Territorial Public Self-government Research Articles

Трансформация системы целей и ценностей местного самоуправления в контексте формирования публичной власти в Российской Федерации

The article is devoted to the study of the transformation of the goals and values of local governments in the context of the formation of public authority in Russian Federation. Within the framework of the study, the issues of the conceptual contradiction between the goals of the activities of local governments and public authorities are addressed. The prospects for the development of the goals of local governments and the emergence of new values in the context of the functioning of the system of public authorities are analyzed. Proposals are made to eliminate conceptual contradictions in the development of the goals and values of local governments and public authorities. The issue of developing the values of local self-government through the institution of territorial public self-government, which acts as a condition for the formation of a civil society with inherent characteristics, is considered.

Employment of the Disabled as a Mechanism for the Development of the Agrosphere and Rural Territories

The article reveals the problems of vocational guidance and employment of people with disabilities living in rural areas. Potential opportunities for expanding the labor participation of disabled people in the agro-industrial sector and other sectors of the rural economy are considered. The role of education in stimulating the labor activity of disabled people is revealed. The issues of organizing retraining and advanced training of disabled people living in rural areas are considered. Arguments are given that the involvement of people with disabilities in labor activity is one of the mechanisms for the development of the agrosphere and rural areas. The authors conclude that in order to perform the career guidance function, organizations of additional vocational education need to interact with employment service bodies, executive bodies of state authority of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local self-government bodies, bodies of territorial public self-government, industry associations operating in rural areas. The measures mentioned in the article, according to the authors, will stimulate the economic activity of disabled people; promote vocational education for disabled people and their employment, create conditions for the development of new forms of staff training and retraining in the countryside, support traditional types of agricultural activities and businesses, accelerate the introduction of new activities and contribute to the stable integrated development of rural areas.

Territorial Public Self-Government in Municipal Entities of the Constituent Entities of the Siberian Federal District

Today, the issues of involving citizens in decision-making process of public authorities have become the main vector determining development of democratic countries of the world. Most of all, this trend is felt at the level of the power closest to the population — at the level of local self-government that often uses the institute of territorial public self-government (TPSG) in Russia. The paper defines the state of the legal institution under consideration in Russia using the Siberian Federal District as the case study. Based on the results of the analysis of legislation, the collected material on TPSG (concerning the number, forms of TPSG work, forms of interaction between TPSG and public authorities, etc.), identified TPSG‘s organizational and operational problems, the author concludes that in the state conditions have been created that promote TPSG formation. Consistent resolution of the tasks will allow us to move to a new level of engaging the population in participation in local government.

Municipal Procedural Activity: Concept and Content

The paper presents the author’s vision of the content of municipal procedural activity, the grounds for its separation from the structure of general municipal activities carried out by local self-government entities when solving issues of local importance and other issues enshrined in Federal Law No. 131‑FZ of 06.10.2003 «On General Principles of Local Self-Government Organization in the Russian Federation». The author proposes to consider municipal procedural activity as dynamic purposeful, normatively conditioned activity of local self-government bodies carried out by adopting them in the development of the procedural norms of municipal legal procedural acts. These are to be contained in the laws and applying procedures that ensure the implementation of their powers to resolve issues of local significance and other normatively conditioned issues. This activity also means to include ensuring the implementation of local self-government and participation of bodies of territorial public self-government and other public associations. The author believes that the application of municipal procedures in practice is a legal condition for local selfgovernment bodies to resolve issues of local significance and other regulatory issues. Municipal procedural activity is an integral subspecies of municipal activity, which includes constituent, law-making, control, personnel, financial and other activities carried out by subjects of local self-government. The realization of municipal procedural activity is conditioned by the provisions of Part 3 of Article 132 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (as amended in 2020), which established the need for interaction between local self-government bodies and state authorities for the most effective solution of tasks in the interests of the population living in the relevant territory. The need to solve this problem increases the importance of scientific research on the problems of improving municipal procedural activity as a subspecies of procedural support for the activities of local self-government bodies.

