TWO APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF MANAGEMENT IN RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY: EMPEROR PAUL THE FIRST AND A.A. BEZBORODKO

Abstract

Conceptualization of management is a qualitatively new phenomenon in the history of Russian management thought. Its beginning is associated with the attempts of several statesmen of the last quarter of the 18th century to form a system of views about the goals, objectives, principles and methods of public administration in Russia. The most significant texts of this kind include the “Order” of Paul I and the note of A.A. Bezborodko “On the needs of the Russian Empire.” The purpose of this article is to identify the conceptual elements of management theory that are contained in these texts. For this purpose, common features were established in the two approaches to the formation of the concept of public administration, as well as the differences between them. To solve these problems, methods of text conceptualization are used, combined with semantic analysis at the first stage of the study and comparative analysis at the final stage. The first result of the analysis was the identification of basic commonalities in these two approaches. The common feature was goal-setting, the universal principle of the “triumph” of laws and part of the instrumental principles of management: autocracy and the separation of classes. The second result was the identification of important differences in the understanding of instrumental principles, as well as in what management mechanisms were supposed to be used within the framework of the two emerging concepts. Paul's concept did not provide for clearly defined decision-making procedures and relied on a mechanism of bureaucratic control over the population. Bezborodko proposed developing a mechanism for public participation.