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Political basis of the city:
capability problems of the inner-city municipalities in contemporary Russia

Trudolyubov A.S.,

HSE University, Moscow, Russia, caiiiatr@mail.ru

elibrary_id: 1059512 | ORCID: 0000-0002-7845-3371 | RESEARCHER_ID: AAH-3422-2021

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2022.01.10

Rubric: Theory and Methodology of Political Studies

For citation:

Trudolyubov A.S. Political basis of the city: capability problems of the inner-city municipalities in contemporary Russia. – Polis. Political Studies. 2022. No. 1. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2022.01.10

The article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 17-03-00566 “Settlement level of local government in Russia: political status and problems of development”.

Abstract

The article examines the political capacity of the intra-urban municipalities in the Russian Federation. The author focuses on both cities of federal significance and urban districts with intracity division. The article provides a comparative analysis of municipalities in terms of their ability to perform the essential functions of local self-government: to protect the local communities’ autonomy, aggregate and represent their interests, and provide for their basic needs. The author studied the institutional organization and activities of municipalities according to several criteria: territorial organization, the distribution of powers and their financial support, the formation of the local self-government bodies’ staff and interaction with the city-level of government. The author concludes that the innercity municipalities, having formal characteristics similar to urban districts, nevertheless more closely resemble the settlement level of local self-government. They are characterized by institutional weakness and financial dependence on the city-level of government. At the same time, their only significant function is their role in the formation of city-level authorities. This creates a situation of control by the city authorities over the local electoral process, expressed in the filling of local representative bodies with administratively controlled deputies. Also, business interests were identified in elections in urban districts with intra-city divisions, motivated more by the possibility of delegation to the city representative body, than by the powers and resources possessed by intracity areas. The findings of the article point to the weak political subjectivity of the institute. Currently, direct work as a local authority is not its main functional role and has value for all interested actors exclusively in conjunction with the citywide level. The author concludes that there is a low probability of further spread and development of the institution in its current form.  

Keywords

local self-government, local politics, local elections, municipal elections, vertical of power, inner-city municipalities.

 Full Text 

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