Территориальное общественное самоуправление как инструмент вовлечения населения в решение вопросов местного значения и развития комфортного пространства жизнедеятельности (на примере г. Хабаровска)

Development of the territorial public self-government (TPS) in the city of Khabarovsk testifies to the quite high rates: the city of Khabarovsk is the leader in terms of the number of TPS among the municipalities of the region; the number of informed Khabarovsk residents about the possibilities of TPS has increased; the number of Khabarovsk residents involved in TPS activities has increased; TPS of the city is characterized by the annual growth of implemented initiative socially significant projects; annual and significant growth in the volume of both attracted budget funds and the investment of citizens' own funds on the co-financing terms. At the same time, the potential for development of TPS in Khabarovsk is significant and is connected, first of all, with the further development of informing the population, increase in the municipal budget financing of the TPS development program in the city, creation of the TPS School as an effective educational platform for the experience exchange and preparation of the successful socially significant projects. In general, it should be noted that the TOS support programs are one of the most successful tools for involving citizens in solving issues of the local importance. Development of 500 TPS by 2025 is a strategic task of the Khabarovsk city administration as a part of implementation of the Concept «Development of territorial public self-government in Khabarovsk until 2025.

Issues of Public Awareness about the Activities of Territorial Public Self-government in Solving Issues of Urban Environment Improvement.

In a modern city, the role of interaction between local governments and the population is increasing. The author considers in detail territorial public self-government (CBT) as an important form of public participation in solving issues of local importance, in particular, landscaping. With the right organization, this institute has a huge potential for involving residents in solving issues of local importance, in particular in the field of urban improvement. The prospects for the development of this institution largely depend on the awareness and involvement of the population in this form of self-government. The low level of public awareness is considered as a factor constraining the development of territorial public self-government. The article presents the results of a survey of residents of the city of Tyumen, which demonstrate a low level of awareness of the population about the activities of CBT. These studies confirmed the need to increase the level of knowledge about the role and tools of CBT among citizens. As a solution to the problem of the existing imbalance between the high potential of CBT and the low level of awareness of the population about its work, the author suggests a number of measures, such as the creation of specialized Internet portals, communities in social networks; the use of social advertising in the media and city events to popularize the activities of CBT. The information base will create an infrastructure for realizing the potential of CBT, will make it possible to identify and implement socially significant initiatives of citizens.

Initiative Improvement in Saint-Petersburg: from Local Community Art towards Tactical Urbanism

The article summarizes the preliminary results of the analysis of public initiatives in the field of landscaping in St. Petersburg. In order to systematize the variety of research approaches and assessments of interested persons authors used the methods of source analysis and generalization (grouping) of assessments and analogies in relation to the objects and phenomena under consideration.The practical part of the study consisted in the formation of an array of data and a bank of cases in the field of grassroots initiatives to improve the urban environment and the formation of public spaces. Based on the data obtained, there was created a map of the activity of urban communities, as well as a heat map, illustrating the foci of concentration of the social capital of the city. As the analytical tools authors used models of joint actions and cooperation, research methods of the theory of public goods and behavioral economics, as well as the method of geoinformation analysis.As a unifying term for the phenomena under consideration, the authors propose the term “initiative improving”, meaning a spontaneously emerging and developing form of civic activity at the place of residence using self-organization and self-financing tools. The range of revealed facts of initiative landscaping varies from negatively perceived ‘local community art’ (a form of naive and artisanal improvement of the space around a residential building) to initiatives of residents to restore and form public facilities approved by the majority (restoration of entrances of historical buildings, lost historical elements, green spaces). Intermediate forms in this regard are initiatives within the framework of territorial public self-government, festive events and temporary facilities. The concept that allows us to describe the most constructive format is M. Lydon's “tactical urbanism” — the theory of “small affairs” in the field of urban development.The novelty of the presented approach consists in the systematization of the facts of initiative improvement (including negative ones) and their integration into the general logic of modern urban development against the background of currently prevailing approaches based on the allocation of the decisive role of professionals and experts in this process.

