IMPROVEMENT OF MECHANISMS OF PUBLIC MANAGEMENT OF THE UKRAINIAN ECONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: FOREIGN EXPERIENCE, UKRAINIAN REALITIES Abstract. Subject of the study: the components of the mechanisms of public management of the economy of Ukraine in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Study Methodology: laws

437 ISSN 2306-4994 (print); ISSN 2310-8770 (online) UDC 351.077:332.1(477) Likarchuk N. Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor of Department of Public Administration, Educational-Scientific Institute of Public Management and Public Service of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine; e-mail: Likarchukd@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7119-439X Andrieieva O. Doctor of Political Science, Professor, Educational-Scientific Institute of International Relations Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine; e-mail: AndreevaOlga@knu.ua; ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4587-1267 Kutepova M. graduate student, Educational-Scientific Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine; e-mail: marynakutepova8@gmail.com; ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8560-8001 Dzvinchuk D. Doctor of Philosophy Sciences, Professor of the Department of Public Administration and Management, Institute of Humanities and Public Administration, Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas, Ukraine; e-mail: dzvin56@ukr.net; ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6391-3822 Buriak Ie. Doctor of Economics, Associate Professor, Professor of Management Department, Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi National University, Ukraine; e-mail: burzhen@ukr.net; ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8039-004X

Introduction. The formation of effectively functioning mechanisms of public administration is one of the priority vectors of state development, the key to the implementation of state policy in the economic, social and political spheres. Successful and appropriate reform of the key institutions of power, administrative and territorial structure, the implementation of decentralization and deconcentration of power institutions, the search for optimal ways of distribution of powers are issues on the agenda of both the Ukrainian and international community.
The formation of effective mechanisms of public administration in the context of decentralization requires the application of atypical and insufficiently known approaches and methods, taking into account the peculiarities and specificities of the functioning environment of each separate community. This issue in the general context of consideration of mechanisms of public administration has been the subject of research of a number of scientists [1][2][3][4][5][6].
The system of implementation of power in Ukraine requires the introduction of modern innovative world trends and practices, such as: development and deepening of publicity. Application of innovative methods and approaches, achievement of «flexibility» of public administration, introduction of electronic management and means of remote interaction become an integral component of updating and improvement of the current model of public affairs management in accordance with modern requirements. The aforementioned and causes the relevance of the topic of this article.
Consequently, the purpose of this article outlines the development of theoretical foundations and development of methodological recommendations to substantiate areas to improve public administration mechanisms, as well as the formation of a theoretical model of their use in Ukraine on the basis of the studied positive experience of other countries.
Methodology and methods. Practical implementation in Ukraine of the first stage of the administrative territorial structure reform on the basis of consolidation of administrative districts and territorial communities provided an opportunity to develop and implement measures for further implementation of the decentralization reform.
This situation actualizes the topicality of the outlined topic of the research. Without disparaging the importance and significance of theoretical, methodological and practical developments of leading scientists in our research, it is advisable to note that they cannot be universal and do not fully take into account the rapidly changing modern world state and public environment.
Theoretical and methodological basis of the performed research are the laws and principles of dialectical logic, the provisions of economic theory, the concepts of prominent scientists on the problems of public administration and management.
Achievement of this goal is provided by the use of methods of system analysis in the study of the essence of public administration mechanism and its tools, structural-logical methods -in substantiation of directions of improvement of existing mechanisms of public administration.
Results. Development of theoretical foundations of the mechanisms of public administration in Ukraine takes place today in the context of research on the methodology of public administration. As a result, the category of «mechanism of public administration» is quite thoroughly and widely covered among domestic scientists.
The analysis of the works of prominent scientists in the field of science of state and public administration showed that there is no unified approach to the interpretation of the meaning of the mechanism of public administration. According to the generalized vision of these scientists, the mechanism of public administration is defined as a system of various forms, methods, means, as well as measures by the state used in the legal, organizational, administrative, motivational and other areas of state activity aimed at ensuring sustainable development of society. Consequently, the development of democratic forces and civil society in the world and, in particular, in Ukraine, led to the evolution of the essence of public administration. This development took place from its traditional vision as the influence of the state in the aspect of organization and regulation on the social activity of citizens for the purpose of its streamlining or transformation on the basis of the power in the direction of publicity of public administration [7].
