CC BY
55
DOI 10.22394/1726-1139-2018-12-25-32
Experience, Problems and Prospects of Practical Implementation of the Concept "Open Government" of the Russian Federation
Dmitry Yu. Desyatnichenko*, Olesya Yu. Desyatnichenko
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (North-West Institute of Management of RANEPA), Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation; *rabotaemail@mail.ru
ABSTRACT
The author's hypothesis investigated in this article is connected with the statement about the imbalance in the practical implementation of the principles and priorities of the concept of open government in Russia and the need to study the institutional causes of this imbalance. The purpose of the study is to develop conceptual proposals, the implementation of which will help to smooth out and eliminate the imbalances noted above in development.
The article on the one hand, notes the clear achievements in solving many technical and technological problems that have recently hampered the formation of e — government, e-democracy, open government. These include only a partial solution at the state level of the problem of functioning of a convenient and legally significant system of identification of citizens in the electronic environment, the rating of the functioning of the elements of the electronic democracy and the lack of real interest of citizens to participate in decision-making by public authorities, often narrowing in practice the principles of the concept of "Open Government" to the task of ensuring the openness of data.
The identified successes and problems in the formation and development of open government elements allow the authors to offer and justify their vision of promising directions for the practical implementation of the concept of "Open Government" in the Russian Federation.
Among them: the need of developing and implementing mechanisms to ensure the mandatory participation of a significant number of the country's citizens in the public discussion of issues directly affecting their interests, their mandatory direct impact on the adoption of socially significant decisions; the expansion of the use of crowdsourcing as an effective, economic and socially effective tool for involving citizens in socially aware decision-making.
Keywords: e-government, e-democracy, crowdsourcing, innovation, public discussion of projects
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Опыт, проблемы и перспективы практической реализации концепции «Открытого Правительства» в Российской Федерации
Десятниченко Д. Ю.*, Десятниченко О. Ю.
Российская академия народного хозяйства и государственной службы при Президенте Российской Федерации (Северо-Западный институт управления РАНХиГС), Санкт-Петербург, Российская Федерация; *га^аетаИ@таИ.ги
РЕФЕРАТ
Авторская гипотеза, исследуемая в данной статье, связана с утверждением о наличии дисбаланса в практической реализации принципов и приоритетов концепции открытого правительства в России и необходимости исследования институциональных причин этого дисбаланса. Целью исследования является выработка концептуальных предложений, реализация которых будет способствовать сглаживанию и устранению отмеченных выше дисбалансов в развитии.
В статье, с одной стороны, отмечаются явные достигнутые успехи в решении многих технических и технологических проблем, еще недавно сдерживавших формирование системы электронного государственного управления, электронной демократии, открытого правительства.
о С другой стороны, исследуются существующие системные проблемы, препятствующие дальнейшему развитию открытого правительства в стране. К таковым авторы ^ относят лишь частичное решение на государственном уровне проблемы функциониро-^ вания удобной и юридически значимой системы идентификации граждан в электронной > среде, номинальность функционирования элементов системы электронной демократии и отсутствие реального интереса граждан к участию в принятии решений органами ш государственного управления, нередкое сужение на практике принципов концепции о «Открытого Правительства» до задачи обеспечения открытости данных. о Выявленные успехи и проблемы в формировании и развитии элементов открытого ™ правительства позволяют авторам предложить и обосновать свое видение перспективен ных направлений практической реализации концепции «Открытого Правительства» в РФ. х Среди них: необходимость разработки и внедрение механизмов, обеспечивающих обя-< зательное участие значительной части граждан страны в общественном обсуждении ^ вопросов, непосредственно затрагивающих их интересы, их обязательное прямое вли-^ яние на принятие общественно значимых решений; расширение практики использования ^ краудсорсинга, как действенного, экономически и социально эффективного инструмен-° та вовлечения граждан в принятие общественно значимых решений.
