The paper discusses the formation of the theory of public values, determines its capabilities and limitations in creating a valid tool for the value measurement of decisions made in the public space. The request for such an instrument was formed both by civil society structures, fearful of the substitution of the real interests of citizens by the interests of the elite strata, and by state bodies seeking to estimate the reaction of society to managerial initiatives. The theory of public values arises on a controversial methodological foundation, which is primarily reflected in the ambiguous interpretation of the very concept of «public value». Firstly, as a special type of value of public goods produced in the public space. Secondly, as consensus judgments about the desired ways of organizing public life, thirdly, as the relationship of people to external social objects, which develops in the course of satisfying their basic needs. The pluralism of scientific interpretation creates difficulties in creating a universal way of value measurement of public policy, since each theoretical model involves its own ways of operationalizing the basic concepts and a contradictory set of indicators. Two methods of measuring the public value of decisions are considered: «public value mapping» (PVM) and «public value scorecard» (PVSC). The differences between these methods are due to the initial methodological principles that determine the subject orientation of the research procedures used. In the first case, we are talking about establishing the degree of compliance of decisions made with consensus public values, in the second case, about identifying the subjective attitude of citizens to specific public decisions. It is noted that in the scientific community an active search for criteria for assessing the public value of government decisions is accompanied by restrained optimism. It is recognized that it is easier for specialists to determine the public value of a particular solution but attempts to create a universal toolkit are more than modest.

The author focuses on the idea that the new discourse of conflict characterizes the modern political space. Two main features characterized current crises in political relations inside and outside the countries. Firstly, social divisions that destroy the integration of national communities. Secondly, discursive conflicts, characterized by the opposite narratives and mutual bitterness of cosmopolitans and communitarians. These new patterns are the serious threat to social unity and democracy. Modern researchers see a danger in the new phenomena of the moralization of politics, the politicization of science and social polarization. Were marked as challenges in an era of uncertainty and anxiety. They are divided by the relations to the crucial issues such as: the limits of the open society (preservation or devaluation of borders); national sovereignty and the rights of minorities; climate changes (environment protection, restrictions for the industries), etc. Young urban citizens with higher education demonstrates cosmopolitan values. They do not identify themselves as social losers and use a globalization as an opportunity for development. They are those who identify themselves as Europeans and citizens of the world. The less educated social group of elders, living in rural areas, is firmly connected with their local and national communities and perceives the increasing of freedom as a threat to themselves. Even though citizens with communitarian positions constitute a heterogeneous group with a diverse socio-economic profile, all of its representatives share one common feature: the subjective perception of the danger of living in precarious conditions or lose their social status. The vertical conflict is between the cosmopolitan elites (with their privileged positions) and the communitarians. Stigmatization of elites as «anti-national», «immoral», and self-serving has become a typical device in the struggle of right-wing populist parties and voter support movements. These new patterns are marked as a threat to social cohesion and democracy. Researchers see a danger in the new phenomena of the moralization of politics, the politicization of science and social polarization. They are the main riscs in an era of uncertainty, uncertainty and anxiety.

Understanding public policy as a special form of power rivalry between state and non-state actors reflects the complex interrelationships of open and latent technologies used by them. Along with legal methods of political interaction hidden from society (secreting state secrets, conducting confidential negotiations), latent tools are constantly used to promote the interests of large political investors, unknown to society and most often located outside the public space. However, their actual influence on the centers of state power and administration is inevitably reflected in the content of public policy, which is forced to use the conventional norms of open competition and public expression of positions to promote such interests. In its substantive expression, the latent functionality of public policy is formed within the framework of three social arenas emerging in the state: in the zones of contesting the power dispositions of the Center, making state decisions and organizing mass discourse. The specific forms of solving these hidden tasks are ultimately determined by the nature of the ruling regime and the level of civil activity of the population, its political competencies and ability to use institutional capabilities to control the ruling circles.

