This article considers the prerequisites for the emergence of the principle of federalism in the legal regulation of administrative responsibility in the unitary Russian state before 1918, in terms of the development and continuity of managerial decisions in proceedings on cases of administrative offenses as a mechanism for the implementation of administrative responsibility. The thesis about the isolation of administrative responsibility in the public law of the pre-revolutionary Russian state is taken as a basis. Attention is paid to the forms of individual managerial decisions, through which arise, change and terminate protective administrative-procedural relations, which were provided for in the Russian legislation and legal acts of local authorities. The conclusion is made about the presence of continuity in the development of administrative decisions in the relevant sphere in the Russian Empire, RSFSR and the Russian Federation.