Ключевые слова: электронное правительство, электронная демократия, краудсорсинг, инновации, общественное обсуждение проектов
1. introduction
Sine J. Schumpeter, justified the leading role of innovations in provision of dynamic development of economic systems, the term "innovation", has become the synonym of progress and moving forward, but by the end of the 20th century it becomes the must-have item of new existing everywhere compound terms that characterize progressive changes in all fields and branches of activity.
Innovative education, innovative entrepreneurship, and innovative economy — this is an incomplete list of idioms that have recently entered and entrenched the daily manner of speech. The sphere of public administration, being very conservative basically, today it has also been involved in the processes of innovative modernization. One of the bright external signs of such processes of renewal is the widespread transition to an innovative model of government, based on the active use of information and communication technologies of continuous interaction of the subject and objects of management — the model of Open Government.
In our opinion, the open government is a new stage in the implementation of the traditional principle of democracy, associated with the use of modern information and communication technologies that leads to a qualitatively new level of interaction of citizens, the state and local government. In the context of open government it becomes possible and necessary to develop the institutions of electronic democracy, which allow to receive both prompt feedback from citizens and, to express their proposals and wishes proactively and directly to the legislative and executive authorities at all levels in an initiative manner.
The author's hypothesis in this article is: the implementation of the main priorities and principles of the concept of "Open government" in Russia has started successfully in general, but it is unbalanced in various areas due to the presence of a number of unresolved institutional problems. Searching for approaches to solve these institutional problems requires the identification of new areas of active practical work of the legislative and executive authorities in Russia. The search and identifying of these new priorities for Russia in the medium and long term is possible as a part of research projects and scientific discussions, which allow to identify both augmented and alternative approaches to solve institutional problems of consistent implementation of the concept of "Open government" in the Russian Federation.
1 The indicator of the proportion of citizens using e-government services has been exceeded. The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. Official website. URL: http://minsvyaz.ru/ru/events/37922/ (accessed: 14 June 2018).
2 The Order of the Government of the Russian Federation from 30 January 2014 N 93-r "On Approving the Concept of Openness of Federal Executive Authorities". ConsultantPlus, 1997-2018.
3 The Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of 6 May 2008 N 632-p (ed. 10 May 2009 // ConsultantPlus, 1997-2018. URL: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_76942 (accessed: 14 June 2018).
2. Success in implementing the concept of "Open Government" o
o
Despite the fact that more than 6 years has passed since the President's decree № 601 ^ "On the main directions of improving the system of public administration" was promul- EJ gated, and it has become essentially a "road map" for building a new model of informa- g tion interaction between the government and society, the study of the problems and L-prospects of the "Open government" remains quite an urgent task. This decree defined o as a target that in 2018 the share of citizens using e-government services should reach o 70%. The Ministry of digital technology development and communication has carried < out significant work on the promotion and promotion of electronic interaction with the ^ state. The official website of which states that in 2014, 2016, 2017, the planned figures x for the share of citizens using electronic public services were exceeded by 0.2%, 1.3%, 2 4.3%, respectively1. i-
We believe that the above mentioned facts should also be considered as an example ^ of effective implementation of the principles enshrined in the concept of openness of m Federal Executive bodies, approved by the order of the Government of the Russian Federation № 93 — p 30.01.2014.2 We can talk about the successful implementation of this Concept, the creation of mechanisms and tools for certification, registration and publication of data, the development and implementation of methods of monitoring and evaluation of the demand for open data, monitoring of state websites.
The harbinger of the concept of Open Government was the Concept of formation in the Russian Federation of electronic government3, which defined in particular the electronic government as a new form of organization of public authorities, allowing to bring to a new level of efficiency and convenience of organizations and citizens of public services and information about the results of the detail of state bodies through the widespread use of information and communication technologies.
The implementation of the concept of "Open Government" certainly includes the active use of mechanisms of electronic information interaction of various state and municipal authorities, organizations and citizens, but is not limited to them. The category of "open government " is much broader than" e-government", as it also involves the active use of traditional forms of interaction of all stakeholders, contributing to the increase of the degree of participation of citizens and public associations in political process and public decision making.
