Theoretical foundations for training public servants and managers: the role of Economics

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the significance of contemporary economic science for training public servants for government bodies and managers for business. At present, prevailing theories are being revised, novel concepts and interpretations come into being, and governmental institutions undergo noticeable changes, trying to respond to emerging challenges, i.e. New Industrial Revolution, Energy Transition and Climate Change. With this purpose in mind, the authors offered three methodological approaches — metrics, political economy, narrative, all of which allow to study novel problems from different angles. The review of 1006 articles in 31 Russian economic journals for the period of 2010– 2021 upon three above-mentioned issues has shown, that, firstly, a greater part of publications refers to manufacturing development, secondly, metric (42%) and political economy (51%) approaches prevail in the research of all these issues. However, in the situation of uncertainty the prognostic value of economic modelling is decreasing, contradictions between political economy elaborations are growing up, and narrative approach is actually demanded for alternative interpretations of variable, frequently competitive, ideas and concepts concerning industrial transformation, energy transition and climate change. These three approaches correlate with the curricula of Russian and foreign universities in order to identify the promising fields to upgrade economic education of public servants in Russia. The authors conclude that there is a disparity between trends in economic research and modes in training public servants. Currently in higher education the teaching of economics rests on metric approach, but economic sciences also demand qualitative methods of research. Humanitarian dimension in economic education is indispensable since it helps to form abstract reasoning skills, important for the new generation of public servants capable of solving intricate and ambiguous problems.