Smart еlite: conceptual framework

Abstract

The article discusses a new subgroup within the ruling class, which is proposed to be called the smart elite. Its functional purpose is strategic planning and leadership in the digitisation of the economy, the state governance system, and more. In this context, digitisation is considered a mechanism for transforming society towards the development of advanced practices and social institutions. From a functional perspective, the identified group is an elite of development. The smart elite is primarily localised within development institutions and a number of near-elite groups, including experts, IT specialists, and businessmen. Its members possess competencies in the areas of strategic planning and project management. Additionally, the smart elite places a high value on advanced digital literacy, including knowledge and skills in working with content management systems (CMS), Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager (GTM), Yandex.Metrica, and others. To recruit individuals into this subgroup, open channels of social mobility have been created within the state, such as the “Leaders of Russia” competition, grants from the Skolkovo Foundation, and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. The sociocultural meanings that bind the smart elite internally and are transmitted by its members beyond the group are related to activities in the interests of Russia. There is a constant tension between the desire of elite representatives to preserve their acquired power and, therefore, maintain the existing system without change, and the necessity to ensure the technological and social development of the country. At the individual level, this tension manifests as a conflict between conservative protectors and innovators within the power structures. However, the smart elite represents innovators of a special sociocultural type, associated with the formation of horizontal, non-hierarchical relationships in the networked society, including power distribution issues. At the highest echelons of power, the smart elite corresponds to the “networked people” in society; both of these social groups represent prototypes of a new type of stratification within the social system. The need to study the smart elite is linked to the evaluation of the effectiveness of state strategic planning and management, the sufficiency of qualified managerial personnel, and the presence or absence of contradictions between the declared and latent goals of the development institutions within which the smart elite operates.