YEREVAN /ARKA/. True modernization of public administration begins not with new databases and digital registers, but with a change in the state’s attitude toward citizens. This was written by Tigran Jrbashyan, Director of the Manage- ment Consulting Service at Ameria. According to him, one of the key issues that has not yet been fully rethought in post-Soviet states is not related to certificates, digitalization, or administrative procedures, but to the basic philosophy of governance. “Citizens are not obliged to prove to the state that they are not violators every time. The state has the right to investigate, detect, and punish fraud. But it should not build its entire governance system on the assumption that fraud is a natural behavior for every citizen,” Jrbashyan noted. He recalled that in the Soviet administrative tradition, citizens entering into relations with the state were often perceived as potential violators: they were re- quired to provide certificates, confirmations, permits, approvals, and additional documents. Today, according to Jrbashyan, paper certificates are often replaced by digital databases, registers, and automated checks. However, if the underlying philoso- phy of governance remains unchanged, digitalization becomes not a reform, but a new technological form of the old mistrust. Jrbashyan believes that modern public law should be based on a different logic: citizens and businesses are initially viewed as bona fide participants in the legal order, and the state should not preemptively treat everyone as potential violators.