Contemporary Problems of Social Work Современные проблемы социальной работы academic journal

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VOLUME 2, No. 1, 2016
capitalist property and is capable to manage in the social interests. A manager is not an official, 
not an engineer, not a bureaucrat, not a technocrat; he is a specialist who is able to cover all 
aspects of management and, above all, the aspects of human relations. He is a system laborer, 
who is capable to use a common scientific management result in any managing sphere, to lead 
it in an managing system. The management is an individual worker management (control) 
process, workgroup, working collectives. By the way, in all foreign encyclopedia management 
is defined as a process of achieving organizational goals by other people hands. The subject of 
this process is a manager.
In the book by Burnham “Managerial Revolution” there are some controversial and ambiguous 
statements . But the idea, that the manager is guided by the general rules which are suitable for 
any sphere of government and society all in all is able to achieve the desired effect, is extremely 
fruitful. It is connected with the search and the need of a general theory of the management 
development.
In order that the management, as a possible process has reached its “peak” in the objectives 
implementation, its functions must be clearly and systematically fulfilled. This hypothesis is 
typical for all spheres of government: social, financial, technical, etc.
It is especially expressed in the management functions differentiation in the practice of the 
municipal management system.
The municipal management is a set of coordinated actions, processes, measures of regulatory 
impact of all management entities in the municipal processes in order to achieve sustainable 
development of the local community, creating favorable living conditions for the population 
due to the rational use of the local resources.
Own management revolution means that modern management has become the property 
of a particular community, every company or firm. A social role of a professional manager 
has appeared a leader, an entrepreneur, i.e. a specialist in the organization and developer 
of self-primary cell of the society. They organize the development of an action plan and its 
implementation, they encourage people to effective work, they are involved in making goals 
and working out the ways to achieve them with identifying resources, they oversee the work.
In the world practice, there is an organizational forms plurality and models of the local 
government with different schemes of local self-government brunches formation and the power 
divisions among them. This is a very convenient system according to the special number of the 
municipality population, its territory size, the number and complexity of the issues, the social and 
political situation and many other factors. However, in general it is a combination of three main 
elements: a representative base, local government and senior officials. Basic schemes are listed in 
Annex 1.
Today, the most common forms of local self-government organization are:
1.  Form “mayor-council”, or a form with a weak mayor. The population elects the Board 
which owns all of the municipal authority. It elects the mayor (often among its members) and 
appoints or approves the officials appointments that are made by the mayor.
2.  Form “mayor-council”, or a form with a strong mayor. The mayor and the council elected 
by the population independently. The Mayor has greater powers. The appointments of the 
municipal employees are made by his own, but he may get the agreement from the Council for 
some officials. The Council is not simply able to remove the mayor from his position, although 
there is different impeachment. As a rule, the mayor granted the right to a suspense veto on 
decisions of the Council, that can be overcome by the majority of votes (usually 2/3).
3. Form “council-manager”. Elected by the population the council hires (usually by the 
contract) a professional manager, who manages the local area by himself. He is accountable to the 
Board, which may withdraw the contract in case the manager does not perform his duties properly.
4. Commission. The population elects the Commission (Commissioners), implement and 
represent the executive functions. This form is typical of American counties (districts).

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CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL WORK
5.  A combined form, in which the mayor is also a manager. The ratio between the two powers 
may be different.
These models got their start in many countries. Of course, we cannot say that each model has 
received a clear implementation due to the specifics of each country: the mentality, historical 
factors but in some particular countries there are deviations of the ideal state model. But 
the basic principles are always based on implement. So the model of “council-manager” is an 
analogue of the professional control activities of the local administration, all the rules are 
reflected in the Federal Law of October 06, 2003 No. 131-FL “On general principles of the local 
self-government of the Russian Federation”.
Let us look into more detailed characteristics of the third form of the “Council-manager”. 
Specification of the “Council-manager” model is identical to the municipal government form 
characteristic, it is a professional management of the local administration. The first model of the 
“council-manager” appeared in the US in 1914, and was widely used in the 30’s of the last century. 
Currently, the management by the contract covers about 90 percent of US counties and settlements.
The effective impact of this type of management is ambiguous: as the pluralism of opinions is 
more popular in the country with the high-educated community, but on the other side of the same 
type of management approach in practice can also be more effective. Expressing this issue position, 
it is necessary to show the statistics, since the figures are a direct relation of forms and approaches 
to management. Thus, according to the research of Legatum Institute popular, the scientists who 
have made a rating of the living standard in 2014 named the best country to live in. The US in 
this ranking takes the 10th place out of 110 surveyed countries for more than two years. Russia 
occupies the 59th place, and in 2011 – it took the 63th place [16].
The founder of the professional control system functioning of the local administration as a 
municipal form of the government is necessary to consider the organization of the local self-
government of the United States. The local government in the United States is characterized by 
a broad decentralization, a certain independence from the central government municipalities 
and even states, the lack of the direct subordination of the local control of the government.
For the Russian municipal practice, this process will be regressive, as local government, 
Russia needs indirect and at the same time, a direct support for the government agencies, it is 
necessary to maintain public-partnerships, otherwise the local government will be subjected to 
a regressive process, because of the corruption level in the country and mental characteristics 
of the territories. In the US there are 50 different municipal systems; all 50 states constitutions 
contain provisions on the organization and activity of the municipalities.
Currently, in the states of the US there are six kinds of administrative-territorial units with 
their local governments: the county (counties); the city (cities); the borough (boroughs); the 
village (villages); the town (towns): the town spikes (townships).
The “managing Board” model conceptually implies the emergence of highly qualified specialists 
that could take part in competitions and really become a effectively manage professional, who is 
hired to solve strategic tasks. Also, it should be noted the deviation in a model of intervention 
hired manager in the political sphere, these variations has also appeared in the Russian municipal 
practice. But, despite this, the model of the “council-manager” hired manager activity was the most 
important invention in the field of organizing the local government in the XX and XXI centuries. 
Since the management, the economic functions were transferred to the individual professionals, 
whose activities are focused on achieving the goal, the profit, etc. While the executive chief decides 
other contractual policy issues.
Thomas Jefferson believed that each generation needs a new revolution, because of the 
social institutions, the political and economic systems, the strategy is also becoming obsolete, 
having performed their tasks and becoming obsolete, not able to run them.
In this case, the revolutions are not a “cure”. They, as it was evidenced by the history of 
mankind, lead to the power people who are not able to implement their duties, they are often 

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