According to the claims of experts, the transitional form from public administration to public administration is public administration, which is understood as a system of administrative institutions with a hierarchy of power, through which the responsibility for the implementation of public decisions is distributed from the top down (a broad understanding). In a narrow sense, public administration is a professional activity of public servants, which takes into account all areas of activity that contribute to the research, development and implementation of government policy directions, implementation of its decisions. Defining public administration as a type of managerial activity of institutions of public authority, on the basis of which self-governance of the public system and its development in the right direction is ensured. According to [1], public administration is recognized as public management, which «is carried out through power to society through decentralization, and the more management becomes decentralized -the more it is public. With the features of publicity, public administration is transformed into public administration through the introduction of public administration». Summarizing the analysis of the definition of «public management», it is necessary to offer the author's definition: mechanisms of public managementis a system of means, levers, methods, incentives, providing realization of regulating influence of public administrations on social and economic territorial systems of different levels in order to ensure proper conditions of life of territorial society. The economic mechanism of public administration contains (management of banking, investment, monetary and currency, innovation, credit, tax, monetary activities. Motivational is a set of command-administrative and socioeconomic incentives on the subject of inducement of public servants to work effectively. Organizational mechanism of public administration is the objects and subjects of management, their objectives, methods of management and results of operation [8]. Along with the observance and improvement of key (classical) principles and principles concerning the organization of the work of power structures, the foundations of public affairs management, it is necessary to develop new trend areas of public administration. Development of digital technologies, digitalization of public administration, distribution of electronic services and application of cloud technologies are quite relevant and promising directions of modernization of processes and practices occurring in the system of public administration.
Today in Ukraine there is a rapid reform of decentralization of public administration, which involves the transfer of a large number of powers, resources and, of course, responsibilities to local governments.
At the same time, the territorial communities received significant responsibility for the formation and development of local social infrastructure, namely: development of educational institutions, primary health care, culture; addressing the issue of improvement, social protection of the population of the region, the provision of administrative services to citizens; planning the development of society and the formation of its budget; ensuring the economic development of society, attracting investment to the region, the development of entrepreneurship; ensuring effective management of communal property, functioning of public utilities; effective management of land resources, etc.
Obtaining such powers and responsibilities tightens the requirements for the introduction of innovative technologies and effective management mechanisms in the functional activity of local self-governments, for the development of their human capacity in the context of ensuring institutional capacity to implement the objectives of the decentralization reform. Modern Ukrainian local self-governments have great potential for reform but granting them a wide range of powers in conditions of dynamic transformation of the environment of their functioning, deepening of the general systemic crisis, formation of a new institutional basis of social transformation makes their activity rather complicated. Local self-governments are forced to search for progressive breakthrough approaches to solving modern problems and tasks of the present, such as: formation of policies to ensure the competitiveness of territorial communities and the region; development of mechanisms for the effective use of community resources in the conditions of expanding their resource opportunities for social and economic development; application of effective innovative mechanisms for solving regional and local development problems; forming network infrastructures on the territory of the community in order to improve their organizational and functional support; ensuring the integrity and strategic direction of development both at the level of the newly territorial communities and the region [9].
The success of decentralization reform can be ensured by amending the laws and the Constitution of Ukraine, by adopting a new version of the Law of Ukraine «On Local State Administrations»".
As of today, Ukraine has carried out a large-scale reorganization of administrative-territorial structure of sub-regional level and 136 enlarged districts have been formed, on the basis of which the activity of local state authorities should be organized. As a result of the implemented reorganization there is a need to reform 490 district-level administrations in all administrativeterritorial units of sub-regional level of Ukraine, to bring their territorial jurisdiction in accordance with the current zoning of Ukraine, as well as to provide them with appropriate legal capacity, which would meet the current state of public and political challenges and local state administrations in the system of public administration; delimitation of powers between bodies Under the conditions of new challenges, it is necessary to develop and implement a number of practical directions of improvement of public administration mechanisms at the regional, subregional and local levels.