Территориальное общественное самоуправление в документах стратегического планирования

The article studies and systematizes the trends in the institutional development of territorial public self-government in the course of reforming the territorial foundations of local self-government in Russia, as well as the features of reflecting these trends in strategic planning documents adopted by state authorities and local governments. It is proved that the legal acts of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation mainly establish a system of institutions that ensure the development and integration of territorial public self-government within the subject of the Russian Federation, the delimitation of powers in the field of development of territorial public self-government, measures of state support for territorial public self-government. Municipal programs for the development of TPS are more diverse both in content and in their legal form, namely, there are three approaches to building such programs: TPS development as part of the program for the development of civil society institutions as a whole; development programs with NGOs and TPS; development programs exclusively TPS. At the same time, the latest trend in the legal regulation of territorial public self-government is its recognition as a subject - a participant in the relations of strategic development of the municipality.

How Social Infrastructure Is Co-Produced by Local Communities in Russia

ABSTRACT In economics, the co-production of public goods by local communities is considered a productive way to compensate for the shortcomings of public administration. The article describes the practice of implementing territorial public self-government (TPSG) community projects for the co-production of social urban infrastructure. Based on case studies of local communities in the city of Kirov and data on other Russian regions, I demonstrate that the effects of co-production can be multidirectional. The study draws conclusions about the conditions for the occurrence of TPSGs. The research demonstrates that TPSGs occur when three conditions (vectors) occur in society: civic responsibility, civic helplessness, and paternalism. When the government is incapable of meeting all its obligations, TPSGs are a response to the demand for high-quality social infrastructure. Under these conditions, the government encourages and subsidizes the formal self-organization of citizens. However, although many economists praise the work of TPSGs, there are some downsides. First, the executive government uses TPSGs to “pass on” its responsibilities to citizens and make up for the budget deficit. Second, the government gains the support of the population, which is expressed in the approval of and trust in existing, often ineffective political institutions.

Assessment of local self-government reform with intercity division of Samara in 2015–2020 from perspective of its participants and the population

A reform of local self-government was initiated in Samara in 2015 through the creation of formally independent municipalities in the regional center – those were the intracity districts that had their own representative bodies, Councils of Deputies and the heads of intracity districts elected by them. This model was a part of federal legislation, but was only implemented in three cities of Russia – Chelyabinsk, Makhachkala and Samara. The rest of the subjects of the Federation refused it. Thus, the implementation of the reform was, in fact, an experiment. In 2019–2020, before the duties of the elected first convocation Councils of Deputies of the Samara inner-city districts were completed, the author, who at that time was the chairman of the Committee of Local Self-Government of the Samara State Duma, initiated an analysis of the results of the reform, which gave a lot of factual material. One of the areas of analysis was an anonymous survey of deputies of Samara district councils, heads of territorial public self-government (TPS) and a sociological survey of the population of Samara about the effectiveness of the created model of local self-government. It became obvious that the reform did not achieve its declared goals – bringing authorities closer to the people. The survey results are presented in this publication.

Территориальное общественное самоуправление в развитии системы управления социально-экономическими процессами в регионе

