The administrative resource is what is it and how to use it in business and politics?

The media often talk about using an administrative resource in election campaigns. This is always evaluated as something categorically negative and illegal. But what is an administrative resource, what are its signs, history, methods? Let's talk about this phenomenon, its characteristics, experience of application and types.

The term "administrative resource"

Before determining this concept, it is worthwhile to understand its etymology. The administrator is the one who manages, to some extent it is a synonym for the word "manager". It is not in vain in management there is such a thing as administrative resource of the manager. And this phrase has no negative semantics. Under it are understood the capabilities and tools of a manager to achieve goals and objectives. But today the notion of an administrative resource is increasingly recalled when talking about politics and elections, and there the phrase gets a negative connotation. He is mentioned in connection with various abuses of power during the elections. But in the most general form, an administrative resource is a kind of managerial capacity that allows you to do something, achieve some goals, using managerial levers. It can be used for own or public purposes, it can be abused, and then there are ethical and legal consequences. It is in the sense of abuse of the administrative resource and there is a negative connotation, which is so popular today. A special feature of the modern understanding of this phenomenon is that specialists consider that it is applicable only to civil servants who use the available power to achieve mercenary goals in the broadest sense.

History of the phenomenon

It should be noted that the administrative resource is not a Russian invention, although the term appeared exactly in our country. In 1995, Dmitry Olshansky, who led the Center for Strategic Analysis and Forecasts, used this phrase for the first time in his speech to refer to some additional advantage used by parties in the course of the election campaign. The phrase was immediately picked up by journalists and today is already a habitual stable expression. The administrative resource appeared along with the bureaucratic management system, the leaders have always sought to apply the power they have to achieve certain goals, most often personal ones. So, all democratic countries have passed in their history stages of formation of the system of elections and attempts to use administrative levers as an advantage. In addition, in the business sphere, the administrative resource has been used for a long time to generate additional profit. It is believed that in our country this phenomenon has organically grown from the Soviet command-bureaucratic control system. For 70 years people of the country have got used to the fact that the authorities tell them who to choose, and this continues to work, despite the emergence of the possibilities of democratic elections. Researchers believe that the rampant abuse of these opportunities in elections is associated with totalitarianism or with similar forms of power. Developed countries have already developed mechanisms for monitoring elections, so this phenomenon is rare. And in countries where democracy is still young and unstable, these mechanisms are not yet available.

Characteristics of the administrative resource

The researchers have not yet fully determined the characteristics and characteristics of this phenomenon. This sometimes leads to terminological confusion. In the broadest sense, you can recognize the administrative resource by the following features:

- Its subjects are connected with the state power of any level, they use the mechanisms and apparatus of state administration of all three branches of power to achieve certain goals.

- Subjects of the resource initially support the ideology and position of power, their activities are ensured by low rotation of personnel in the system and long-term contracts. Government officials for a long period of work in one place acquire a number of links, which are used to achieve the goals. They feel a certain impunity and the certainty that they will never leave the office, they can change positions only under bad circumstances.

- The condition for the existence of an administrative resource is a hierarchical organizational structure of the organization, where the head has leverage on subordinates, he is free to make decisions for them. In such systems, managers often do not have personal responsibility, they only fulfill the "will" of the authorities.

- Directive relations between participants in the system. Orders can not be discussed and questioned, they can only be carried out. Therefore, the presence of an administrative resource creates a certain sense of permissiveness for the manager, with time a professional deformation takes place, and the manager seems to be able to order the subordinate to do anything.

This is only an indicative list of features of the concept being studied. In practice, he has many forms and options.

Types of administrative resource

Since the use of managerial opportunities is not only in politics, but also in business, there are problems of creating a single comprehensive classification of the types of this phenomenon. Therefore at the first stage it is necessary to distinguish two main types in accordance with the sphere of implementation: business or politics. Also, the administrative resource can be classified according to the geography of coverage. In this case, allocate a local, regional and federal or national level. These types of administrative resources are inherent in both spheres: politics, and entrepreneurship. It is also possible to classify the sphere of resource realization, that is, according to the branch of power in which it is applied. The use of administrative resources in election campaigns can be divided into the following groups: starting, soft, hard and total application.

The starting variant is manifested in the fact that the candidate candidate has an advantage in the eyes of the electorate due to his empowerment. The soft form is manifested in indirect influence on the voters and subordinates in order to push them to the desired action. Accordingly, a hard option is the pressure or promise of reward for the corresponding action. The total view is characteristic of totalitarian systems, in this case the subordinates simply do not have a choice of options for action. The last two options are connected with the violation of moral norms and laws of a democratic society.

The researcher A. Chuklinov singles out the power, institutional, budgetary and information types of the administrative resource. There is also the experience of classifying abuse of power depending on the use of different public resources. In this case, they talk about regulatory, institutional, information, financial, legislative and enforcement options. All these typologies are not all-encompassing and can overlap with each other.