First, it seems appropriate to modernize the functional activity of public administration bodies in the trend of building an effective interaction of new territorial communities with local bodies of state executive power and territorial subdivisions of the central bodies of state executive power. Reformed district state administrations must act in the direction of forming a favorable climate for the implementation of regional policies, achieving a comprehensive balanced development of territorial communities based on the use of the potential and competitive advantages of territories, ensuring effective communication and effective cooperation with public authorities of different hierarchical levels in order to solve problems of local importance.
Given certain shortcomings, imbalances and gaps in the system of legal regulation of the relationship between local state administrations and relevant local self-government bodies in the execution by state administrations of certain powers of local self-government, in ensuring the legality of activities of local self-government bodies and officials and in the system of checks and balances in the relationship between the state and local self-government, the problem of the urgent need to update legislation arises. It seems advisable to propose a clear distribution of powers and tasks of local state administrations within three key areas: coordination of territorial bodies and central bodies of executive power; compliance with current legislation on the activities of local government bodies and officials; exercising the individual powers of local government bodies.
When the new edition of the Law of Ukraine «On Local State Administrations» is adopted, it will be possible to continue the second stage of the local self-governance and territorial organization of power reform.
Implementation of the second stage of the reform will allow to unify and improve the powers of local state administrations in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as to form a system of public authorities to ensure compliance with legislation on the functioning of bodies and officials of local self-government.
Instrumentality of public administration mechanism represented by a set of levers, means, methods and incentives, and tools of administrative impact on the object of management to achieve the goals. In turn, administrative activity must be delineated by legal norms and have information and regulatory support. The management system is characterized by a structure that determines the established relationships and relations within the mechanism, as well as the main directions of managerial impacts.
The mechanism of public administration contains two subsystems -governing (the subject of public administration -everything that can contribute to the implementation of public (public) interests, that is, the interests of a social community, recognized, satisfied by the state) and governed (object of public administration -persons that by their lawful behavior create conditions in which the subjects of law can properly exercise their rights, freedoms, interests).
The structure and content of the governing system as the basis of the mechanism of public administration must function effectively, which is achieved by harmonization of existing goals, that is, both the subject and the object of public administration must have one-order (compatible) goals.
Seven basic elements can be distinguished in the mechanism of public administration: methods, incentives, levers, incentives, legal, normative and informational support.
The obtained potential of decentralization is expedient to use for the systemic solution of urgent problems of vital activity of territorial communities and development of territories through the development of progressive vectors of public administration, namely: creating, complementing and mutually reinforcing economic, environmental and social well-being; introducing corporate principles in the management of the development of territorial communities with the formation of cluster territorial associations of entrepreneurs, businesses, academic institutions and local authorities; ensuring the competitiveness of territorial communities based on the use of uniqueness and creativity; using innovative approaches to achieve a balanced development of the territorial communities' settlements, which is consistent with the interests of their inhabitants; establishing an effective interaction with the elements of the external environment based on partnership; developing preventive measures to prevent crisis phenomena.
The use of the cooperation effect of decentralization at the regional level will allow to reform and improve the structure of the local economy by identifying and fixing priority activities in the strategic documents and creating conditions for their development on the basis of formation of a favorable investment climate and entrepreneurial environment.
Providing of entrepreneurship development is achieved by means of information and consulting support of small and medium business subjects, supporting of development and realization of investment projects on the basis of public-private partnership, providing of material support to entrepreneurial structures with attraction of objects of municipal property and land resources, providing of professional orientation of young people to the needs of local market and development of priority kinds of entrepreneurial activity.
Present territorial communities existing in Ukraine have a rather diverse resource potential, economic structure, demographic situation, and accordingly the starting conditions of their economic development differ as well. However, only economic development must act as a basis for solving community problems, not the budget and interbudgetary transfers.
