Abstracts, 2003

# 3 - 4

Nickolai Grazhdankin, Maxim Vladimirov. Veliky Novgorod: Inter­face System between Government and Public. The Mayor of Veliky Novgorod and head of the city hall's division in charge of public relations are offering a detailed analysis of the methods and forms of communication between the public and authorities having been applied in practice over a number of years.

Tatiana Yershova. Our Goal Is to Develop Society via the Develop­ment of an Individual. Head of the Moscow Institute for the Development of Informa­tion Society is sharing her ideas with regard to new understanding of information as a vehicle and product of human development and the development of the society and provides a concise description of the new initiative for the establishment of partnership to develop information society.

Leonid Laptev, Ivan Savchenko, Yuri Cherny. Improving the Interface between Political Administrative Structures, Media and PR Targets. A researcher from a widely recognised Russian university and staff members of the parliament's upper chamber are discussing possible ways for streamlining the relations between authorities and the society, including the utilisation of mass-media capacity.

Alexander Zhukovsky. Alteration of Political Movements' Tactics through 1996-2003 in the View of a Political Scientist. In his essay the author describes the nature of recurrence and alteration of political technologies in Russia's political arena over the past eight years and provides a bit of forecast for the new developments.

Jean-lves Lavoir. Competences of Communities in France. Advisor to Alain Juppe, Mayor of the city of Bordeaux and ex-prime-minister of France provides legal and functional analysis of the competences of lower-level public administration bodies thus illustrating important features of the structure of local authorities in France.

Zoya Kochubei. On Expansion of the Options for the Participation of Senior Citizens in the Development of Local Communities. Head of social wel­fare department of the city hall of Yaroslavl discusses some aspects of effects of socio-demographic factors on the community activism of citizens.

Alina Kostukova. Development of Elementary Public Education in the Novgorod Province (first Half of the XIX Century). The author refers to the history of the initial stage of systematic establishment of public education in Russia and draws examples from archive documents concerning the set of conditions, problems and outcomes of the school reform two hundred years ago.

Larisa Makhova, Pavel Smekalov. Systemic Analysis of the financial Recovery of Industrial Enterprises. The authors present methodology and main parameters of assessment of the activities of enterprises related to identification of their development resources.

Vitaly Toupchienko. Socio-economic Policies of Social Sector Funding. The article describes major aspects of identifying priorities for providing resources for the social sector.

Yuri Kovalyov. On the restructuring of Administration. The author describes approaches underlying the managerial decisions regarding large-scale changes in large administrative entities.

# 2

Lyudmila Lapteva. Observance of European Standards in the Legisla­tion and Practices by Local Self-government in the Russian Federation (The Case of Munici pal Assets). The author offers a detailed analysis of the incorporation of the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-government in the legislation and practices of the EU countries and the Russian Federation. Specifics of the ap­proaches in the field existing nationally are described.

Tatyana Evdokimova. The Experience of Elaboration of Strategic De­velopment Plan in the City of Tver'. The author describes the contents of the major stages of elaboration of the medium-term city development plan and analyses the effectiveness of the methodology and tools utilised and factors having the greatest influence on the planning process. The overall goals, objectives and the role of adminis­tration are explained.

Yury Mikheev, Andrei Loschinin, Alexander Vorotnikov. Deliberations on Electronic Municipalities. The article (continued from the previous issue) covers methodological approaches to introduction of IT in Russia's municipal administrations. Practical recommendations for the development of IT tools for public administration are provided on the basis of vast experience.

Serguei Fabrichny. On the Reform of State and Municipal Public Serv­ice. The essay provides general assessment and forecast for the ongoing administrative reform in Russia. The author examines both conceptual aspects of the reform and issues of ensuring compliance between various legal provisions, along with general and specific issues in the regulation of public service.

Valentin Strakhov. Sustainable Development of the Forest Sector in Novgorod and Vologda Oblasts according to the Tacis Project. The contribution is dedicated to the contents and outputs of an important component in the framework of the Tacis project "Regional Economic Development and Anti-crisis Strategies". The author describes the approaches chosen by the administrations of the two regions of Northwest Russia in the field of forest sector development.

Arnold Shalmuyev. Regional Economic Interests and Contradictions. The article views regional aspects related to establishment of economic relations and change of the ownership forms. Conditions in which the economic interests and contra­dictions emerge regionally are examined.

Vitaly Tupchienko. Regional Aspect of Social Standardisation. The ar­ticle aims at comparative study of the approaches used by Russian Federation's subjects to determining minimum standards in various social sphere sectors. Some descriptions and assessments of that process are provided.