The development of e-government within the concept of e-government has already moved beyond the interaction with the Executive authorities. In fact, we are witnessing the actual expansion of the concept of "electronic government" and its transformation into the concept of "electronic system of state and municipal management", based on "electronic participation" as a new mechanism of the interactive relationship between authorities and society [3], and the legal concept of e-democracy [1], which in our expert opinion should also be attributed to the success in the field of practical construction of the open government model in Russia. The various branches of government, including the legislative and judicial branches, has already started using e-government and governance tools, and this experience is contributing the overall of effectiveness of public administration.
o In this context, it should also be mentioned about the state automated information
QJ
^ system "Management" (SAS "Management") created according to the decree of the
^ Government of the Russian Federation dated December 25, 2009 N 1088»).
EJ SAS "Management" is a unified state information system that provides collection,
g accounting, processing and analysis of data contained in the state and municipal information resources, analytical data, official state statistics data, as well as other informa-
0 tion necessary to support management decisions in the field of public administration"1.
CO
£ 3. Major problems to be addressed
x The implementation of the Open Government concept is hampered by a number of 2 problems related to the implementation of the e-government concept. First of all, it is
1 the absence of the concept of identification of citizens in the electronic environment in ^ a legally significant form at the state level. Elements and private solutions of this problem ° certainly exist, but there is still no single conceptual practical solution that can be
mandatory use and available to all citizens of the Russian Federation anywhere in the country. Perhaps one of the ways to solve this problem will be the planned mass transition of Russian citizens to electronic passports and using them under a universal system of electronic authentication.
The next systemic problem can be considered the problem of digital inequality, the solution of which under conditions of significant economic, social inequality of citizens, inequality in the levels of infrastructure and economic development of the regions is also extremely difficult, and is simply impossible without the support of the state. This problem is so serious and significant that its solution requires the intervention of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who instructed the government in June 20182 to consider amending the law "on communications", in accordance with which, it is proposed to create mandatory points of collective Internet access without the use of equipment of subscribers in all settlements of Russia with a population of 100 people, thus lowering the threshold from the current 250. The Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was appointed to be responsible for the implementing of this order, which also emphasizes the urgency of the problem and the importance of its solution for the country.
The problem of the implementation of the concept of "Open Government" is also a certain optional feedback from the population in relation to certain legislative or management initiatives of the government, public control. In this case, according to our expert opinion, in practice there is a risk of the discouraging involvement of citizens and their communities in these procedures. The absence of any uniform procedural rules or regulations governing quantitatively the minimum thresholds of feedback or the degree of citizen involvement in decision-making and public control procedures can lead in practice to the fact that the created mechanisms of electronic democracy become only nominal elements of the Open government model, which can, but do not lead to genuine involvement society in solving problems of local, regional and national importance. Such a bold thesis, of course, requires serious confirmation and justification, and we are unlikely to be able to complete this task in full under this article. We should only note that according to the data presented on the official website of the SAS "Management", in the section devoted to the survey of citizens on each of the six priority areas of the "Strategy of Russia 2035"3 from 3449 to 4932 people took part as at 23 June
1 SACS "Mamnagement. Official website. URL: http://gasu.gov.ru.
2 Putin ordered Wi-Fi to be carried out in villages with a population of 100 people. URL: http:// www.cnews.ru/news/top/2018-06-08_putin_poruchil_provesti_internet_v_sela_s_chislom (accessed: 14 June 2018).