The validity of the topic directly correlates with the changes in federal, regional, and municipal agendas which have covered the issues of residents-driven decision making at the municipal level (territorial public self-government, participatory investments, development of the municipal public councils (chambers), establishment of open-access platforms like “Upravliaem Vmeste”, “Aktivnyi Grazhdanin”, residents-driven public control over the authorities and budget spending) over the recent decade. This particularly raises scientific interest and focuses on issues in terms of a scientific discourse. Trends in the municipal economy and residents-driven territorial transformations lead to a detailed analysis of the social economic context of the territorial public self-government development and its impact on the region. Therefore, this defines territorial public self-government as a subject of research in the particular regions and municipal units to quantify the current trends and territorial public self-government provisions as an economic constituency of a municipal unit. Methodologically, the study is based on statistical (evaluation of dynamic series of indicators) and correlational (diagnostics of development interconnections) analysis. This paper theoretically justifies territorial public self-government as a phenomenon with a social economic context and proves the statement that territorial public self-government is being developed as an economic constituency of a municipal unit. To do this, the authors conducted a correlational analysis of territorial public self-government development quantitative metrics and some indicators of social economic development of Perm Krai municipal units (a model region). The study covers 2017–2020 data, which is considered to be reliable under the correlational analysis methodology. The authors managed to reveal a consistent positive correlation between the territorial public self-government indicators, and some indicators of economic and social development over several years. The paper describes correlational connections over the territories. The study identified groups of municipal units with consistent negative or positive correlation coefficients. This leads to the following conclusions: territorial public self-government can be looked upon as an economic constituency, a part of a municipal economy in terms of the connections between the management of a municipal unit and implementation of some aspects of social economic policy; particular cases with territorial features should be analyzed to focus on a consistent positive correlation revealed in the analyzed municipal units.

Assessment of Awareness of the Urban Population about Territorial Public Self-Government

Assessment of Awareness of the Urban Population about Territorial Public Self-Government

Социально-экономическое развитие городского округа «Город Хабаровск»: состояние и перспективы

The article presents the analysis of socio-economic state of life of the city of Khabarovsk in the main areas determined by the powers of local governments for the urban district. Analysis of the dynamics of the most important macroeconomic indicators ensuring the sustainability of development of the urban economy and the social sphere, investment attractiveness in different types of economic activity is presented. Strategic priority of housing affordability and providing comfort in housing conditions to the needs of city residents, especially the young families, the implementation of the projects to resettle residents from the emergency housing stock is justified. An assessment of the solution to the problem of promoting the development of entrepreneurship as a full-fledged and sustainable sector of the city's economy, program measures to provide the state and municipal measures to support small and medium-sized businesses was made. The task of optimizing the budget policy of municipality by the means of software-targeted method has been updated. It has been shown that education, including preschool, physical education and sports, formation of the cultural appearance of citizens, a comfortable urban environment are unconditional priorities of the city municipality. It was noted that in recent years, a significant impetus for the development of civil society in the urban district has received involvement of the citizens in solving issues of local importance through the institutionalization of territorial public self-government. Public transport services, housing and communal services and the other objects of municipal sector of the economy remain priority for development of the city and meeting the needs of residents.The article outlines the main priorities of activities of the local self-government bodies of the urban district, aimed at achieving the national development goals, approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, for implementation of the national projects and creating of the socially significant facilities.

Territorial Public Self-Government as an Element of Political Infrastructure for Secure Development of Municipal Sections in the Conditions of Digitalization

The research is devoted to the topic of forming a political infrastructure for the safe development of municipalities, creating technologies for attracting political infrastructure participants to the development and assessment of alternatives for the optimal development of territories.We set ourselves the goal of showing territorial public self-government as a tool for increasing the openness of political decision-making and public confidence in the authorities, and identifying the transformational potential of digital technologies in the context of territorial public self-government.The methodological basis of the research was provided by such theories as: the information cybernetic model of the political system of K. Deutsch, the theory of the political system of D. Easton, the theory of deliberative democracy by J. Besset, the theory of direct democracy I. Blo, model of monitor (digital) democracy by J. Keane.The main results of this study are the following:1) the author’s definition of the concept of “digitalization” was introduced — this is a process of radical transformation of the interaction of people in all spheres of social life, the implementation of which became possible on the basis of replacing analog (physical) data collection and processing systems with new technological systems that generate, transmit and process a digital signal about your condition. This transformation presupposes the formation of a different outlook of citizens, the use of other methods of management;2) the author’s definition of the concept of “political infrastructure” is introduced — these are the types of connections between the elements of the political system. Different types of ties form various modifications of political institutions, they determine the contours of political communications carried out in the political space, including using various political technologies to influence the behavior of political forces.3) in the context of digitalization, interactive interaction of participants in the political process, the very configuration of the political infrastructure for the development of territories is changing, the political toolkit of dialogue between the authorities and society is changing, implying an increasingly widespread use of technologies to involve participants in political processes in the development and assessment of alternatives for optimal territorial development.

