LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN CENTRALISED AND DECENTRALISED MODELS OF GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Abstract

Introduction. Russian social sciences in general, and legal studies in particular, are currently experiencing a renewed surge of interest in the institution of local self-government. This is driven by the latest round of Russian municipal reform, that aims at integrating local self-government bodies and officials into a unified system of public authority (a system of centralized authority). As a result, local self-government – which, according to all academic standards, represents the highest degree of decentralization of governance – has found itself at the ‘bottom’ of the vertical power structure. It is being diligently ‘integrated’ into a unified system of authority through legal, organizational, financial and other means and methods. The balance between centralization and decentralization in the context of local self-government is the main subject of this article.

Materials and methods. The study is based on an examination of a large body of academic literature devoted to the unified system of public authority, the theoretical and practical aspects of centralized and decentralized governance, and local self-government, which is closely linked to these. It draws on an analysis of legal sources governing the structure of the unified system of public authority in Russia, as well as the organization and activities of municipal authorities. The study employed general scientific methods for examining the phenomena of centralization and decentralization, primarily the systems approach and modelling, which together formed the methodological basis of the research. The analysis of these phenomena was also facilitated by the specialized (discipline-specific) research techniques – the formal-legal, comparative-legal and historical-legal methods.

Results and conclusions. The main results of the study are the following conclusions. First, the integration of local self-government bodies into a unified system of public authority signifies, at this stage of development, a definitive transition from decentralized governance to centralization (the administrative aspect). It broadly replicates the Soviet model of governance, in which local Soviets formed part of the nationwide system of authority. Second, the constitutional framework of the general principles governing the organization of local self-government (Article 72 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation) has been transformed into the framework of a unified system of public authority (Articles 131 and 132 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation) – the constitutional and legal aspect. The former sets out the general rules for the organization and functioning of municipal authorities, whilst the latter does not merely permit but actively encourages the participation of state authorities in their formation and activities; this, once again, represents a shift towards the centralization of power and governance. Third, there has been a de facto abandonment of the 1993 constitutional model of local self-government – based on its organizational autonomy and functional separation – in favor of a structure of local self-government that is fully integrated into the vertical hierarchy of Russian authority. Fourth, the modelling of centralized and decentralized governance has helped to identify their political, legal, organizational, functional, territorial and financial-budgetary models, and to reveal the role of local self-government in the context of centralized and decentralized governance.

Discussion. It is being argued that the incorporation of local self-government into a unified system of public authority contradicts, to varying degrees, its key constitutional significance as the foundation of Russia’s constitutional order, the institution of democracy and popular sovereignty, significantly diminishes the capacity of this institution, and overturns the previous constitutional and legal practice that guaranteed the interests of local self-government. In this regard, the potential of the new Federal Law on Local Self-Government is being viewed critically, as its provisions are aimed not so much at benefiting municipalities and their residents as at integrating local self-government into a unified system of public authority.