Subjects of the administrative resource

Researcher D. Paramonov presents a list of potential subjects of the administrative resource. In his opinion, in Russia only the electoral management system is being formed, and today a lot of forces are involved in the process, each of which has its own opportunities to influence the electorate and election commissions. As the source of the administrative resource, according to the researcher, graduates of various party schools, heads of the apparatus of Soviet times, who managed to retain communications and management skills, heads of some departments of administrations of different levels, employees of sociological and research centers, professional PR specialists and advertising professionals Manipulation of public opinion and consciousness. Point of view D. Paramonova has the right to exist, but still it is unnecessarily complicated. The main subjects of the administrative resource are people holding various positions in state power.

The factors that create the ground for using the administrative resource

The Russian tradition of using power for personal purposes has ancient roots. Some find its sources in the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible, some say that the cause of everything is serfdom. One way or another, the administrative resource in the electoral process is based on deep social and psychological factors, including:

- Corruption of power. Officials are accustomed to constantly monetize their positions. Therefore, they do not have moral obstacles when necessary to put pressure on the electorate or commissions.

- Elite collusion. There are close personal relationships between officials of different levels, and they "are friendly" are ready to help each other in achieving certain goals.

- Fear. The most important motivator of the behavior of officials is the fear of "upsetting" the authorities, so local authorities tend to foresee the desire of the upper strata and advance their will.

Administrative resource in politics

Today, the use of an administrative resource in elections is the most visible type of abuse of authority by officials. This does not mean that there are more such violations in this area. Simply they are more resonant and concentrated in time, in addition, the opposition and some media constantly draw attention to these facts. There are many options for influencing the outcome of the elections, we list only a few of them:

- Influence on the process of forming election commissions. They are composed of people who are knowingly engaged by the authorities, who will help to carry out the necessary actions during the election procedure and vote counting.

- Influence on the course of elections. Election commissions have the ability to manipulate the number of voters, for example, to bring troops or prisoners to the sites. The use of an administrative resource in elections is often associated with the replication of ballots with the necessary choice, with fraudulent absentee ballots. Organizing the procedure for early elections is also a great opportunity for falsifying the election results.

- Influence on agitation activity. In the course of the pre-election race, officials can give special opportunities to the right candidates and obstruct them - disagreeable. This can be, for example, a disproportionate distribution of advertising platforms or even the removal of unsuitable candidates from the election.

- Influence on financing of pre-election campaigns.

- Pressure on voters. It can be diverse, from bribery to threats.

Functions of the administrative resource in elections

There is a tradition to assess the role of the administrative resource during the election campaign exclusively negatively. And this has an explanation: officials influence the outcome of the elections and make the people's will meaningless. The electorate, repeatedly confronted with the fact that his opinion does not change anything, ceases to go to the polls, becomes apolitical. This, in fact, is also the goal of the current government. If no one comes to the polls, then there will be no need to falsify anything. But elections can not take place without voters, so there is a system of forced turnout. It is not surprising that the State Duma deputies repeatedly raised the issue of imposing a mandatory election campaign for all citizens under the threat of sanctions. But the experience of Western countries shows that an administrative resource can be a boon for elections. It can be seen that in some European countries, state officials are charged with monitoring the transparency of elections. And this system, surprisingly, works effectively.

How to use the administrative resource in business

A position can be a great source of additional income. Much more often, an administrative resource is a way of enrichment than influence on political events. Officials have many opportunities to force the entrepreneur to share a part of the profits or even to part with it. This can be direct corruption: for any permission, businessmen are forced to give bribes. This is the monetization of posts by an official. Also, bureaucrats have the opportunity to lobby for some decisions at various levels of government in order to receive payment for their participation. Many officials help relatives and friends compete with competitors, including their official resources. For example, sending to the businessman various checks, preventing development, etc.

But there are administrative resources of the project, which have nothing to do with corruption. Any business should be managed, and often the principle of one-man management works, that is, the top manager has the right to order subordinates to take some professional steps in order to achieve the company's strategic goals. If in this case the legal and ethical methods of influencing the employee are used, then there is nothing offensive or unpleasant for the subordinates in such actions. In such a situation, an administrative resource is a method of managing a project or organization. It is the duty of the manager to manage the subordinates, taking responsibility for decisions and their consequences.

The practice of applying an administrative resource in election campaigns

Today, all Russians can learn about how the opportunities of officials in elections are used. The non-profit organization Transparency International is constantly engaged in monitoring the election process and exposing various illegal schemes. Among them you can name such technologies as:

- Forcing employees of budgetary organizations to participate in elections. Doctors, teachers, employees of committees and departments of administrations are obliged to come to the polls and vote for the indicated candidate.

- Conduction of pre-election campaigning in subordinate institutions, for example, universities, hospitals, military units, meetings of pensioners.

- Use of material and technical capabilities to motivate the electorate. For example, there can be free travel by municipal transport to the place of voting, handing of gifts from the administration in honor of elections, publication of propaganda materials at the expense of administrations.

There are many other methods of influencing the outcome of elections. But the question of how to win elections without an administrative resource, does not have such an easy and obvious answer. There are a large number of proposals from different forces in the country on how to eliminate the administrative resource, the abuse of which only grows from elections to elections. The most important condition here is the growth of civil responsibility of the electorate. When people begin to go to the polls for the most part and defend the right to their opinion, then the authorities will use their resources more cautiously.