Integrating into the System: Local Self-Government in the Context of the New Federal Reform

Abstract

The author analyzed the upcoming reform of local self-government initiated by amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (2020) and the Draft Federal Law No. 40361-8 "On general principles of the organization of local self-government in a unified system of public authority", submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in December 2021. The research objective was to identify and analyze the features of the reorganization of local self-government during its integration into a unified system of public authority and the implementation of innovations proposed by the new law on local self-government. The analysis included the legislative foundation and various data on local self-government provided by the Ministries of Finance and Justice. The author concentrated on the unified system of public power, the local self-government as an element of this system, the proposed innovations, and their consequences for the institutional organization of local self-government. At the new stage, such problems of local self-government as poor manageability and low efficiency are likely to be solved by including them in the unified system of public authority. Governmentalization increases as self-government loses institutional autonomy and turns into a lower level of the management vertical. Further unification takes place within the system of local self-government and within the elements of the unified system of public authority, i.e., between municipal and regional levels of government. A simplified system of local self-government follows a single-level model, with a significant reduction in the diversity and number of municipalities, deputies, competences, etc. The chosen strategy reforms should be considered as a conscious choice by legislators of the further domestic self-government development. The strategy abandons the principle of unconditional transit to democratic institutions and turns to a model that includes the current socio-economic, political, and cultural realities of Russia.