Setting himself the task to clear up the impact of the form of the local self-government territorial organization upon distribution of political power and influence in the respective region, the author has implemented comparative analysis of the functioning of self-government institutions within the district-town and the settlement models of their territorial organization. It is questioning of the heads of municipalities in the Belgorod and the Kursk oblasts that served for empirical basis. The research has demonstrated that the settlement model gives rise to a lot of scarcely influential, economically and technologically not very efficient municipalities unable to cooperate; yet they secure favourable conditions for the usage of direct democracy mechanisms. Meanwhile within the district-town model there emerge a relatively lesser number of municipalities that are more influential politically and more efficient economically, able to cooperate for the sake of defending common interests on the regional level; but they offer insignificant opportunities for the development of direct democracy and for civil participation on the local level.