The issue of the sociological indices’ usage in the assessment of the local self-government bodies’ activity

Abstract

In the paper the secondary analysis of the results of sociological measurement of the indicator of efficiency’s assessment of activity of local self-government bodies - "satisfaction of the population by the local self-government bodies’ activity" in the subjects of the Central federal district is conducted. In particular, the approaches and methods of monitoring the public assessment of the effectiveness of local governments and the analysis of the evaluation results during the period 2012-2015 were considered. The basis of the study is the materials and results of the annual monitoring of the rating Agency "RIA Rating", the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, summary reports, dealing with the results of monitoring the effectiveness of local authorities in the subjects of the Central Federal district of the Russian Federation. According to the results of the study, the conclusions were made about the high interest of the Federal authorities in this sociological indicator, on the one hand, and the ambiguous attitude of the regional authorities to it, on the other hand. The latter fact negatively affects the organization of measurement of the indicator and, as a consequence, its objectivity. In many cases, there is a strong imbalance between sociological (subjective) indicators, statistical indicators (objective) and the nature (content) of the information published in articles and stories in the mass media.