Органы ТОС как субъекты процесса стратегического планирования на муниципальном уровне

Bodies of territorial public self-government (TPSG) are one of the key participants in the strategic planning process at the municipal level. These organizations make an important contribution to achievement of sustainable development goals of the municipality. Territorial public self-government bodies are not the driving force behind the development of the municipal economy. However, they are able to solve the problems of social development of the territory by using the resources of self-organization. The existing potential allows TPSG bodies not only to participate in the development of strategic documents, but also to take part in the implementation of specific projects. Participation in the project can be carried out both in a non-financial form (labor) and in a financial form (based on the results of use of self-taxation, crowdfunding, fundraising, business income, and other sources). Therefore, it is extremely important for the authorities to involve TPSG bodies in strategic planning processes in order to improve the quality of final documents, as well as increase the efficiency of their realization. However, a number of factors hinder the successful involvement of bodies of territorial public self government in strategic planning processes. The established practice of involvement of public in managerial decision-making processes leads to a low interest of non-profit organizations in participation in such procedures. In addition, the level of development of educational infrastructure in the field of territorial public self-government does not allow the heads of territorial public selfgovernment bodies to achieve the sustainable development goals of the municipality territory, as well as to develop skills in organizational management within its borders. As a result of the introduction of a set of suggested measures in the regions, the conditions will be created for the territorial public self-government authorities to realize their potential fully, which will ultimately be reflected in the improvement of the quality of residents’ life.

Territorial public self-government in the framework of the agro-industrial region key indicators

The paper substantiates the need to take into account and monitor indicators of territorial public self-government, as a new promising tool for managing the spatial development of agro-industrial territories, by identifying the relationship with key indicators of the development of agro-industrial regions based on the use of correlation and regression analysis methods and building a correlation-regression model using statistical data of subjects of Russian Federation. The results of the correlation analysis revealed the absence of correlation dependences between the key indicators of the development of the agro-industrial region and the amount of TPSG, showing a tendency for TPSG growth, due to the increase in the average annual population of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The results of the regression analysis confirmed the influence of certain key indicators on the number of TPSGs, in particular, a positive assessment of the regression was established for the indicator of the labor force number in the agricultural sectors of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. A conclusion is made about the necessity and expediency of further detailed and substantive study of TPSG indicators in terms of quantitative measurement as informatively significant for inclusion in the system of indicators for regular monitoring of agro-industrial regions the state of development.

The peculiarities of organization and problems of development of the territorial public self-government in the conditions of territorial differentiation

The development of the territorial public self-government (TPS) has been recently prompted by the adoption of national projects that imply additional activation of social resource in the territory. The capabilities of TPS in realization of social service procurement should expand. The article is dedicated to examination of territorial disparities in the development of territorial public self-government in Russia. The subject of this research is the organization of TPS in the conditions of regional differentiation. The branches of the territorial public self-government are unevenly distributed across the country, and their development potential is quite low. The novelty and practical significance of this work lie in the attempt to generalize the practices of implementation of TPS in various Russian regions (the constituent entities of the Russian Federation were allocated in proportion to the number of federal districts), as well as to outline the priority vectors in the development of TPS in the current context. The conducted comparative analysis allows concluding that despite the substantial differentiation in allocation of TPS branches across the country, the difficulties of its development in all indicated regions are similar: insufficient funding of TPS by the local self-governments, low interest in supporting TPS with the legal entity status, low social activity of the population along with the level of information awareness of the citizens on the forms of their participation in self-government. As a result, the capabilities of TPS in implementation of socioeconomic policy of the municipality are limited; the local authorities and TPS are not partners due to mutual distrust and low interest in the development of TPS as a social institution.

