PARTICIPATORY FORMS OF PUBLICE IMPACT ON LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN RUSSIA

Abstract

Introduction. The article deals with the local participatory democracy in Russia. The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that the referendum and the other mechanisms of direct democracy are used quite rarely (and, may be, can`t be applied more often), and are not capable to guarantee the expression of the population will for all meaningful reasons. The citizen consultations could lead to more frequent citizen participation in public affairs, but they have no binding force. That is why it is necessary to investigate the opportunities for citizens to influence the government by those consultations.

The scientific novelty of the research lies in the attempt to find the conditions and the reasons why municipal officials take into account the results of citizen consultations when making decisions.

Materials and methods. The empirical basis of the study is formed by the practice of the citizen consultations on local affaires, such as the citizen surveys and the public consultations. The author examines those mechanisms basing on the content analysis of federal legislation, as well as municipal legal acts and judicial practice. The analysis included 5 % of all the municipal legal acts on the local surveys publishing in the Federal Register of Municipal Legal acts as October 5, 2025. The information about the surveys published on the official websites of the administrative centers of the federal districts of Russia as October 10, 2025 have been analyzed as well.

Results and conclusions. As a result of the study, conclusions have been drawn on the role of citizen surveys in municipal legal acts and their implementation practices. Analysis of federal legislation on public hearings and municipal legal acts on local citizen surveys shows that, those forms are considered by the municipal authorities as a mechanism of revealing the will of the population and legitimation of local government decisions.

However, the analysis of the judicial practice on public hearings demonstrates that, sometimes the result public hearings is falsified.

The analysis of the local citizen surveys shows that, the aim of the majority of surveys is to get from citizens some information, but although there is a practice of using surveys as a mechanism of expression of the population`s will. Basing on this, the surveys can be divided into two categories: those that are voting for or against a particular project, and those that aim to identify the preferences of respondents.

Discussion. This article presents that the local surveys are used by local authorities for legitimate those decisions and, for this aim, are positioned as a mechanism of expression of the population will, even if in accordance with the law the citizen surveys are the optional consultative form of public participation. The question arises why municipal officials are doing something they are not obligated to do.

The author suggests that citizen surveys should play a much more significant role in municipal practice than is required by the law, as they partially substitute for local referendums. The study draws a conclusion that in Russian municipalities, there is a concept of the supremacy of the general will of the people (understood as the opinion of the majority of citizens). However, this concept is accepted only if citizen`s view does not seem unreasonable.