The basic directions of contemporary research in the field of public policy are the subject of analysis. The experience of World and Russian public policy research is analyzed. The concepts of governance, political cycles, policy learning, advocacy coalition, multiple streams, boundary organizations are in the focus of analysis, as well as digital participation. In field of Russian researches network public policy, municipal public policy, concept of mediator institutes as well as influence of digitalization are subject of analysis. The institutional basement for public policy development (university chairs and research committee of Russian Political Science association) are object for analysis also.

The article examines the evolution of the conceptual paradigm of public administration under the influence of the response of administrative reforms to emerging crisis phenomena in the economy and society. At the end of the last decades of the last century, administrative transformations took place under the influence of the neoliberal strategy of public administration managerialization, i.e., the introduction of market mechanisms and structures into it. Ideologically, these administrative reforms were based on the New Public Management. By the end of the century, however, the failures and paradoxes of this line of reform and its ideology became visible. It required a restructuring of the administrative system in the direction of including citizens and their associations in the administrative process. The network, horizontal mechanism of governance has found expression in the concept of a New Public Governance. However, here, too, the focus on «governance without government» turned out to be a deterrent to the publicity of public administration. In the second decade, new needs began to emerge related to a more systematic public administration and its connection with public policy. Concepts such as «holistic», «strategic», «flexible» and «resilient» governance reflected a new relationship between politics and administration - from differentiation to unity. On this basis, as shown in the article, Governance of Public Policy can be a probable ideological model of new public administration.

The big press conferences of the President of Russia over the past two decades has become a tool for expressing the official position, public goal-setting, as well as a kind of «reconciliation» of the values of the political elite and Russian society. In this paper we purpose to identify value connotations in the discursive practices of participants of these press conferences in the 2001–2021. We want to complement ex- isting empirical studies of public policy and adapt well-known theories of political axi- ology to Russian practice. We use such methods as cross-cultural research; content analysis; clustering and mapping; analysis of secondary sociological data; analysis of macroeconomic statistics; correlation analysis etc. We revealed the strengthening of the materialistic component of public discourse (by Ronald Inglehart) during periods of economic crisis. Generational gap is also influence on the structure of political values. Also we confirmed the Geert Hofstede’s thesis about the collectivist values dominance and high power distance in Russian society. Russian political discourse gravitates to- wards both egalitarian values (by Shalom Schwartz) and liberal values (by Milton Rokeach). We found a negative statistical relationships between the frequency of public mention of political values and their approval by the respondents, as well as between the frequency of using axiologemes with the dynamics of key macroeconomic indica- tors. The increase in the frequency of mentioning political values during periods of economic recession we interpret as attempts by the elite to rally around the flag in the face of economic difficulties. Persistent negative connotations between the public voicing of political values and their perception by respondents indicate the existence of a latent value conflict between the elite and society, which manifests itself in an increase in the demand for change.

The objective of the article is to identify main intangible resources of the territories and characterize the mechanisms that allow them to be converted into real factors of development. The authors showed the structure of such intangible resources as development institutions, human resources, regional and local identities applying to Krasnodar Krai case. The mechanisms for involving various interested groups of the public in the process of discussing problems and developing ways to make decisions; mechanisms of social lifts for the development of human resources in the system of public and municipal government; mechanisms for the development and implementa- tion of identity policy and image policy; mechanisms for integrating migrants of various flows into local communities and developing their constructive potential are characterized. The variety of intangible resources contributes to the achievement of a fun- damentally new level of the quality of life, taking into account needs and interests, both in cities and in the countryside. Non-economic resources for the innovative development of the state as a whole and its territories are associated with the production of post-material values (creativity, accessibility and dynamics of information exchange, civic activity, the idea of public good), which transform the nature of public interactions of various actors. Public policy institutions will allow territorial communities to recognize and effectively use their special, unique resources associated with development of traditional and promotion of alternative models of production and consumption, with a balance between «tradition» and «innovation».

