LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT AND TRANSPARENCY: FEATURES OF CONSTITUTIONAL REGULATION

Denis Mikheev1, Irina Boyarinceva2* and Yuliya Yaichnikova3
1Prof. Dr., Mari State University, The Russian Federation, law@marsu.ru
2Cand., Senior Lecturer, Mari State University, The Russian Federation, irinanew2@yandex.ru
3Assist. Prof., Mari State University, The Russian Federation, tnmiheeva@marsu.ru
*Corresponding author 

Abstract 
The article is dealing with the legal analysis of the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, regulating the institution of local self-government, and their further development in the federal, state and municipal legal acts. At the same time one of the objectives is to identify and to study the relationship between regulations and the key principle of local self-government - publicity. The study used a system of general scientific and special methods of legal knowledge: analysis, synthesis, comparative legal, formal legal approaches. General scientific method of analysis was used in the evaluation of the content of the legal rules governing the local government. Formal legal method allowed to make suggestions in the article to supplement the existing array of legal acts with practical recommendations. The study analyzed and assessed the most important articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, describing the local government as the basis of the constitutional order, as a form of democracy, as the right of the population to independent decision of local issues. The study revealed the absence in the Constitution a very important norm that citizens have the right to local self-government. It is also established that the Constitution does not contain any indication of the openness and publicity of activities to address local issues. It is found that the essential feature of the right of citizens to local self-government is municipal relationship with the public, duty of the authorities to inform the local community about their work. The principle of transparency of local government includes the concept of openness, publicity and awareness. To resolve the legal gap, the study suggested a change in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which, according to the author, would provide a more precise legal consolidation of local government - one of the basic democratic institutions in the country. This constitutional innovation would not only contribute to the consolidation of the legal principle of publicity, but its implementation in legal practice. 

Keywords: local government, principle of transparency, principle of publicity, the Constitution, citizens, population

 


FULL TEXT PDF

CITATION: Abstracts & Proceedings of INTCESS 2017 - 4th International Conference on Education and Social Sciences, 6-8 February 2017- Istanbul, Turkey

ISBN: 978-605-64453-9-2