National projects as an instrument of state social policy: legal assessment and development prospects

Background. The relevance of the research is determined by the increasing demands on the quality and effectiveness of state social policy in the context of the legal and socioeconomic transformation of the Russian Federation. Modern challenges require the search for optimal legal regulatory mechanisms and the introduction of effective tools to support the population, which strengthens the role of national projects as key instruments of public administration since the beginning of the 21st century. The main purpose of this work is to provide a legal analysis of national projects as an instrument of social policy, identify problems of their regulatory regulation and implementation, and formulate proposals for improving the organizational and legal mechanisms of their functioning, taking into account the prospects for further evolution in the Russian legal system. Materials and methods. The initial objectives were achieved through a comprehensive analysis of regulatory legal acts regulating the basis for the formation and implementation of national projects in the Russian Federation, as well as the current constitutional and federal regulations in the field of social policy. The methodological base of the research includes dialectical, comparative legal and formal legal methods, methods of analysis and syn-thesis, as well as elements of a statistical and sociological approach to identify trends and effectiveness of the implementation of national projects in individual regions. The use of historical and legal analysis has made it possible to trace the evolution of approaches to national projects and correlate the current problems of their implementation with the stages of development of the Russian model of social policy. The formal legal analysis made it possible to detail the structure of regulatory regulation and identify legal conflicts and gaps affecting the effectiveness of project implementation. Results. The paper reveals the high institutional importance of national projects that form a systematic approach to the protection of citizens' rights, support for various categories of the population and the development of social infra-structure based on the principles of program-oriented management. Conclusions. The conducted research allows us to assert that national projects at the present stage are one of the most innovative and promising forms of program-oriented management in the social policy of the Russian Federation.