ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЯ МІСЦЕВОГО САМОВРЯДУВАННЯ В УМОВАХ ДЕЦЕНТРАЛІЗАЦІЇ ВЛАДИ

Abstract

The article highlights the issues of local self-government development in the conditions of public administration transformation. Attention is drawn to the importance of organizing effective self-government, as it is the local councils of the basic level that are most closely connected with the life of the local population. It is noted that the reform of local self-government was aimed at improving the accessibility and quality of public services for the population. The main reasons that prompted the reform of local self-government are named, namely: imperfection of the administrative-territorial system, limited autonomy of local self-government bodies and weak capacity of territorial communities. The main stages of the reform of the local self-government system and changes in the legal basis for the functioning of local councils are considered. The consequences of changing the legislation for the implementation of their powers by village, settlement and city councils, in particular the establishment of direct inter-budgetary relations between local budgets and the state budget, as well as shortcomings in the legal support of local councils. It is noted that despite the significant delay in amending the Constitution of Ukraine, the norms of which on administrative-territorial organization and local self-government ceased to correspond to the real state of affairs, the legal basis of self-government continued to develop. It is a question of introduction of the state support of local government and creation of institute of elders. It is noted that the regulatory and legal support of decentralization was mostly related to budgetary relations and was aimed at strengthening the economic capacity of territorial communities. It is established that as a result of the administrative-territorial reform the number of councils at the primary and subregional levels has significantly decreased, which has exacerbated the issue of separation of powers between councils at different levels and between councils and local administrations. Proposals were made to identify areas for further improvement of the legal framework of local self-government and delimitation of powers of local councils on the principles of subsidiarity.