The structure of production in the territorial communities, formed as a result of the administrative reform of decentralization, is characterized by non-complementary nature, mainly having one or two unconnected types of production, as a rule, of raw material nature. Ukrainian territorial communities are rather passive in using the practice of forming and operating local clusters on their territories. Consequently, it seems advisable as a direction to improve the mechanisms of public management of territorial communities to propose the cooperation of industries and enterprises from other communities [10].
In order to attract investment in the territorial community it is advisable to propose the development and implementation of internal investment policy, control over the use of investment funds, the use of such tools as an investment portfolio, evaluation of investment projects; formation of development funds, voucher programs, grants.
In modern existing territorial communities, there is a lack of experience in the use of regulatory policy tools, so it seems advisable to propose the organization of training of local government employees on the content of work on each of the proposed tools, the introduction of appropriate techniques in the curricula for staff development, preparation and publication of appropriate advisers.
Modern public administration bodies at the level of territorial communities must closely cooperate in the issues of territorial (spatial) planning. The rest in the conditions of innovative development of territories must contain the rational spatial organization of population settlement and orientation of economic activity in conditions of sustainable and inclusive development; solving the issues of territorial development and strengthening the responsibility of subjects of urban planning for their decisions, strict control over environmental assessment and compliance with environmental safety in the process of urban planning management.
In order to achieve local development in the formation of comfortable living space for residents of territorial communities, it seems expedient to propose at the legislative level regulation of mechanisms for delegating to local governments an appropriate amount of authority in the field of land management, as well as expanding the powers in the spatial planning of territories.
It is suggested to carry out a number of measures of practical orientation for reforming of town-planning activity, first of all on the level of newly established territorial communities, in part of regulation of state architectural and construction control, elimination of corruption, prevention of violation of norms of building of territories of settlements, irrational building of settlements, liberalization of procedures of development and realization of infrastructures. Fig.5 proposes measures to attract innovation in the mechanism of public administration.
First, it is advisable to use the mechanisms of crowdsourcing and outsourcing to attract business entities to the implementation of managerial innovations in the system of domestic public administration at the level of territorial communities.
Second, the use of social partnership mechanisms in public administration bodies, adapted from the business sphere and the public sphere of managerial innovations recycled to the needs of public authorities. Third, the implementation of quality assessment of the use of innovations in public administration with the involvement of the public, scientific and business structures in the assessment process. Fourth, creation of a data bank of managerial innovations in the mechanisms of public administration, developed by scientists, entrepreneurs and the public for their evaluation and selection for joint projects for development and implementation.
According to the estimates of domestic researchers in the field of public administration the central idea of its formation at the present stage of development of society and the public is the removal of the process of decision-making outside of the power institutions. At the same time, the orientation on the public principle of service provision is dominant, while the tasks of electronization and ensuring transparency and openness of all spheres of public administration in the process of administrative reform are not set to the extent necessary for the success of innovations. This fact makes it difficult to ensure the success of administrative reform through the use of e-government leadership. The latter is considered as a tool to combine technological innovation in public administration and systemic reform in the direction of becoming public administration. It seems appropriate to focus on the development of a state program of informatization of the management system, focused on the main tasks of administrative reforming. As part of this program, it is necessary to coordinate the directions of public transformation of the system of public administration and projects of informatization of all areas of activity of public authorities, giving priority to the work of structures of executive power and local self-government. As for the form, the e-government system should have the form of a holistic mechanism that connects information systems and network communications of the system of public administration in a single whole. This system should provide openness, transparency, public scrutiny and public participation, then it is possible to implement a combination of goals and content of public administration innovations with e-government technologies in the framework of strategic administrative reforms with resource provision, regulatory framework and control on implementation. On this basis it is advisable to build real projects of public-administrative innovations.
If we note the tools of e-democracy that are currently used at the local and national level in Ukraine, they are electronic consultations, electronic petitions, electronic appeals, as well as public budgets. E-democracy tools can include such resources with the use of electronic platforms, as used, for example, for the publication of data sets in the form of open data (Civil Society and Power, Smart City or the Unified System of Local Petitions).