Развитие образовательной инфраструктуры ТОС как условие достижения целей устойчивого развития территории (на примере проекта «Народный университет ТОС»)

The current development of territorial public self-government in Russia is characterized by a discrepancy between the rates of quantitative and qualitative transformations in this area. For example, an increase in the total number of territorial public self-government bodies is accompanied by a decrease in the share of these organizations registered as a legal entity. The author identifies two reasons for the current situation. One of them is that the leaders of territorial public self-government do not realize their contribution to the achievement of sustainable development goals of the municipality and region. And this happens due to the fact that local governments do not carry out the necessary work with territorial public self-government in this area. The second reason is that the development of the educational infrastructure in this area as well as the managerial training level of the leaders of territorial public self-government does not allow these organizations to use the existing potential for the development of their organizations effectively. The government authorities equate bodies of territorial public self-government with “ordinary” non-profit organizations and, when conducting trainings, do not take into account their peculiarities as subjects of territorial development. The development of the educational infrastructure in the area of territorial public self-government can contribute to a qualitative change in the situation. In the course of preparation and implementation measures for the development of the educational infrastructure, government authorities need to take into account the specifics of territorial public self-government in comparison with other non-profit organizations. Leaders of territorial public self-government solve the problems of their territory development, therefore, it is extremely important for them to prepare and improve their qualifications in the field of territory development management. On the example of the implemented project “People’s University of territorial public self-government” the author suggests possible directions of management training for territorial public self-government leaders.

Public law and municipal leadership and territorial public self-government: legal, institutional and communicative aspects

This article reveals the public law concept of “leadership”, theoretical grounds of municipal leadership, its role within the system of municipal democracy and territorial public self-government from the perspective of integral legal understanding and a communicative approach towards law. The goal of this research consists in the analysis of conceptual and normative legal framework of the institutions of public law and municipal leadership, impact of the institution of leadership upon development of the forms of municipal democracy in the context of Russian and foreign experience, as well as peculiarities of the influence of the institution of public law leadership upon the forms of governance in territorial public self-government The subject of this research is the scientific views, normative legal framework of regulation, organizational practice of the institution of public law and municipal leadership in territorial public self-government in the context of functionality of the forms of municipal democracy. The article employs the formal legal and comparative analysis, methods of dialectics, municipal legal hermeneutics, communicative approach, and critical rationalism in legal studies, which allows viewing the municipal leadership as a complex interdisciplinary legal and administrative institution that assists the implementation of the forms of municipal democracy, and improves the effectiveness of the territorial self-government in cooperation with branches and officials of the local self-government. The following conclusions are made: the institution of public law leadership should be viewed as interdisciplinary, which incorporates the sphere of public law on the one hand, and the sphere of state and municipal administration on the other hand; the works of the Russian and foreign researchers indicate that the  concepts of transformational leadership, leadership-service and adaptive leadership can be analytically applied to the institution of municipal leadership; it is necessary to improve the institution of public law and municipal leadership, and ensure new spheres of juridification of the requirements for the heads of territorial self-government on the federal and municipal levels.

Социальная активность жителей городского округа: политическая и гражданская самоорганизация

The article presents a sociological analysis of the social activity of the residents of the Khabarovsk city district, reflecting their political and non-political (civil) interests and motives for self-organization. The article presents methodological aspects of urban activism as a social construct with a civil (non-political) and political orientation, which are applied to the analysis of self-organization in an urban district. It is shown, that the high level of social deprivation in the conditions of life and transformation of the existing regional party-political structure of the executive and legislative (representative) authorities determines the social activity of citizens of the protest orientation, generates a state of risk factors and uncertainty. According to the authors, development of the forms of joint activity of the residents and local self-government bodies (one example of which is the territorial public self-government ) it contributes not only to the involvement of residents in solving the local problems, but also increases confidence in the authorities, reduces the protest of public consciousness. Based on the results of sociological survey of the residents of the city district, the potential possibilities of this process are shown.