Assessing strategic planning in municipalities: Methodological, practical and managerial aspects

The topicality of municipal strategizing in the Russian Federation is due to, among other things, the lack of a unified methodology for devising and implementing strategies of municipal socio-economic development. The quality of these strategies and their effectiveness vary significantly. The article examines methodological, practical and managerial aspects of the assessment of strategic planning in Russian municipalities. The research methodology is based on the theoretical principles of strategic management, regional and municipal economics. The methods of statistical analysis (ranking and grouping) are used. The empirical basis includes Rosstat statistical data and socio-economic development strategies of the largest Russian cities. In the research, we formulate and test the methodology for a comprehensive assessment of the strategic planning of regions at various hierarchical levels, which allows evaluating the formation process of a strategy, as well as its content and practical feasibility. The results of the assessment have allowed us to distribute the municipalities in question by the effectiveness of their socio-economic development and identify the main drawbacks of the corresponding strategies: lack of analysis of the environment, the mission and the main goal; poorly elaborated strategic avenues; ineffective methods and control mechanisms; untimely adjustments, etc. The socio-economic development of territories is proved to be dependent on the quality of strategic planning and management. The practical value of the study is due to the strong need for timely management of the strategic development of various territories, including municipalities.