As a measure to improve the mechanisms of public management of territorial communities it is proposed to use the Predictiv platform, namely: to test the degree of understanding of regulatory measures by its addressees; to evaluate the predicted effectiveness of new approaches; to choose between the proposed alternatives of public policy. According to the UK experience the Predictiv platform can be used in the Department for Employment and Pensions to change the state communication. When planning to monitor and evaluate the performance of public administration on the basis of digital technology in the Western countries' statistical information in the form of "big data" is used. This requires necessarily the development of performance indicators, which can be presented in a statistical form, which characterize the provision of public services, and their statistical values are recorded on the performance platform. Thus, on the performance platform of the government of Great Britain there are values of indicators, which assess the level of public services in the social sphere. Each service is evaluated on the basis of the following indicators: transaction cost -the average transaction costs of the state per service provided; satisfaction of service recipients, which is determined automatically using the survey of service recipients; degree of service delivery, assessed by the share of applicants, who successfully received the result of the service, in relation to the total number of citizens who applied for the service; level of digitalization (the share of citizens using online government services compared to other service delivery channels, such as postal or telephone services).
That is, today, the state authorities of Ukraine in order to improve public administration mechanisms should use the experience of Great Britain in their activities, namely: actively use significant data sets to assess the effectiveness of government spending based on the use of online surveys, in particular, based on the use of social networks. the positive experience of the UK, as well as the introduction of innovative approaches, technologies and methodologies (cloud infrastructure, Blockchain, Mobile ID, share economy, methods of processing large amounts of information (Big Data), legal regulation of the principles of «digital by default», «one-time introduction information» and «compatibility by default», as well as the use of promising forms of organizing the implementation of tasks and projects for the development of e-government, in particular public-private partnerships, will contribute to the formation of an effective system of egovernment in Ukraine to meet the needs of individuals and legal entities, improve the system of state management, increasing competitiveness and stimulating the socio-economic development of the country.
Discussion. In the context of decentralization, local authorities have the opportunity to simultaneously ensure the implementation of state and their own regulatory policies within the limits of the regulatory instruments available to them. As practical measures for the use of regulatory policy at the local level it is advisable to suggest: recording and evaluating asset values with identification of existing problems; consideration of alternative options for production and service delivery, with the appropriate setting of optimal cost and quality control; managing the local borrowing market by increasing the efficiency of the use of bank loans, issuing debt securities, and analyzing the loan capital market; fiscal stimulation of economic development through the application of preferential tax regimes, differentiated scale of tax rates.
As a pertinent direction of improvement of mechanisms of public administration it is proposed to improve the quality of preparation of local budgets, coordination of indicators of local budgets with the goals of development strategies of territorial communities and regions; improvement of program-target budgeting at the local level in the aspect of content of budget programs, revision of the list of performance indicators and their clear quantitative measurement, extension of time horizon of budget planning, introduction of medium-term and long-term budgeting. Taking into account the main strategic goal of the state regional policy of Ukraineformation of the developed state in the aspect of social, economic, ecological, humanitarian and security dimensions requires improvement of the tools of public administration at the regional and community level in the aspect of strategic management and planning. Strategic planning at the level of the territorial society defines its future, establishes the hierarchy of the importance of tasks, as well as specific ways and means of their implementation. Strengthening the role of local governments in providing comprehensive development of territories for the benefit of territorial communities must contribute to the qualitative formation of the entire system of urban planning documentation: at the regional level -maps of formation of the territories of regions, as well as districts and their individual parts; at the local level -master plans of settlements, zoning plans and detailed plans of territories. Updating of urban planning documentation at the level of territorial communities should be carried out on a modern cartographic basis, with the help of modern geoinformation technologies and systems, full use of data of the State GeoCadastre and urban planning cadastre.
In order to create favorable conditions for the life and development of territorial communities it is advisable to establish a partnership interaction between local governments and public organizations in the issues: the organization of public services; outreach and educational activities; development of youth inclusion and creative industries; implementation of innovative technologies in solving urgent problems of development of territorial communities; international cooperation.
