New technologies of public control: reality or illusion?

Introduction: in recent years, conditions have been created in the Russian Federation for the development of new forms of public control using information and communication technologies. The article examines the legal regulation and practice of the implementation of these forms of control over the rule-making and law-enforcement activities of federal executive bodies, identifies positive and negative features, formulates proposals for improving public control. Purpose and objectives: the purpose of the work is to study the introduction of new forms of control into public control activities and the prospects for their development with regard to the activities of the executive branch. The objectives of the work are as follows: to clarify the types of public control depending on the object under control; to characterize new forms of participation of civil society institutions in the control over the rule-making activities of the Government of the Russian Federation and federal executive bodies; to study the effectiveness of citizens’ participation in monitoring rule-making activities of federal executive bodies; to identify and characterize new forms of public control over law enforcement of federal executive bodies. Methods: the study is based on dialectical, formal-logical, functional, systemic and other general scientific research methods, as well as specific scientific methods: statistical, structural-legal, formal-legal. Results: modern forms of control of civil society institutions and citizens over the quality of rule-making procedures of federal executive bodies have been studied; information and communication technologies used by citizens in exercising public control over rule-making and law enforcement of federal executive bodies have been identified; positive aspects and difficulties in implementing new forms of public control have been detected. Conclusions: according to the analysis of new forms of public control activities that are implemented with the use of information and communication technologies, the regulatory framework created in the last decade and Internet resources allow citizens to actively participate in the process of monitoring the rule-making and law-enforcement activities of federal executive bodies. However, the effectiveness of such monitoring cannot be considered high. Today, it is necessary to improve the mechanism for involving citizens in this process both through informing and stimulating and through increasing the responsibility of the executive authorities for reviewing, taking into account and taking appropriate measures following the results of citizens’ control activities.