THE INTERCONNECTION OF THE LOCAL DEMOCRACY AND THE FINANCES OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Abstract

In this paper the author gives a legal vision of the link between the local democracy and finances of the local self-government by comparing the legislation and its impact in France and in Russia, as well as by introducing some comparative elements with Slovenia. The analysis, made essentially on the basis of the Russian federal law n° 131-FZ and the French General Code of Territorial Entities (GCTE), reveals three main aspects of the interaction of the local democracy with local public finances: (1) direct elections of local officials and its impact on the municipal finances, (2) responsibility in front of the population of directly/indirectly elected mayors in the public finances field, (3) participation of the local population in the financial decisions. The practical influence of the legislation on the problem under scrutiny is mainly examined in the Russian case; for France there are normally predictions which are used in order to demonstrate the impact of legal dispositions, because the most of the provisions of French law n° 20101563, modified the GCTE concerning the local democracy or local public finances, are not still implemented or the short period of their application does not allow to assess its interconnection.