Implementation of managerial innovations in the aspect of improvement of mechanisms of public administration is possible at the expense of use of principles of innovation management for the purpose of increase of the role of public sphere and business structures in the process of development and realization of state-management innovations.
According to the level of implementation, experts in the field of public administration distinguish three types of innovations in the mechanisms of public administration: innovations carried out by the state itself in the system of public administration, concerning the strategic reorientation to the needs of society. Such innovations involve the use of innovative management models and a network of interrelated projects of technological innovations and related changes in the processes and functions of public authorities; innovative approaches to personnel management in the authorities to increase the human resource capacity of civil servants; introduction of innovative mechanisms from other areas (controlling, re-engineering, etc.). These projects need to develop a state automated management system based on the use of electronic resources as a tool to update the process of making and implementing management decisions; a system of innovative projects on the part of the state for the development of public institutions and the social sphere, aimed both at the development of the public sphere and at ensuring the enhancement of its role in the processes of public administration and improvement of processes of providing administrative services. Such innovations imply the construction of special structures in the executive authorities to ensure the implementation of innovative projects in the public sphere in different directions in close cooperation with the public structures (with expert, controlling, executive functions). In each innovative project it is appropriate to form certain structures responsible for their implementation. This can be achieved by providing mass public support with discussion, public expertise, constitution in certain normative acts (programs, plans). The implementation of these projects should go in parallel with the updating of all indicators of specific procedural forms, documentation, standards of activity of state structures and subjects of the public sphere or industries to which these projects relate; innovative state projects of business development, namely: use of general state instruments of stimulation of innovative development of subjects of economy (reduction of taxes for producers of innovative products), and specific complex projects of support of this or that direction of innovations in economy. First of all, the application of innovative state projects should affect the state procurement of products, i.e., the use of strategic planning to determine innovative priorities within the contract system, minimizing corruption risks in due ISSN 2306-4994 (print); ISSN 2310-8770 (online) diligence and multi-level procedures; inclusion of innovative characteristics as mandatory contractors, etc.
The general directions of improvement of public management mechanisms proposed in the work are appropriate to add as relevant changes in the legislative and regulatory acts regulating the activities of territorial communities and local self-government bodies, as well as to take into account the practical developments in the Strategies of regional development.
Conclusions. The results of the obtained study allow us to state that there is no guaranteed success in the application of progressive innovative directions of improvement of public administration in newly created territorial communities, therefore, a particular public selfgovernment body, which uses the tools of public administration mechanisms, may fail due to the presence of errors in organization, motivation and control. However, a successfully formed concept of improvement of public administration mechanisms can form significant predisposing factors for the effective functioning and development of a particular territorial community.
Knowing what state public administration authorities are trying to achieve in a particular territorial community helps to clarify the most appropriate ways of public administration. By making informed and systematic decisions, management reduces the risk of making the wrong decision because of erroneous or inaccurate information. Properly chosen areas of improvement in public administration mechanisms help to create unity of purpose within society. However, the measures proposed in the work to improve the mechanisms of public administration on the example of territorial communities are not universal and require further development taking into account the specifics of a particular region.
Based on the analysis of the definition of «mechanism of public administration» by various experts in the context of administrative activity of power bodies, it was found that the latter is a necessary tool for their effective functioning in conditions of decentralization in the country. Certain directions of development and improvement of mechanisms of public administration of territorial communities were singled out. The approaches of different countries to the mechanisms of public administration are analyzed. The following are proposed as areas of improvement in the mechanisms of public administration on the basis of the research conducted: practical measures for the use of regulatory policy at the local level; development of the state program of informatization of the management system, focused on the main tasks of administrative reform; use of mechanisms of crowdsourcing and outsourcing to attract business entities to implement managerial innovation in the system of domestic public administration at the level of territorial communities. It seems expedient to offer directions of public transformation of the system of public administration and projects of informatization of all directions of activity of bodies of state power, having paid priority attention to work of structures of executive power and local government.
Prospects of the results of the study lies in the formation of a methodological and practical base of directions of improvement of mechanisms of public administration of territorial communities.