Public control as objective management phenomenon

Abstract

In the modern public-administrative scientific paradigm, which is based on the transformational process of transition from the system of the post-Soviet government to the system of public administration, the essence of public control as an objective management phenomenon, with the control function being characteristic of both public-administrative and non-government institutions, generates different interpretations of its content and implementation forms in the scientific discourse. The diverse combination of control functions by social institutions is contradictory and requires coordination both in practice – division of control powers between the state and the public, and in theory – its interrelation with other related scientifically substantiated categories i.e. public authority, public administration, public service on the one hand, and public, social, state control on the other.

One of the key tools, due to which the power and administration are implemented, regarding the provision that management is a subject-object relationship, control as a management function is exercised by people either directly or through public administration authorities, that is, the subject of control is either people/the public or public administration authorities and local self-government bodies.

The public control system presupposes a number of formats of conducting control; while public control proper is a complex multicomponent phenomenon of implementing the control function in society and provides a wide and narrowed interpretations: the first is connected with considering it as a synonym of social control, that is, the implementation of all control functions in the state and society, which corresponds to its wide interpretation; the second is narrowed, based on reducing it to control by the public or to control carried out by public institutions – public authorities and local self-government bodies.

Public control as a synonym of social control is associated with the extension of its implementation subject to any institution vested with control powers in society – from non-governmental organizations and individual citizens to public authorities, local self-government bodies, international organizations, and judicial branches. In this context, public control, on the one hand, contributes to citizens’ observance of the norms and rules established in the state, and on the other hand, protects citizens from usurpation of power by government institutions and the state’s encroachment on key social values – human and citizens’ rights and freedoms.

If we proceed from the postulate that control is a management function, in this case, public control should be a function of public administration, and therefore its subject is public authorities and local self-government bodies; while the object of control is norms and rules which establish the nature of the relations between the state and individuals, the state and business, business and individuals. In this way, public control as an objective management phenomenon acquires a clear definition in the context of subject-object relations, which allows differentiating it from the control of the public, and thus, the theory of social control gains currency, covering all spheres of relations in society – those of the state, citizens, and businesses.