Olga Andrianova. Identification of Investment Opportunities and Pro­motion of Investment Projects. The article examines the general approach to the survey of investment opportunities in a region, contents of the relevant research and possible alternatives; criteria for the selection of investment projects are discussed.

Olga Krestyaninova. International and Russian Experience of the De­velopment of Medical Insurance. The article contains a study of international and Russian medical insurance issues. Elements of the establishment of general medical insurance systems in Russia and industrially developed countries are examined.

Irina Zubkova. Methodological Problems of Personnel Training. The article surveys the optimal forms of training the staff of companies and organizations and describes the specific features, functions and opportunities to use the most common methods of in-house and external training.

# 1 

Yury Mikheev, Andrei Loschinin, Alexander Vorotnikov. Deliberations on Electronic Municipalities. The article covers methodological approaches to intro­duction of IT in Russia's municipal authorities. FVactical recommendations for the develop­ment of IT tools for public administration are provided on the basis of vast experience.

Alexei Kostyukov. Anti-crisis Technologies for the Development of Regional Industrial Policy. The article discusses the specific role of the regions and means utilised in the course of setting the priorities for the state industrial development policy. The author specially addresses Russia's current status of economic transition and analyses in detail the factors and reasons leading to the crisis situation of the compa­nies; a forecast of the immediate prospects is offered.

Arnold Shalmuyev, Alexander Grigoryev. The Role of Regional Factor in Providing for Sustainable Economic Development. The article discusses the regional factor of prospective socio-economic development. Regional factors affecting the development of the region's economic complexes and their role in the development of local communities are described. Emphasis is made on the forms and methods of coordi­nation of regional economic development strategy; theoretical aspects of the planning for business capacity building are generalised.

Olga Andrianova. The Market for Investment Projects on the Re­gional Level. The article discusses the notion of the regional investment market, analy­ses its actors and their interests. The author offers a typology categorisation of invest­ment projects and criteria for their preliminary appraisal from the point of view of the actual prospects for implementation. Target orientations for specific market segments and their inter-relations are identified.

Evgueny Bondarenko, Serguei Vassiliev, Pyotr Ivanov, Andrei Kormanovsky. How the Depressed Areas Develop. The article offered for the readers consideration is dedicated to the experience of anti-crisis management of terri­torial units in the Eastern Lander of the contemporary Germany. The authors got an opportunity to be introduced'to such practices in the course of their tour to Germany in January 2003 in the framework of the Tacis project "Regional Economic Development and Anti-crisis Strategies".

Serguei Bolshakov. Problems of Regional Identity in Russia Political Environment. The article is dedicated to regional aspects of the political development process. The cyclic form (decentralisation-centralisation) of the interface between re­gional and federal authorities is discussed. Specifics of emergence and development of the confrontation between regional authorities and national political and administrative bodies are outlined. Analysis is offered of the economic contradictions related to the process of regional differentiation.

Margarita Lobacheva. On the Issue of Normative Regulation of the Ratio between "Contest" vs. "Reserve" in Human Resource Policy Implemen­tation. The contribution of the author representing Kaluga Oblast Administration fea­tures the law science analysis of the two principles to recruit public service personnel. The problem is of definitively applied nature and therefore the choice of solution manifests one's stand with respect to the nature of civil service as such.

Maxim Vladimirov, Natalia Grigorieva, Olga Yazepova. The Oblast Public Chamber: Ideology, Techniques, Practice. The contribution contains a de­tailed description of one of the tools of the interface between Novgorod oblast authorities and general public, which has been used for around nine years. The authors dwell upon content and technology-related characteristics of the Chamber's work and analyse the agenda of its sessions throughout its entire history.

Irina Pisareva. Rural School as a Factor of the Area's Development. The author discusses the role of a village school as a social energy centre for the local community and the source of its potential development. On the example of the ecotourism and awareness project in Valdai National Park, including development of the auxiliary infrastructure, the contribution shows one of the prospects for rehabilitation of the socio-economic situation in a rural area.

The journal is publishing reports on the interregional scientific and practical conference "Local Self-Government in the Framework of Russian Reform: Emergence and Development", held on January by Novgorod Oblast Administration and Northwest Acad­emy of Public Administration, and on the workshop: "Securing Information Access Rights for Citizens as Means of Preventing Corruption (Regional Aspect)", which took place on February 17-19, 2003, in Veliky Novgorod.