Experience of sociological research in efficient public administration

Improving the performance of state bodies at the federal and regional levels actualizes the problem to single out and use new methodological approaches and solutions for its evaluation. The use of different indicators and methodological approaches to the assessment of the efjiciency of executive bodies presupposes obtaining diverse information about the processes taking place in different spheres of society. The study of public opinion by means of relevant quantitative and qualitative sociological research methods can provide such information.Acquisition, processing and analysis of social information in the form of a multilevel system that monitors the population’s estimates can be the most effective quantitative method of sociological research. The Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been conducting systematic monitoring of the economic situation and social wellbeing of the population in the Vologda Oblast over the last two decades. The integrated assessment of the government’s performance should include qualitative methods of data acquisition, with a method of focus group research being the most common one. Focus groups deepen the analysis of data obtained by the monitoring and identify the causes and patterns of social changes. In 2013 the Laboratory for Studies of Social Processes of the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of the RAS used the method of focus group research to study public opinion on the activities of the head of the region in terms of socio-demographic categories of the population and identifying cause-and-effect relations both of social approval and negative perception. The experience of the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of the RAS shows that the comprehensive approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods of assessing public opinion about the efjiciency of state management, provides in-depth information on the key issues of socio-economic and political development of the territory. Accurate, timely and sufjicient information about the processes taking place in different spheres of society is a necessary condition for effective management of its development.