Denis S. Mikheev, Tatiana N. Mikheeva*,
Prof. Dr., Mari State University, The Russian Federation, Mikheev_ds@mail.ru
Prof. Dr., Mari State University, The Russian Federation, tnmiheeva @marsu.ru
*Corresponding author

Abstract

The purpose of the research is an analysis of one of the Russian municipal institutions of democracy - public hearings which are held in the municipalities for discussion of drafts of municipal legal acts and identifying public opinion connected with them. In the foreign countries various forms of community participation is also practiced in the life of municipalities. And that's why various councils, groups of citizens are created, with which local authorities carry out the necessary consultations during solution of important problems affecting the interests of the residents. Thus the citizens are involved in making decisions on issues of local importance. Home institution of public hearings is different with better making structure and legal regulation in the comparison with them at the federal and municipal levels. However, certain aspects of the organization and conduct of public hearings are still poorly studied. In the study, several problems with the number and composition of participants in the public hearing, the absence of legal controls in the event of insufficient capacity of the rooms for their conducting have been identified. The question of the legal consequences, made at the public hearing of the recommendations, remains open. In the analysis and assessment of the studied issues proposals on improvement legal acts regulating public hearings and influencing transparency and publicity in a positive way were proved. Thus, the scientific novelty of the findings affects the scope of legal regulation of the public hearings and it also contains practical significance during their preparation, holding, streamline decision.

Keywords: local self-government, transparency, public hearings, citizens, the municipality.