3 SACS "Mamnagement. Official website. URL: http://gasu.gov.ru/strategy-2035/interviews/active.
2018, which in our opinion eloquently illustrates the real low involvement of citizens in o
the procedure of public discussion and low actual demand of the tools of electronic ^
democracy in Russia, even if we are talking about the most important documents, which ^
really affect the interests of all citizens of the country in the long term. EJ
The fact that the development of elements of the electronic state often "...narrows g
to the improvement of public administration in order to provide access to information L-
through the use of new information and computer technologies..." [2] is also the prob- o
lem of goal-setting in the implementation of the principles of "Open Government". In o
our opinion, the formation of the technical and technological basis is a necessary, but <
insufficient condition for the practical implementation of the goals and priorities of the ^
development of e-government, e-democracy, open government. x
<
4. Prospects and priorities for the development of open government in Russia x
In our opinion, it is necessary to pay special attention to analyze the possibility of fixing ° procedural aspects and quantitative parameters of the minimum mandatory degree of citizens involvement in the management and decision-making processes, the failure to comply with which will prevent from making these decisions. Quantitative proportions of involvement require separate research and analysis, but in our expert opinion, on the one hand, they should be proportional to the degree of importance of the accepted values, on the other hand they should be proportional to the degree of direct influence on social and personal interests and living conditions, work, leisure time activities of citizens.
Also in this context, the need of developing and implementing a system of additional motivation of citizens to monitor and respond productively to the government's initiatives such as the bills submitted for public discussion, etc., needs additional studies. And the possibility of introducing an individual personalized account of such social and civil activity, expressed in the assignment of individual indices, allowing to count the results of the reporting period for certain individual preferences of financial and non-financial nature on a competitive basis should also be studied. However, let us remind that under this study, we only believe that it is necessary to focus on solving this problem, and we identify some possible ways to its solution.
The experience of China is interesting, worth attention, separate analysis and productive borrowing. In 2014, China's State Council issued a document "Notice concerning Issuance of the Outline Planning for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014-2020)"1, which defines the plans of China concerning the construction of the system of social credit. This system is regarded as a basis for the construction and development of a modern harmonious society, a tool for overcoming social contradictions, stimulating mutual trust of all subjects, an essential condition for the strengthening and developing of innovative social management.
The idea of social credit rating in China is based on the successful experience of western countries, where an effective system of private credit ratings is being developed successfully2. It is aimed at estimating large business entities and even economies of different countries. China is also planning to make the objects of rating assessments of absolutely all subjects of social relations in the state on a compulsory basis, normalizing the levels of quantitative indicators of the rating, introducing complex mechanisms of remuneration and punishment for achieving certain levels of the rating values.
1 Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (20142020) URL: https://chi-nacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/planning-outline-for-the-construction-of-a-social-credit-system-2014-2020.
2 LARRY CATÁ BACKER China's Social Credit Initiative in a Global Context: Introduction and the Problem of Transparency. Law at the End of the Day URL: http://lcbackerblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/ the-problem-of-transparency.html.
o According to the authors opinion, the use of system elements of individual social ^ credit ratings can allow Russia to make significant progress in solving the problem of low ^ social motivation of inclusion in the processes of public discussion, decision-making, EJ monitoring of their implementation and achievement of targets at all levels of public ad-g ministration. In this context, social credit rating can be considered as an intangible asset of the subject of social relations. Just as firms today are seeking to promote and to pre-o vent the loss of goodwill, social actors will receive a powerful and inexhaustible motivation
0 to maximize socially justified and responsible behavior in absolutely all spheres of activ-< ity. E-democracy should be considered as an essential tool and institutional framework c for the Open Government. The participation of citizens in collective decision-making x within the framework of crowdsourcing has already been tested both in making important 2 decisions of regional importance in large cities of Russia, and in the largest and success-
1 ful companies and projects. Thus, the choice of the official Mascot of the 2018 FIFA world ^ Cup in Russia can be considered a vivid and convincing example of the high efficiency of ° this tool. It allowed to attract all interested people on a competitive basis, first to develop
the Mascot, and then to determine the winner. More than 1 million people took part in the Internet voting when choosing the talisman, and FIFA bought the copyrights for to the Wolf, named "Zabivka" from the author — a student of the Department of graphic design of Tomsk State University Ekaterina Bocharova just for $ 5001 .
