The Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation: digital Information, information Technology and public Administration

Paschenko Il'ya Yurievich ORCID: 0000-0002-1445-2126 Adviser to the staff, Election Commission of the Krasnodar Territory 350000, Russia, Krasnodarskii krai, g. Krasnodar, ul. Gimnazicheskaya, 30, - ilpa@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The Information Society, according to the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030, approved by Presidential Decree No. 203 of May 9, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the Strategy), is defined as a society in which information has a significant impact on the economic and socio-cultural spheres. At the same time, it is not the availability of information itself that affects the quality of a person's life, but the possibilities of its "application" and "accessibility".

The legal definition of the information society formulated in the Strategy does not accurately reflect the current legal regulation in terminology. Mentioning information as a resource, as a rule, implies the possibility of working with it, including automated processing, for the purposes necessary to achieve the expected positive result. In the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" dated July 27, 2006 No. 149-FZ, among the sectoral principles, the possibility of searching, receiving, transmitting, producing and distributing information is noted. These actions are not only listed in the current legislation – they have received a normative definition, interpretation and fixation in industry law. This "formula" also has a comprehensive constitutional consolidation, since the information is mentioned in Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The wording "application" is the most appropriate in relation to another concept – "information technology". Such technologies are used in various spheres of human activity. At the same time, the current period of social development is characterized by their total penetration not only into new areas of everyday and professional activity, but also by a direct influence on the dynamics of the development of public relations, their qualitative transformation. The prerequisite of these circumstances was the formation of an extensive network of digital communication channels, i.e. the improvement of information infrastructure. These processes can be called digital transformation or digitalization, which affects society and the relations developing in it, including those having a legal nature.

The definition fixed by the Strategy, although it contributes to the emergence of a number of controversial issues, however, it quite accurately characterizes the most important foundation of the information society – information. In the current conditions, information is a key resource that can be used for the development of society and the state.

Among the national interests of the Russian Federation outlined in the Strategy, the need to improve the efficiency of public administration is indicated. Management activities are mentioned in a separate paragraph in the text of the act along with the economy and social sphere. Such a mention is not accidental and, in our deep conviction, is connected with the need to solve urgent problems in these areas, which have accumulated over a long period and remain relevant up to the present time. In connection with the above, a quite natural question arises: is there a conceptual transformation of public administration in the information society in connection with digitalization?

Management decision-making in the current conditions can be directly linked to the possibilities of using information and information technologies by public authorities. Correct work with relevant information in digital form allows you to make such management decisions that will take into account many factors, and many of them are often impossible for an employee to establish when analyzing based on their own (human) forecasting and analytics capabilities. Thanks to the use of information technologies that offer a more serious computing potential compared to human capabilities, it is possible to obtain the necessary information for making managerial decisions. Such a process of obtaining qualitatively new information due to the specifics of the work of software algorithms may not always be obvious and explicable, transparent and understandable, and therefore it cannot and should not be considered as an exceptional, the only correct basis for decision-making in management activities.

The research notes that information is a central element of public administration ^{[4, p. 77]}. Analyzing the historical stages of the development of information activities of public authorities and local self-government, it can be noted that high-quality work with information is one of the factors determining the effectiveness of decisions taken. The information used for the purposes of public administration has gone through a long evolutionary path of the organizational form of expression: from the first written records recording a fact, event or circumstance, the authorities have moved on to paperwork and document management, interdepartmental interaction and the provision of services in their usual understanding as actions and activities at the request of interested persons (applicants). Considering documents as information contained on a material carrier and having the appropriate requisites, it is possible to indicate a change in their organizational form – from the acquisition of physical embodiment to the emergence of an electronic image. The gradual accumulation of documents (information on tangible media) required their systematization. Working with electronic images made it possible to switch to a fundamentally different format of the process under consideration – automated processing of information in digital form. The use of information technologies has allowed public administration to go through the processes of automation and informatization, as well as gradually enter a new stage of digitalization. Accordingly, the accumulation of digital information predetermined the next stage in the development of information activities of modern public authorities – the use of information systems containing arrays of digitized and digital information – data. At the same time, information activities within the framework of public administration today can be considered more broadly than using the results of data processing contained in state, municipal and other information systems for decision-making purposes.

