Municipal Democracy in Russia: Modern-Day Challenges and Development Trends

This paper treats the issue related to the formation and development of local self-government in modern-day Russia. Consideration is given to objective and subjective reasons for reducing the effectiveness of current methods and practices in the development of municipal democracy. In particular, the article discusses the influence exerted by the authoritarian state-management paradigm on the execution of municipal reforms in modern-day Russia. Monitoring the development of the local government system in Russia and the Republic of Bashkortostan between 2003 and 2017 makes it possible to reveal tendencies towards state-controlled local self-government. This can be traced in institutional and legal as well as in financial and economic spheres. At present the absence of financial self-reliance in the development of the majority of Russia’s municipal units hinders the use of the potential of local democracy to the full extent. Today’s Western municipal technologies (participative management, direct election, self-organization of the population, etc.) are used under Russian conditions to the extent that they do not contradict the prevailing management paradigm. The globalization of international relations leads to rethinking the present-day theories and practices of local self-government in the developed countries that contributes to further non-determination and turbulence in the local self-government system of Russia. From this angle the article analyzes three trends in the development of local self-government in Russia.