Modern methods in territory development management: analysis of the Russian experience

The article is devoted to one of the most pressing issues - the problem of improving public administration through the use of modern methods (introduction of SMART-technology, benchmarking elements, crowdsourcing, models of social partnership, project approach to management) in the management of socio-economic development of territories, which is the purpose for the research. Analysis of the main indicators of regional development shows that management efficiency is not at a high level, as evidenced by a number of negative phenomena in the socio-economic development of territories (the decline in industrial and agricultural production, declining growth rates of investment, the decline in the population’s living standards, etc.). The study of long-term documents of constituent entities of the Northwestern Federal District in terms of statement of the purpose of the strategy of socio-economic development and the presence of references to modern methods of management revealed their insignificant use in public activities. When managing territorial development, public authorities mainly plan the use of mechanisms of social and public-private partnership. A series of problematic issues, in particular, inaccurate or formal goal-setting, fragmented goals, etc. has been identified in the system of goal-setting. The specific features of using the benchmarking technique is determined, the conditions for effective crowdsourcing introduction into the public sector are presented. It is proved that “benchmarking” is the most appropriate for assessing the quality of public services. The main reasons hindering the implementation of the project approach are identified and the measures promoting the creation of favorable conditions for its use in public activities are proposed. The author applies general scientific research methods (logical and system approaches, structural and functional analyses, generalization method), statistical methods (grouping, sampling, comparison and generalization), as well as graphical and tabular methods of data visualization. The research information framework includes works by Russian and foreign scholars, practitioners and experts in public administration, application of modern methods, data of official websites of constituent entities of the Russian Federation.