Indicative process

Five months before the election to the Duma and eight before the presidential election, the presidential decree was published, introducing the system of indicators on the basis of which the Kremlin is going to monitor how effective the executive branch in the regions is. Two years after the introduction of the Governor’s appointment system, and a year later, with a little after the start of discussion of the issue, several dozen indicators were publicly announced, according to which the Kremlin will evaluate the activities of governors and their teams. From the perspective of a kind of political state plan, the Kremlin gives a signal to the beginning of the struggle "for milk yield", the capitalist competition of governors with neighbors and predecessors.

At the same time, neither the procedure of assessment itself is regulated in any way (it has to be parted by August 1), nor the consequences for “lagging” - it is only indicated that the leaders will receive special grants. The first reports should be submitted by the regional authorities by September 1. It can be assumed that the struggle for the numbers and their interpretation will unfold, and then the fined governors, and almost everything will turn out to be such, an additional incentive will appear to prove their effectiveness to the Kremlin.

According to the reports on the regular meetings of Vladimir Putin with the governors on the presidential site, it can be seen how each regional leader tries to emphasize the successes for his entire leadership or for the deadline since the last meeting with the president. Each meeting usually begins with a peppy report of the governor about the growth of the gross regional product and income of the population, the attraction of investments and the main current projects: gasification, housing, stimulation of birth rate, special economic zones, etc.

Now, under the control of the socio-economic situation in the field and the activities of the authorities to improve it, the base has been brought up. If in the original sketch version, voiced a year ago at the Presidium of the State Council Vladimir Yakushev (the successor to the head of the presidential administration as the Tyumen Governor), almost one and a half hundred indicators were held, then in the current presidential decree of their 43, starting with the volume of GRP and ending with the satisfaction of the authorities of the authorities.

There are a lot of indicators, they are not structured, the priorities are not indicated - you can pull out anything if you need to justify the negative or, conversely, a positive assessment of any governor. Nevertheless, the first in the Kremlin list are GRPs, investments, and incomes of the population. The largest block is the budget indicators (mainly expenditure), income of the population (nominal), the state of healthcare, education, culture (copies of the library fund and participation in "leisure activities"), the provision of housing and the state of the housing fund, the state of small businesses.

The indicators selected by the Kremlin look very colorful and varied. Among them there are private (say, the number of copies of the library fund per capita) and, conversely, are very general, such as “mortality” or “crime level”. The entire set as a whole looks very economical. There is completely no socio -political block - from strikes and protests to non -participation in voting, other forms of protest behavior. Citizens are allowed to tell sociologists about their satisfaction - medicine, education, and the activities of the authorities. Otherwise, they act as labor, requiring tent care of the authorities.

One mortality is represented from demography (and it’s good that not birth rate), although the nature and volume of migration could well serve as a generalizing indicator of well -being. There is nothing in the courts or, say, the obstruction of the prosecutor’s office and the actions of the authorities. The work of the authorities with citizens is not reflected. There is no, of course, in the list and really exciting the Kremlin as an integral indicator of loyalty and the effectiveness of governors of the number of votes for United Russia and the President. There are no complaints of citizens about their authorities in different instances ... All this, apparently, from another list - closed.

It seems that the 43 positions of the list are more likely to meet the expansion approach on the principle of “make me good” than allowing the actual administration effectiveness. This is the atavism of the Soviet one, which originates from the depths of Russian history of the view of the executive power in the localities as the owner, responsible before the supreme power for everything, and not as a manager. Actually, there are almost no managerial indicators in the list - mainly these are indicators describing either the situation in the region, or budget costs.

It remains incomprehensible, as on the basis of disparate indicators it will be possible to blind a general assessment, to which the decree allows a month of time. The question "cart-loser" arises: how can you affirm the indicators without a concept, assessment methodology. Apparently, there is still some sketch of the technique, and now the governors themselves and their Kremlin curators will lobby for their arranging options for "mirrors".

Note that the problem arose due to the abolition of direct elections of the heads of regions. Previously, it was the elections that were the balanced assessment (balanced taking into account the real priorities of the residents of the region) to the governor and his team, which was given by a huge number of very objective, personally interested judges. The regularly closed sociological surveys in the regions, the preparation of dossier in the media and on the basis of appeals of residents of the regions to different power authorities, and now some relatively objective multifactorial assessment are designed to replace normal elections.

It can be expected that the decree will affect the quality of statistics. The dynamics of many indicators that regional authorities can affect will look graphically like a saw - with a deterioration in indicators, as one governor will go away and their gradual improvement in his successor. We will witness regular exposure sessions, as it is now with crime. After all, each new boss, coming, is interested in showing the most negative (to truthfulness) picture, and then demonstrate improvements from year to year.

With regard to the multidimensional monitoring of the situation in the regions and actions of the authorities, not only the application now made, but also its execution. There are no ideal indicators for monitoring - it is important how they will use them. And how much the objective approach will be able to ensure the presidential commission on the improvement of public administration and justice, which will first develop a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of power based on the indicators, and then analyze and summarize regional reports. At the same time, the understanding of the corridor of the possibilities associated both with the responsiveness of indicators on certain managerial influences (and, accordingly, temporary lag), and with the objective specificity of each region - geographical, economic, ethnocultural, etc.

The announcement of indicators by which the effectiveness of the regional authorities will be evaluated can be persecuted by two main tasks: 1) monitor the situation in the field, regularly summarizing and stimulating political competition in the governor's corps; and 2) stimulate the activity of governors in the most important directions for the Kremlin. It seems that both in the current project are present. Its image component is also important - a demonstration of publicity of Kremlin policy and concern for citizens. If any of these tasks is realized at least partially, there will not be a losing society.