The article deals with the issues related to the modernization of public administration in the imperial states of modern times. Russian, British and Ottoman empires as states implementing various strategies of modernization and improvement of public administration were chosen as examples. The success of modernization reforms of the administration is one of the essential conditions for maintaining stability and development of the imperial political system, formalizing the domination of the center in relation to the periphery. The Ottoman Empire failed to implement the policy of modernization of public administration in a timely and consistent manner. The British Empire was combined the strategies of centralization and decentralization of state management of its overseas colonies. The Russian Empire - a special imperial system -implemented, within the framework of the unitary state, the principle of centralization of the system of management, but its implementation in the development of the central bureaucratic apparatus of the empire was limited by the autocratic monarchy. At the same time, the Russian Empire was flexible in terms of differentiation of the management approaches. The article substantiates the conclusion that the imperial administration was an expression of centripetal political processes in the imperial system provided them and was an expression of the political power of the center which has an autocratic character in relation to the periphery. The processes associated with the administration of the Empire are concentrated in its center and implemented in addition to the will of the periphery. In institutional terms, the center of the empire is represented by general imperial authorities and management, in functional terms, the imperial power has exclusive administrative prerogatives associated with the concentration of resources of power and their distribution over the imperial hierarchy. The differentiation of administrative approaches shows the administrative and political specificity of the empire-state. In general the modernization of management empire became a significant factor in allowing the empire to most effectively carry out the concentration of political resources
