Solvency of the Institute of City Management in Estimates of the Population of the South of Russia: History and Perspectives

This article interprets the results of a mass sociological survey conducted among the population of municipalities of the Rostov region and the Republic of Adygea, in order to determine the social viability of the Institute of city management. Social competence is defined as the achievement of the main goals set for the Institute of city management, primarily, the involvement of professional managers to improve the indicators of socio-economic development of territories. Four aspects are defined as criteria for evaluation: confidence in the reform, goals of the reform, satisfaction with the reform, and expectation of the consequences of the reform. The authors came to the conclusion that a significant mass of the population does not trust the reform, sees in it other goals than the legislator declares, is not satisfied with the results, and fears the onset of negative consequences from its implementation. At the same time, there are other results from the introduction of city management, since there are stable groups of respondents who expressed a positive attitude to it, which is consistently shown in all aspects of the assessment, including the rejection of the significance of the institution of elected mayors.