The Issue of Governmentalization of Local Self-Government

Abstract

The paper analyzes the new realities in interrelations between the state power and local self-government related to the process of governmentalization of local self-government. This problem was raised by the author in his report at the IXth Annual All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference Actual Problems of Administrative and Procedural Law (Sorokin's Readings) that was held on 23 March 2018 at the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. In this paper the author's conclusions about the two trends in the process of nationalization are further developed: official delegation of powers from public authorities to local government and reauthorization of powers between local governments and public authorities of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The first trend based on the provisions of Part 2 of Article 132 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is well studied by lawyers and is actively applied in practice, the second trend has not yet been subjected to proper consideration in the legal literature. At the same time, the legislation already contains several legal models of reauthorization of powers between local authorities and public authorities of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. The author distinguishes three such models, conventionally referring to them as an emergency model, federal model and regional model. The paper dwells on the content of the legal models in question, shows their impact on the process of the actual transformation of local government into one of the levels of executive power.