Digitalization leads to the expansion of forms of citizens' involvement in governance through various mechanisms and measures ^{[3, p. 16]}. Thus, when communicating with the state, citizens use services, websites, petitions, voting in electronic (remote) format. When building such communication, information technologies are used, which in recent years have become much more accessible to a wide range of people – both for the authorities and for the population. Information technologies, which have become widespread, are primarily associated with the use of the Internet. For example, the Strategy notes that in 2016, more than 80 million Russians became users of the information and communication network. According to the latest statistical data provided by the Federal State Statistics Service, the number of citizens who regularly use the Internet reaches almost 90%, and almost 80% of the total population on a daily basis ^{[13, p. 21]}.

The use of information technologies contributes to both targeted and broad involvement of even politically inactive citizens in the indirect process of preparing and making state decisions (for example, the first experience of introducing and using remote electronic voting in domestic electoral practice demonstrates that this method of voting has a positive impact on voter activity in elections). The participation of citizens in governance through the use of information technologies allows not only to increase the legitimacy of state power, but also provides additional conditions for the free receipt of information.

To characterize the processes of involving citizens in various areas of management activity, the theory has developed a system of scientific concepts: electronic parliament, electronic government, electronic justice, electronic voting. In public law sciences studying the functioning of the state, these concepts are often mentioned by researchers as institutions of electronic democracy, which have become the subject of scientific works of domestic lawyers in the context of the legal policy of the state relatively recently ^{[7, p. 41]}, and interest in the phenomenon of "e-government" in international and foreign management practice is associated with by the end of the last century ^{[2, p. 47]}. It is important to emphasize that these categories in the presented terminology often do not receive legal consolidation. Regulatory fixation is acquired only by certain mechanisms used in management and other activities (for example, electronic signature, electronic message, electronic document, electronic document management, etc.). This practice may differ markedly in different countries. For example, in the UK, there was a purposeful development of specialized projects in the field of e-democracy, which involved both communication of citizens with public institutions through digital communication channels, and the organization of new forms of expression of will within party institutions ^{[10, p. 57]}.

It is worth noting that the use of information and the use of information technologies in the activities of public authorities is not always focused on improving the efficiency of public administration. In Japan, e-government mechanisms are aimed at achieving macro-level results, in particular, they are used for the socialization of certain categories of citizens ^{[5, p. 102]}. The People's Republic of China is developing regulation in the direction of ensuring state security, including information ^{[6, p. 74]}. For these purposes, special monitoring information systems with intelligent functions are being created that analyze and take into account data received from users' technical devices and through infrastructure facilities through a system of sensors and sensors in the urban agglomeration.

Trends in the development of domestic rule-making clearly demonstrate that these concepts associated with the electronic form of organization and expression of phenomena are gradually being replaced by "digital" categories similar in meaning and understanding, but different in essence and nature. Thus, the concepts of "digital economy", "digital rights", "digital certificate", "digital financial asset", "digital currency", etc. have been introduced into the legislation. At the same time, the basis for the emergence and development of both electronic and digital categories in law is formed by well-known objects of regulation of industry legislation: information, information technologies, information systems, etc. The search for semantic, linguistic, legal and other differences between the formulations "electronic" and "digital" is not the subject of this study, but the difference in the understanding of categories for the purposes of public administration is based on the mechanisms of communication between citizens and the state that actually exist and operate in practice.

The digital transformation of society allows us to look at the latest approach to the implementation of public administration, in which the traditional form of communication between citizens and the state in the person of authorities requires not only feedback and information processing (electronic period). A promising direction is to ensure continuous information exchange between the state and citizens by providing the population with permanent access to information and the possibilities of its independent processing (digital period). We believe that today it is advisable to talk about the interdependence of digital information and information technologies in management, laying the foundations not of an electronic, but of a digital state. The digital state as a phenomenon in legal reality is already being actively investigated in science, and the prerequisites for the transition to it were recorded by international researchers a decade ago ^{[9, p. 127]}.

