Goal setting at the level

One of the leaders of United Russia wrote an article about what to do with the party until 2020

The new program article was presented to the public by the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party, Speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov. The text entitled “The defining vector of the country’s development: levels of goal setting” was published on Monday in the party newspaper.

It’s a rare “bear,” much less an ordinary voter, who will get to the middle of this piece of political newspeak without expert support. “We must constantly be leaders of society in the vector of Russia’s development, where every citizen sees his own future and actively participates in achieving his goals,” writes Mr. Gryzlov. -- The implementation of the plan is designed for the long term, one of the stages of which is “Strategy 2020”. During this period, party activity should be built on the basis of consistent, multi-level, comprehensive goal setting.” The leader of the bears counted seven “levels of goal setting”: ensuring the prosperity of Russia by 2020, consolidating civil society, increasing the efficiency of the economy, “unlocking the human resources potential of citizens,” implementing party projects, ensuring the effective development of the regions of a united Russia (in the text this phrase is used without quotes) and, finally, ensuring the effectiveness of local government.

The abundance of “levels of goal setting” does not bother Mr. Gryzlov: in his opinion, it guarantees “multiple “degrees of protection” of the national strategy.” The article ends with the disclaimer that the levels are “conditional” and “interconnected with each other and with other areas of party work.”

State Duma deputy from United Russia, political scientist Sergei Markov, tried to help the Vremya Novostei correspondent get to the heart of Mr. Gryzlov’s text. “This is part of a larger process of transition from formal election programs that United Russia needed when it was only a voting mechanism, to strategic plans for the country’s development,” the analyst explained. “The program must evolve from general stated objectives to a certain hierarchy of goals, to a system of organized methods and means.” True, it was not possible to find the means and methods in the article, but Sergei Markov promised that they would certainly be found “at the next stages.” “This is something we haven’t done for many decades, since 1961, when the program for building communism was put forward,” the expert justified fellow party members, persuading society “not to be critical of all this.”

However, it turned out to be difficult even for professional analysts to grasp Mr. Gryzlov's thoughts. “I don’t really understand what levels of goal setting are,” Boris Makarenko, First Deputy General Director of the Center for Political Technologies, admitted in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent. - When they talk about levels, they mean a hierarchy - something more general, something more specific. The article fails to do this. The word “goal setting” is fashionable now, but when something is attached to it, it turns out to be nonsense.” “And why is local government the last level, and civil society the second?” - the political scientist is perplexed, reminding that there is no civil society without self-government. “There are rather problems with the language in which it is written, although the words are all correct,” Mr. Makarenko concluded.

The party leadership will be able to practice a consistent, multi-level, complex presentation of ideas at the Tenth Congress of United Russia, which will be held in Moscow on November 20. Boris Gryzlov has already promised that this event will “contribute to national goal-setting.” Less global pressing issues will also be discussed at the congress: increasing the openness of the party, democratizing governance and new rules for admitting freshly minted United Russia members to the party ranks.

Natalia ROZHKOVA