Another striking example is the largest commercial Bank in Russia — PJSC "Sberbank". It has been using crowdsourcing to attract ideas for improving their products and developing promising projects since 2011. According to the information posted on a separate website created for this purpose http://www.sberbankidea.ru/, more than 100 000 people have already taken part in the Bank's crowdsourcing projects2.
According to the authors ' expert opinion, the expansion of crowdsourcing practice for the state within the implementation of the concept of e — democracy is also a way of saving on expert analytical research and control and audit activities, systematic work within the volunteering.
The positive social and economic effect of crowdsourcing is also associated with the fact that personal participation in certain projects that affect the public interest, significantly strengthens the personal civil sense of justice, creates a strong and stable internal motivation for a more responsible attitude to the product of all labor and related objects and processes. Public discussion of the federal laws will not only make them better, but it will also raise awareness of people about its purpose and meaning, and it will significantly increase the effectiveness of practical implementation.
Intensive work on the practical implementation of the Open Government concept has been carried out in the regions of Russia for several years. Thus, in St. Petersburg it was officially initiated by the adoption of the decree of the city government № 1108 "On the Introduction of Principles and Mechanisms of Open Government in the Activities of the Executive Authorities" on November 15, 20123 in the annexes to which the composition of the Executive Commission, headed by the Governor, was approved, and an extensive plan of practical measures to ensure the implementation of the principles and mechanisms of open government in the activities of the executive authorities of St. Petersburg was also approved. The above mentioned decree of the government is modified regularly on
1 A wolf named Zabivaka has been chosen the official Mascot of the 2018 FIFA world. URL: https://ru.fifa.com/worldcup/news/0i$>M^a.nbHbiM-Ta.nMCMaH0M-HeMnM0HaTa-MMpa-n0-($>yT60.ny-fifa-2018tm-Bbi6paH-B-2845441; Zabivaka is the Mascot, the official talisman of the FIFA World's Cup. URL: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/3a6MBaKa.
2 Sberbank Idea! — the platform for crowdsourcing and innovation management of Sberbank! URL: http://www.sberbankidea.ru.
3 Official website of Administration of Saint-Petersburg. URL: https://www.gov.spb.ru/law?d&nd= 822401410&nh=1 (accessed: 14June 2018).
<
the basis of the achieved results and emerging challenges. The latest changes and additions to the Decree N 1108 were made on December 12, 2017, which confirms the relevance of further practical activities to develop the principles and mechanisms of the open government. EJ
The activities of governments and administrations at all levels of government in the g Russian Federation are directly or indirectly reflected in the budget of the relevant level Lof government. In this case, the concept of open government cannot be implemented o without emphasizing open budgets at all levels. Unlike many others, including the above- o mentioned processes, the open e-budget system is still at an early stage of development. < Direct consideration of citizens preferences in planning income and expenditure, adjusting the priorities of budget policy, assessing the effectiveness of budget expenditures by x direct recipients of public services or consumers of public and personal goods financed 2 from the budget functions occasionally, fragmentally, or absent at all. i-
This situation is hardly fully consistent with the Concept of creation and development ^ of an integrated information system of public Finance management "Electronic budget"1, ° which implies, inter alia, "ensuring transparency, openness and accountability of the activities of public authorities and local authorities, as well as improving the quality of financial management of public administration sector organizations by forming a single information space".
5. Research Results
In our opinion the experience of building a model of Open Government, in general can be considered successful. The planned indicators of citizens' involvement in electronic public services are being implemented and exceeded. Considerable progress has been achieved in the development of technical and technological foundations of the Open Government infrastructure. Moreover, we can talk about the obvious signs of an emerging electronic system of state and municipal administration.
Some unresolved problems that constraint on the successful development of the concept of "Open Government" are: the absence of the concept of universal identification of citizens in the electronic environment in a legally significant form; the problem of digital inequality of citizens of the country, which has become the focus of attention of the President and Prime Minister; the rating of the functioning of elements of the electronic democracy system and the lack of real interest of citizens to participate in decision-making by public authorities through existing tools of the electronic digital environment; frequent narrowing the principles of the concept of "Open Government" up to the task of providing open data in practice.
