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Digitization of public services in Russia: How a “man-made” reform goes ahead and sets back again
Introduction: The government of the Russian Federation moves its services and other activities towards digitalization.
The chosen path shows certain advantages and limitations of e-services in comparison with traditional («paper-based»)
forms of their provision. An adequate assessment of the current state and prospects for the development of this institution
and further normative legal regulation is impossible without clear goals and indicators, which would allow evaluating all
the parameters of reforms from the quantitative and qualitative points of view.
The purpose of the article is to assess the adequateness of the criteria and objective indicators for the evaluation of the
development of e-government in Russia.
The research methodology is based on the application of logical, dialectical techniques and methods of scientific
knowledge, comparative and juridical technique analysis of law texts and other documents.
Results: The article analyzes foreign scientific literature, international ratings, Russian legislation and strategic planning
documents in order to establish the criteria for determining the stages of e-government in Russia and the effectiveness of
the state policy in this regulatory sphere. The undertaken study leads to the conclusion that there is hardly any strategic
vision for the e-government development in Russia, the indicators of e-government programs are imperfect and
preliminary indicators obtained without proper justification may result in the manipulation of information and inefficient
budget spending.
Conclusions. There is no holistic view on the prospects of digitalization of public services in Russia. Despite the fact that
there are enacted Strategies which set the general directions for the development of e-government the subsequent federal
legislation is often adopted haphazardly and does not constitute a comprehensive system of legal regulation. The
bureaucratic style of governance, especially at the regional and municipal levels, hinders innovations, prevents the
achievement of the planned goals and leads to manipulations lacking any factual basis. The author of the article believes
that the solution to these problems lies in the definition of the essence of public (state and municipal) services, the
establishment of a clear system of normative criteria and law-implementing regulation.