Forms of Direct Civil Participation in Local Administration in Russia: Current Practice and Prospects for Development
This article focuses on the current experience of implementing forms of direct participation by the population in local administration. In recent years, system atic civil participation in local administration has increased, but the process has developed differently in different regions. The most popular of these forms include appeals by citizens to their local self-government, public hearings, municipal elections, citizen assemblies, territorial self-government and citizen surveys. The article analyzes two cases - territorial self-government and the institution of the starosta [citizen head]- and examines the problems of conforming legal regulation with actual practice, the features of the functioning of these institutions in different regions and the role of the state and civil society organizations in improving the development of these institutions. As analysis of existing practices shows, to ensure civil participation in local government, it is necessary to clarify the legal status of territorial self-government and the institution of chiefs and give them self-sufﬁcient powers.