Elites as subjects of social governance

The aim of this work is to elucidate the essence and key characteristics of elites as subjects of social governance. Elites emerge as a crucial subject in social governance, playing a significant role in determining the effectiveness of the implemented socio-economic policies and the degree of national security assurance. The most relevant characteristics of the elites existing in Russia at this stage in the work include: a pronounced corporate nature, a systemic increase in the share of subjects who are representatives of law enforcement agencies, the presence of “fellow countrymen” in the recruiting system, the negative stability of the corruption component, farsytheism, mass worship of higher elites, a low level of public control. Existing geopolitical challenges require the transformation of domestic elites by introducing new subjects into the management circuit. Achieving maximum efficiency in this process will only be feasible in the case of building a new system of elite recruitment system, predicated on the recognition of real merits of citizens, openness of the information space, transparency of the social mobility mechanism, and expansion of opportunities for public control. The methodology of the conducted research relies on classical scientific approaches, which include dialectical and logical methods, generalization, and content analysis. The subject of this study encompasses the socio-political processes involved in the formation and transformation of modern domestic elites in the context of the new geopolitical reality. The paper presents interpretations of the essence of elites, generalizes the approaches to their formation, highlights the key characteristics of modern Russian elites, outlines the tools for the execution of governance functions by elites, and describes the processes of transformation of domestic elites. The results of the conducted research can be used to clarify the theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the characteristics of elites as a subject of social governance.