PUBLIC AUTHORITY IN THE CONTEXT OF REFORMS OF STATE GOVERNANCE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE (ON THE MATERIALS OF THE NOVGOROD PROVINCE)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of issues of reforming public administration in the Russian Empire. The need for reforming the management system consistently arose at each stage of the transition of society and the state to a new level of political and economic development. The reform was focused on optimizing the process of managing a vast empire while maintaining the inviolability of an absolute monarchy. The support of absolutism in the sphere of management was an extensive bureaucratic apparatus. The most important task of the reforms in the sphere of management was to ensure the effective, competent, conscientious functioning of public servants. Based on an analysis of the practice of implementing the legislation of the 18th-19th centuries, the administrative and police institutions of the Russian provinces, using the example of the Novgorod province, identify general patterns and characteristics of the reform processes and their effectiveness. The result of the analysis of archival materials from the funds of the judicial authorities of the Novgorod province is presented. The author pays special attention to judicial practice in cases of official crimes. The documents allow us to draw a conclusion about the inconsistency in the policies of the central government and the provincial administration in the fight against official crimes of officials and police officers. The lack of consistency in the formation of personnel and the reform of the state apparatus led to the fact that the ideas of the legislator remained at the declarative level and were not fully implemented in the practice of functioning of state bodies at the provincial level. The author also concludes that the central government itself did not provide the material basis for reforms and the mechanism for the formation of the necessary professional level of public servants. Throughout the history of the Russian Empire, administrative bodies and police institutions have always been given the main tasks of ensuring control over the population and implementing fiscal policy. The limited real goals of the reforms led, ultimately, to their declarative nature and increased the level of social tension.

Keywords: public authority; pre-revolutionary Russia; Novgorod province; public administration; reforms.

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Author

Svetlana I. Mitina – Doctor of Law, Docent; Head, Department of Theory of State and Law, Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Veliky Novgorod, Russia. E-mail: april5298@rambler.ru. SPIN РИНЦ 5305-8802.

For citation:
Mitina S.I. Public Authority in the Context of Reforms of State Governance of the Russian Empire (on the Materials of the Novgorod Province) // BENEFICIUM. 2020. No. 2 (35). pp. 66-76. (In Russ.). DOI: http://doi.org/10.34680/BENEFICIUM.2020.2(35).66-76.