The priority directions of the open government development in Russia should be the development and implementation of mechanisms that ensure the mandatory participation of a significant part of citizens in public discussion of issues that directly affect their interests, and decision-making, including the expansion of crowdsourcing.
6. Conclusions
Summing up our brief study, we note that the traditional model of public administration in modern conditions has ceased to meet the goals and interests of citizens in many
1 The order of the Government of the Russian Federation of 20 June 2011 N 1275-p (ed. of 03.03.2017) "About the Concept of creation and development of the state integrated information system of management of public finances 'Electronic budget". URL: http://www.consultant.ru/ document/cons_doc_LAW_117479/f62ee45faefd8e2a11d6d88941ac66824f848bc2 (accessed: 14 June 2018).
o developed countries, including Russia. The bureaucratic system of public administration
^ should be replaced in the nearest future by the open government model based on
^ a fundamentally new model of communication between the government and society.
EJ In many areas, Russia has already succeeded in this context, but it is impossible to
g talk about the full implementation of the open government concept. The author's hypothesis about the imbalance in the level of practical implementation of key principles,
0 priorities, mechanisms of open government, including in the regional context, was cono firmed.
< Further practical implementing of the principles and priorities of the "Open Govern-
c ment" concept requires taking into account foreign experience, which shows more ef-
x fective system solutions that fundamentally change the nature of the relationship of all
2 subjects of social and economic relations in the state today. This necessitates further
1 theoretical study of this problem by the interested parties, improvement of practical ^ mechanisms for the implementation of existing and developing conceptual framework ° of the "Open Government" model emerging in Russia.
References
1. Antonov Ya. V. Legal Aspects of Electronic Democracy and Electronic Vote // Administrative consulting [Upravlencheskoe konsul'tirovanie]. 2014. N 6. P. 136-144. (In rus)
2. Kiselev A. S. E-Government in the Russian Federation: Genesis and Current State // Socioeconomic phenomena and processes [Sotsial'no-ekonomicheskie yavleniya I protsessy]. 2015. N 10, vol. 10. P. 203. (In rus)
3. Chugunov A. V. E-Participation in the Context of Democracy Concept Transformation // Administrative consulting. [Upravlencheskoe konsul'tirovanie]. 2017. N 8 (104). P. 14-20. (In rus)
About the authors:
Dmitry Yu. Desyatnichenko, Associate Professor of the Chair of Economics of North-West Institute of Management of RANEPA (St. Petersburg, Russian Federation), PhD in Economics, Associate Professor; rabotaemail@mail.ru olesya Yu. Desyatnichenko, Associate Professor of the Chair of Economics of North-West Institute of Management of RANEPA (St. Petersburg, Russian Federation), PhD in Economics, Associate Professor; olesymail@gmail.com
Литература
1. Антонов Я. В. Правовые аспекты электронной демократии и электронного голосования // Управленческое консультирование. 2014. № 6. С. 136-144.
2. Киселев А. С. Электронное правительство в Российской Федерации: Генезис и современное состояние // Социально-экономические явления и процессы. 2015. № 10, Т. 10. С. 199204.
3. Чугунов А. В. Электронное участие в контексте трансформации концепции демократии // Управленческое консультирование. 2017. № 8. С. 14-20.
Об авторах:
Десятниченко Дмитрий Юрьевич, доцент кафедры экономики Северо-Западного института управления РАНХиГС (Санкт-Петербург, Российская Федерация), кандидат экономических наук, доцент; rabotaemail@mail.ru
Десятниченко Олеся Юрьевна, доцент кафедры экономики Северо-Западного института управления РАНХиГС (Санкт-Петербург, Российская Федерация), кандидат экономических наук, доцент; olesymail@gmail.com
