within limited responsibility, with absence or deficit of

municipal property, weak tax bases, and dependence on the

subvention policy of regional structured. It is possible to use

the argument that the liberal model is not universal for the

European experience and, according to the influence of the

“

ideal” models of municipal management, which are

generated from the ideological schemes that dominate in the

Russian public life. A special methodological role for this

research belongs to neo-institutionalism, based on the works

of foreign (6, 8), and Russian (1, 5, 7) researchers. The article

is based on the results of studies of the cultural and

ideological foundations of modernization of the national

Russian system of state management (9, 14) and the results of

analysis of local self-government in the system of regulation

of inter-ethnic relations in the context of implementation of

foreign experience in Russia (15).

“

populist wave”, there is dissatisfaction with formalism,

bureaucratization of municipal management, and indifference

to the interests of new groups and new social problems

(

gender, immigration, and ecological).

The liberal arguments are based on the idea that

Results

municipal management performed representative functions

and is the sphere of activities of competence-based institutes

of people (16). This envisages objective limitation for the

people who do not have professional, business, and corporate

qualities to be a part of municipal management. However,

this approach creates a tendency of separation of municipal

management from local self-government, when the formula

of “cancelling direct elections” of a mayor is implemented,

and a city manager is invited on the contractual basis. There

is a certain disappointment in the fact that the corps of

Formation of the system of municipal management in

Russia is marked with ideological conflicts of the previous

decade, opposition from the “state”, conservative tradition,

and the attempt to plant in the Russian soil the ideas of self-

government in the liberal variant, with the influence of

regionalism and ethnic nationalism. The paradox of the

situation with municipal management leads to the conclusion

that the “Soviet” model of management cannot be replicated,

and there’s a desire to see in municipal management the

“

driving mechanism” of the state and, especially, regional

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 669-672

municipal management might suffer from populism or

excessive political ambitions.

municipal management is associated, is in the lower area of

institutional trust of Russians (27% of Russians trust, 48% of

Russians do not trust) (3), and there’s a necessity to

“strengthen” the symbolic resources of municipal

management by the institutes of order and stability

(primarily, regional authorities).

Probably, in the current situation the role of municipal

management as an institute that satisfied the demands of

municipal community for social justice, balance of interests,

and development of infrastructure, is very important. Self-

organization and self-regulation of population, which seem

necessary on the logic of the proper, are the conditions

related to finding new social practices and to the level of

public organizations and communities’ stimulating the

development of municipal management. As of now, the

answer is not satisfactory (only 4% of Russians have a desire

to participate in public organizations which sphere of

interests is local self-government) (3).

It is possible to conclude that the conservative model of

municipal management in the existing Russian society is a

forced acknowledgment of social realia, weak resource base

of municipal management, and poor indicators of social self-

organization of population. Also, as analysis of the situation

in the regions with the highest level of critical attitude

towards activities of municipal management shows,

expectations from municipal management are connected to

social and investment activities, acquisition of competence in

overcoming of local crisis phenomena, and access to social

resources.

In this sense, the program of “concessions” in

implementation of the liberal model comes into effect, as the

formula of limited public agreement, which has its origins in

the Locke’s idea of the civil political society, does not work.

Specifying this position, it is possible to state that the “ideal”

civil society has not formed at the level of municipal entities;

also, it is important to pay attention to the fact that the system

of municipal management has the effect of “release of

administrative spring”, increase of adaptive potential of

municipal management based on the logic of self-production,

and achievement of rationality of goals on the basis of

improvement of goals on the basis of improvement of

administrative and intra-organizational methods. The existing

schemes of municipal management require no so much the

universal classifier as a complex but necessary work of

implementation of the system of municipal management,

which observes the political and legal principles that are set

by the law but determine specific methods of formation and

evaluation of local self-government according to the volume

of real tasks, experience of participation of population in self-

management, authority and influence of public organizations,

and creation of coalitions for promoting the common goals

and projects of a municipal entity.

In other words, it means expansion of the “window of

opportunities” for real influence of municipal management on

the state of affairs at the municipal, regional, and national

levels. The existing “center” model of municipal management

envisages “retreat” from extremes of liberalism and

populism, showing the priority of stability before

organizational and structural innovations. Accusations of the

conservative and protectionism shift and transaction costs of

bureaucracy have a power of argumentation if they consider

the fact that “direct democracy” is impossible in the modern

society and in the conditions of complex socio-economic and

legal space of Russia there’s a necessity for dosing of “smart”

conservatism” for avoiding the risks of fragmentation of

municipal management under the influence of destructive

factors of populism and real participation in programs and

projects that go beyond the organizational, mobilization, and

financial opportunities of municipal management (11).

Discussion

In view of the above, it is necessary to pay attention to

the influence of the populist ideology, which contains the

anti-system meritocratic character with the requirement for

radical update of the system of municipal management,

redistribution of the spheres of competence of state

management and local self-government, and transition to the

models of “democracy of participation” of population,

making the system of municipal management elected on the

constant basis.

The ideology of populism is not independent in formation

of the model of municipal management, having emerged as

Probably, conservatism, as an ideological factor, is

manifested in organization and structure of municipal

management in three dimensions. Firstly, at present

municipal management requires “hibernation”, so, in the

conditions of growth of crisis phenomena, it could observe

the principle of coordination of actions and interests with the

system of state and regional management. In other words, it is

possible to speak of emergence of the points of turbulence,

loss of manageability, and focus on “negative results”.

Secondly, if conservatism is treated not as following the

tradition of “communalism” but as a policy of value and

normative consensus, built on legal order, stability, and

security, it is possible to speak of a compromise satisfactory

solution, and that conservatism is not just a reaction to

“

aggressive anti-liberalism”, but with signs of “external

ochlocracy” and foundation on domination of “private” local

interests. A community concept (early 2000’s) with the ideas

of synthesis of traditions and modern time and new social

order, which respects the person’s autonomy, decreases

attractiveness – if one stands on the position that municipal

management is the system of collective activities and social

needs (4). However, according to the American experience of

local management, the problem is that communitarism set the

way for populism. With worries regarding social anarchy

(

criminalization, racial discrimination, and clan system)

communitarism, while requiring the reduction of the gap

between individual freedom and social responsibilities, does

not take into account the fact that voluntariness in the modern

society under the influence of political and information

technologies might acquire the populist character. Interest to

direct democracy and creation of a just social order could be

based on “manipulated competence” and attractiveness of

“

revolutionary changes” but restoration of common sense and

acknowledgment of the role of the state in regulation of

complex public processes. In view of the fact that local self-

government, with which the authority and functionality of

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages: 669-672

ideological simulacra and PR images. It is supposed that

municipal management will definitely gain from recruiting

problems, which requires concentration of power resources

and limitation of “risk” self-activity.

“

socially responsible parties”. However, complexity of the

situation is that the procedure of “nomination” of teaching the

skills of self-management and voluntary subordination of

citizens in the sphere of execution of social duties (schools,

sphere of social provision, support for social services) are not

determined (12,18).

An obvious result of determining the role of the

ideological factor in development of the system of municipal

management in the Russian society is impossibility to

overcome the ideological interpretations that negatively

influence the assessment of perspectives of municipal

management as a necessary “mediation” level in management

of the Russian society. Probably, the problem consists not so

much in specification of ratio between state, regional, and

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