Direct Electability, Competence and Responsibility as the Basis for the Long-Term Development of Local Self-Government in Russia

The issues of legal regulation of local self-government in the Russian Federation have been the subjects of numerous studies and discussions for a long time, while their intensity and relevance not only does not decrease, but also increases from year to year. In many ways, this is due to the fact that over the 30-year period of modern Russian history, the legislation on local self-government and its law enforcement practice is characterized by an extreme degree of dynamism and uncertainty, which certainly affects the quality of organization and functioning of this level of public authority. The meeting of the Council for the Development of Local Self-Government under the President of the Russian Federation, held on April 20, 2023, once again showed the existence of issues and the need for the authorities to find the optimal model of regulatory regulation of municipal government and the extreme imperfection of the provisions of draft law No. 40361-8 “On the general principles of the organization of local self-government in a unified system of public power”, which undoubtedly causes the need for scientific understanding and development of relevant proposals. Based on the historical and legal analysis of the development of the provisions of federal legislation on local self-government, the established constitutional and legal judicial practice, the experience of direct professional activity in local self-government bodies, the Author concludes that the federal legislator over the past 30 years of the existence of local self-government in our state has not only failed to definitively determine the basic legal provisions of the foundations local self-government, constantly “ranking” them and changing them, but it also significantly modified the originally laid down constitutional and legal essence of local self-government as a form of direct participation of citizens in solving issues of the territory of their residence. In this regard, the Author of the study suggests several “fundamental” provisions that will allow us to return to the constitutional and legal format of local self-government, laid down in the early 1990s. It seems that taking into account and consolidating the proposed foundations in the formation of a promising legal regulation of local self-government within the framework of building a unified system of public authority in our state will not only eliminate obvious “excesses” in the current system of legal regulation, but also fully provide a basis for effective interaction of bodies of a unified system of public authority in the interests of the population of the relevant territory.