The System of Goal-Setting in the State Policy of Electoral Innovation Management: the Aspect of Ensuring Electoral Sovereignty of the State

Abstract

The process of innovation management is of major importance for the realization of political modernization and development goals. The ability of a sovereign State to implement the policy of managing innovations in the electoral sphere, as well as to implement the principle of electoral sovereignty, which is an integral part of state and national sovereignty, determines the legitimacy of political power and political regime, and the trust of civil society and a wide range of external actors (first and foremost, other sovereign States and international organizations) in the political system. The disruption to interstate communication between Russia and Western countries, including the issues of electoral cooperation, as well as the drive to reinforce Russia’s electoral autonomy, has led to a significant requirement for academic research and expert-­analytical support in the domain of innovation management. The purpose of the article is to identify and systematize the reasons (innovation goals) that the sovereign state faces when carrying out innovation activities in the electoral space, and the conformity of such activities with the category of ‘electoral sovereignty’. The research methodology is based on the theory of political development and modernization, the theory of diffusion of innovation, and the legal theory of sovereignty. As one of the results of the study, an explicative model of innovation activity in the electoral space is proposed, according to which innovations can be divided into three orders of goals. These goals are complementary and oriented not only towards the modernization and development of the electoral system, but also towards the implementation of the principle of electoral sovereignty. The author notes that an innovation is not necessarily a newly created or imported institution or technology; rather, it can also be a recreated process that was previously institutionalized in its entirety, or fragmented, in the electoral history of a state. The author suggests reformulating Russia’s electoral traditions to make them relevant and innovative. This would strengthen the domestic electoral sovereignty.

Acknowledgements

The study was carried out at St. Petersburg State University with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation within the framework of scientific project No. 24-28-01061 “Innovation Management in State Electoral Policy”