The current digital agenda in Russia is not carried out in isolation, but is implemented jointly with the states of the Eurasian Economic Union. Management activity is considered in close relationship with the development of the digital economy. The researchers note that the digital economy in the context of Eurasian cooperation is understood as the process of introducing technologies into various spheres, including public administration ^{[1, p. 39]}.  A similar position is reflected in Decision No. 28 of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of October 16, 2015 "On the Main directions of economic development of the Eurasian Economic Union", which provides for the change of management mechanisms under the influence of digitalization along with the transformation of markets for goods, services, capital and labor, infrastructure, security. In addition, not only the expansion of the information activities of the bodies in the performance of their management tasks is recorded, even in international legal practice, new directions of information support for economic management in certain industries are already being identified ^{[14, p. 18]}.

In many ways, there are unique national examples of the transformation of management tools in the information society in Russia. One of the innovations designed to ensure communication between citizens and the state in such conditions is the provision of state and municipal services in electronic form through a special information system (in the Russian Federation – a single portal of state (municipal) services). The quality of public administration and the efficiency of the provision of services are directly related to the concept of an electronic state, providing its meaningful content. New public services offered in electronic form are often tested on the business community, and only then become available to citizens, which is a global trend in management ^{[8, p. 23]}. A new terminology is also gradually penetrating into public administration, which is not typical of public legal activity (client-centricity as a concept of complex satisfaction of the needs and interests of service recipients ^{[11, p. 13]}). At the same time, the degree of integration of business directly into the process of rendering state and municipal services of special social significance for the population remains relatively low. In the process of providing services in electronic form, public authorities do not seek to include intermediaries, with the exception of trusted organizations that ensure the functioning of information technologies (for example, issuing an electronic signature, verifying a digital certificate, etc.).

The modern stage of the development of the information society has a service essence ^{[12, p. 83]}. Currently, even public services in electronic form are being conceptualized in the process of implementing public functions of the state, which allows them to be presented in a new form – in the form of super services and monoservices. The concept of "superservice" is absent in the current legislation, but its mention can be found in subordinate regulations, acts of federal and regional executive authorities. Superservice allows you to provide such opportunities for interaction for the purposes of public administration, which were not previously available with traditional communication in electronic form. They are based on the following approaches to the organization of management:

- absence of the need for the physical embodiment of documents necessary to confirm the identity, event or fact, or minimization of the number of documents (documents gradually lose their original meaning and significance in legal actions);

- the use of modern identification and authentication mechanisms that exclude physical visits to the premises of bodies and institutions;

- comprehensive consideration of applicants' appeals with the possibility of interdepartmental interaction;

- receiving state and municipal services, including those providing for the implementation of constitutional rights and obtaining social guarantees, in the absence of the need for direct application for them;

- expansion of access to information due to the cross-platform nature of information systems and the emergence of new legislative guarantees;

- reduction of corruption and other risks, including those that allow abuse by employees.

Another new concept related to the service essence of the management digitalization process is monoservices. Monoservices can be represented as state (municipal) services that are part of superservices or are implemented separately from them, while their feature is the priority digital transformation of the procedural order of provision, due to the high demand from citizens. Monoservices are based on approaches:

- use of the Portal of Public Services of the Russian Federation;

- electronic format of the provision of services without taking into account the territorial affiliation of the applicant;

- automatic document generation in electronic form without the need for a management decision by a person;

- informing about the possibility of receiving such a service;

- saving information about the provision of the service in the information system (registry);

- building interdepartmental interaction of bodies and institutions without involving the applicant in this process.

Superservices and monoservices are professional terminology of management activities that arose in connection with the digitalization of public administration, while citizens, as before, apply for specific services.

The emergence of the considered categories and their legal consolidation in legislation will not require a radical restructuring of information and industry regulation, since in essence they are information systems with a complex organizational structure and a large number of different subjects of information relations.

Thus, the development of the service model of the state is a promising direction that allows achieving significant progress in the quality of the implementation of functions by public authorities. The form of communication between citizens and the state is undergoing a meaningful change due to new ways of using digital information and the use of information technologies. To achieve positive results, the authorities use the tools that arise in the process of digital transformation of public administration. At the same time, public administration exists and is not implemented indirectly, it, along with other spheres and industries, is developing rhythmically in the context of the digital economy. The current, highly dynamic period of development of the information society creates the need for continuous improvement of management mechanisms.

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