Local Authority in the Political System of the Russian Region: Problems and Theoretical Models of Governance

Abstract

The article concludes that the new model of local self-government, generated not least by the desire to apply European experience to the realities of transitive Russian society, was initially afrmed as an attempt to radically deny the results of socialist state building, the ideological basis of which was the communist party doctrine. Outwardly distancing themselves from the political component of social processes, federal, regional and local (municipal) elites conducted quite real political (that is, for power resources, available and potential) wars. Local authorities and local self-government bodies, acting as carriers of constructive and destructive potentials, prefer to keep their militant neutrality for the time being, extracting their subjective political role as necessary, arising from objective circumstances, including management ones. The article suggests theoretical models for describing the existing structure of regional political regimes taking into account the «municipal factor».

Keywords

• local government
• political potential
• regional policy
• municipalization of power and governance
• regional development strategy