The article deals with the problems of determining the strategic vision of the development of modern cities through the prism of public policy discourse. The author also adds a framework for the spatial development of the city and its socioeconomic context, which now are rarely synchronized when working out strategic planning documents. The author emphasizes the need for a more fundamental study of the classical theories of strategizing and their refraction to determine the future of cities. An important component is a different approach to the classification of territories, considering the practical significance of the refraction of fundamental concepts of the social contract and strategies for involving key stakeholders in the development of territories. The article raises the problem of determining the subjects of the strategic process and provides three models for involving various interested actors in the process of determining the vision of the development of the city with an assessment of the impact of each of the participants on the result. The transition from an industrial-type urban economy to a modern one imposes several obligations on the spatial solutions being worked out as part of ensuring a new quality of life in cities and meeting the needs of citizens as efficiently as possible. To implement this task, the author provides a three-component structure of the Strategic Plan for the development of the city, consisting of three synchronously sequential components: a comprehensive analysis, a public plan for the development of the city and an infrastructure and service model of the development of the city. The article examines the case of the small town of Staraya Rusa (Novgorod region) in the framework of the successful organization of interaction between various internal actors and key stakeholders in the formation of a strategic vision and the main directions of the development of the territory.

The societal role in the public policy presupposes it’s recognition as an independent actor of political decision-making. But tackling the society rarely pays attention to its’ psychological state in each moment of the time. The paper discusses the results of the study that describes the current psychological state of Russian society and its’ capability to influence public policy. The author distinguishes two main trends. The first trend facilitates the societal role in public policy, i.e.: the growing level of society’s self-consciousness, high level of activism demand, the change of political «optics», in particular the growth of cognitive complexity and precision of political representations. The second trend is opposite to the first as during last two years Russian society was affected by the growth of negative emotional background, raise of political indifference, lack of political interest that are not less dangerous to stability of the state than riots, aggressiveness, protests. This trend shows the lack of readiness to mobilization that is necessary in the face of pandemic or military risks. But positive changes in psychological state of society concern the core of this phenomenon as the negative affects it’s periphery. It permits us to evaluate the changes in psychological state of Russian society as rather positive, though not stable ones.

The article discusses the attitude of citizens to the regime of restrictions to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. In a review of current research, the pandemic is a factor of uncertainty that creates anxiety in society. In turn, the restrictions imposed by the authorities to overcome the pandemic are causing public tension. Under the influence of epidemiological and administrative factors, society is plunging into a state of stress and fragmentation, which accelerates the reorganization of the existing order. The focus of the study is the dynamics of the attitude of Russian citizens to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state policy to overcome it. Based on comparative sociological data from several countries, using the example of the challenge of the spread of coronavirus in Russia, the dynamics of changes in public sentiment and the reaction of citizens to the measures taken by the authorities are being studied. To determine the dynamics of public opinion, a combination of methods of event analysis of government actions, social media analysis of information messages and content analysis of sociological studies of public opinion is used. The event analysis covers the extreme period of the “first wave” of the spread of coronavirus, within which five stages of the introduction of regime restrictions by the federal authorities have been identified. Social media analysis has revealed a strong dependence of public attention to the pandemic on the “rigidity” of decisions taken by the authorities. The monitoring data of sociological studies revealed a sharp deterioration in social well-being and a decrease in the optimism of citizens during the introduction of strict restrictions that break the habitual way of life and the level of well-being. At the same time, the level of trust in the country's leadership remained stable, and the measures taken by the authorities were perceived as forced.

Current paper is devoted to the problem of using two lexemes within the Russian official discourse, which have a great importance for the formation of a certain Russian people's attitude towards government bodies and even the Russian «authority» as it is. These are the lexemes of «crisis» and «stability» that are regularly used within official discourse; over the past decades, this appeals did not acquire a clear content, but laid the foundation for the continuing reproduction of special official speech acts. The representation of «crisis» and «stability» in these speech acts (defined in the article, in accordance with J. Searle's classification as «representative», «commissive” and “expressive») allows public opinion manipulating without specifying the meaning of the lexemes themselves, but with maintaining the desired image of power. Up to the author's mind, the continuing appeal of the official discourse to the lexemes of «crisis» and «stability», despite the accumulated contradictions and even frank anecdotes (in terms of completely different statements of the same speaker), allows, on the one hand, to explain the failures of public policy by external circumstances (described with «crisis» speech acts), and on the other hand, continue the course of depoliticizing Russian society, associated with the fact that the Russian people associate «stability» with «order», «quiet» and the absence of changes. Thus, «stability», presented as the most important achievement of the existing government, turns into appeal of non-interference to the reproduction of the existing political regime and preferring it to the democratic slogans of opposition figures.

