Abstract: The object of the research is the state and regional authorities. The subject of the research is the organisational and managing mechanisms that define efficiency of administration in terms of the project-based approach. The need to raise efficiency of state management at all levels of governance is becoming a crucial factor of Russian society's modernization. Defined as the process of transferring management functions and powers from central authorities to regional and local ones, devolution in its turn creates the need to look for efficient mechanisms of implementing socio-economic programs at the regional level. The research methods used by the authors include the analytical method, observation, comparison and description of social processes to study efficiency criteria of state authorities when using the project-based approach as well as the influence thereof on the social and economic development of the society. Adoption of project-based management methods is becoming an important instrument of the state policy aimed at sustainable development of territories. The isuses of institutional and procedural implementation of decentralization processes and granting necessary powers, functions and resources to regional and local authorities are growing especially important. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the project-based approach to state management reveals new opportunities to modernize stage governance and offers a new system for evaluating the management mechanism efficiency at state and local authorities.

Abstract: The subject of the research is a set of measures and mechanisms that influence the efficiency of cluster projects. The object of the research is the interregional and interindustry entities in the Russian Federation and Belarus Republic as a single Union State. The authors of the article have analyzed the main indicators of their international cooperation as well as programs being implemented. They have covered not only prevailing programs proved and financed by the Union State but also initiation projects that arise as a result of cooperation between enterprises of different ownership forms in the territories of Russia and Belarus. The authors describe not only projects related to cooperation of neighboring territories but also remote districts. The research methodology involves the theory of cluster management, in particular, the part of the theory devoted to projecting distance entities, institutional monitoring of the general development of business infrastructure and comparative method to analyze participation of the state in the functioning of modern clusters. In their research the authors have demonstrated that innovative ability and technological availability are an essential element of the national economy's competitive ability taking into account the conditions of institutional changes. In the future the role of innovations in the process of developing the country's competitive ability will only continue to grow providing that the structure of the global industry will change towards high technology sectors. The drastic growth of nanotechnology and gene engineering will create new types of industry. However, a great number of problems related to the institutional basis of forming and developing competitive ability of innovation sectors of the Union State is still unsolved or understudied and thus require better research. For example, such spacial-time structures as innovation hubs still remain an understudied topic in the academic literature. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the authors statement that it is impossible to develop and implement innovation clusters only through developing and politically implementing the Union State's development proejcts. Thus, the authors offer their own directions of implementing the provisions of the medium- and long-term cluster development and introduce the term 'innovation hub' as an aggregator of innovation projects. 

Abstract: The subject of this research is the private educational facilities. The article shows the aspects of private educational facilities in the conditions of transformation of the education system. It is demonstrated that corruption is caused by decline in the quality of education and emergence of a number of educational facilities which set their main goal to be making profit without mediating social response. Russia’s structure of private education is seen as a branch of the educational market, which recently started to take the vector of institutionalization. The period of establishment of the image component is viewed as an applied aspect. The authors used the following methods: analytical for identification of the structure of place and role of private educational facilities; economic and statistical for the analysis of financial and economic component of the functioning of higher education facilities; as well as structural for determination of corruption in the private education. The scientific novelty of the research lies in determination of the main causes of corruption phenomena in private education, which include the decline in the quality of the research work, lack of opportunities on modernization of technical base and narrow-specialized disciplines in preparation of personnel for the highly competitive labor market with the minimal knowledge necessary for the formation of a competitive specialist.