The article examines the variety of factors that can influence the speed of decision-making in the European Union in the area of the Single Market (SM), and also assesses the degree of such influence. We use quantitative analysis methods based on spatial analysis and the Cox model to determine which factors accelerate and which ones slow down the legislative process in the area of the SM during the period from 1990 to 2019. The results of our work show that the speed of decision-making in the field of the SM is influenced by the same factors as the legislative process in the EU in general, namely: a type and complexity of a legislative act, an institutional and a regulatory framework that determines a decision-making procedure. We conclude that only the Amsterdam Treaty and the Interinstitutional Agreement of 2007 have significantly accelerated the decision-making process. We’ve managed to identify a fundamental difference regarding the legislative process in the area of the SM. In contrast to secondary legislation in general in the area of the SM a decision-making procedure (consultation or regular legislative procedure) does not affect the speed of decision-making. We found out that out of seven strategic documents, only two had given a significant impetus to the development of the SM. These features of decision-making process in the area of SM constitute a basis for further research and the proposed methods of analysis can be extended in order to assess integration dynamics in other areas of regulation in integration entities.

The article analyzes the policy of maintaining peace as a legitimate order and the role of the media in its implementation in post-conflict Tajikistan. The author offers an analysis of the communication factors of the stability of the peacekeeping policy as a legitimate order, which simultaneously acts as a factor in the stability of the current political regime in the conditions of political and ideological confrontation in the country. The institutions and mechanisms for the implementation of the peacekeeping policy as a legitimate order are determined, against this background, the participation of the media in maintaining this policy is analyzed, and opposite interpretations of the concept of peace in the media space of the country are identified. It is noted that the positioning of the Tajik media in the context of maintaining peace as a legitimate order is subject to reflection as the political situation changes, which can be considered a problem of the functioning of the public mind and following a certain trend of discursiveness of the communication space. The ways to change the situation proposed by the Tajik media are based on the ideology according to which the stability of the policy of peace as a legitimate order is possible only if pluralism and discursive order are ensured, as well as their discussion from the point of view of organizing this space. The author comes to the conclusion that in the context of the civil war, peace turned out to be an important factor in the legitimate social order in the country. This also takes into account the fact that peace as a legitimate order in the post-conflict period turned out to be unstable, which to a certain extent contributed to the formation of a personalist political regime in the country, including taking into account the inclusion of media resources in this process. On this basis, a hypothesis is put forward that the formed personalistic political regime in the country is a transformed and imposed form of the institutionalization of the world as a legitimate order, which seeks to be supported, including through the developed media strategy that ensures its information security.

Modern public policy is characterized by the ‘participatory turn’ - a widespread expansion of ways and channels the citizens can influence policies with. The ongoing digitalization transformed these civic participation instruments into a new form, now called e-participation. Both experts and authorities around the World believe that integrating such platforms and channels into policy process will facilitate public engaging, involving into it those who were not previously interested in policy making and those, who lost their interest in engaging with the authorities. Digital civic participation has gained significant traction in Russia, but mostly in so-called cities of federal importance, such as St. Petersburg. And while it is investigated by many different scholars, the frameworks applied were mostly of computer science or technologically inclined. This article is an attempt to start closing this gap by analyzing e-participation in Russia from political science perspective. For this task, we interviewed 10 public activists and urban policy experts to get a better understanding of its functioning specifics. The analyses shows that while it is perceived as an effective way to solve basic public policy issues, there are multiple problems undermining its operations. Mainly, these are due the lack of legal support for these channels, which make authorities less responsible for not responding to the citizens’ preferences and complaints. We also discovered that insufficient organization changes and silo mentality prevents the authorities from acting in a fast and efficient fashion, disrupting the whole idea of e-participation. Among other issues are digital divide which in fact excludes certain social groups from engaging with the authorities and having a say in policy process. We conclude by stating that more research is required to understand the dynamics and issues of the Russian e-participation portals.