The concept and system of guarantees of local self-government establishes a list of institutions and means that provide a real opportunity for citizens to exercise their rights to local self-government. These methods are divided into types depending on the subject who implements them. Guarantees are implemented in accordance with the provisions of the federal law “On General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation”.
Essence
The concept and system of guarantees of local self-government includes the work of various bodies in different directions. There are five main types of implementations of these provisions:
- Ensuring budget savings by fixing revenue sources to cover the required amount of local expenses. They are established on the basis of minimum security standards for the local treasury, taking into account the specifics of a particular region.
- Ensuring at the legislative level the autonomy of the work of local authorities within their competence.
- Ensuring constitutional rights to reimbursement of expenses incurred by local authorities, the need for which was determined by decision-making by higher authorities.
- Legislative consolidation of the procedure for subsidizing local self-government with financial and material means necessary to exercise the powers of these bodies.
- Creation of a system of effective interaction of local authorities with the population.
The peculiarity of implementing guarantees of self-government at the local level is imperious, despite the fact that city-level authorities are not included in the system of government bodies.
General Warranties
According to the norms of the federal law “On General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation”, guarantees are divided into two types:
- Are common.
- Special
Guarantees of a general type are stipulated by social relations of a political, social, economic nature that have developed in a given territory and are not related to specific mechanisms of the legal functioning of local authorities.
General warranties are divided into three groups:
- economic;
- political;
- spiritual.
Special
The concept and system of guarantees of local self-government of a special type includes a system of legal institutions and norms that provide effective opportunities for the exercise of powers and rights and their protection from violation.
Special guarantees are divided into five groups:
- The ban on creating barriers to local government.
- The obligation to study the appeals of the authorities and their officials by representatives of state authorities, institutions, enterprises, organizations.
- Protection of acts issued by local authorities by the state.
- Protection of self-government in a judicial proceeding.
- Implementation of prosecutorial supervision, other ways of extrajudicial protection of government bodies.
The ban on creating barriers to local government.
The concept and system of guarantees of local self-government in the field of the ban on restricting the powers of city or rural authorities are reflected in article 133 of the Russian Constitution. According to this norm, no one has the right to interfere with the exercise of the rights of the relevant authorities within their competence.
This provision determines that Russian entities are obliged to consider federal standards in the field of guarantees of local self-government rights as a legal minimum. Legislation of the regional level is not entitled to fall below this level.
Obligation to study appeals
The activities of local governments are based on the principles of legality and interaction with citizens and other local entities. Appeals submitted by local self-government bodies are subject to timely and mandatory review by state authorities, their officials, institutions, organizations and enterprises to which they are addressed.
Representative city and rural authorities have the right to put forward a legislative initiative in the legislative body of the relevant subject. Higher bodies are required to consider these proposals.
Protection of acts issued by local authorities by the state
The following method of guaranteeing the protection of local self-government is the protection of acts issued by city and rural authorities from the state. It consists in the fact that the decisions of local referenda, authorities and their leaders, adopted within the framework of their powers, must be executed by all entities located in the relevant territory (enterprises, institutions, organizations, bodies, citizens).
Only the body that accepted it can cancel the published act. Only a court has the right to invalidate such a document. Indisputably, the provisions that create the possibility of arbitrarily expanding the state’s control over the work of local governments in the process of solving local problems are repealed.
The areas of publication of illegal acts are as follows:
- the assumption of state control by the work of local authorities (verification of the appropriateness of the decisions themselves and the use of property and resources spent to implement them);
- providing the opportunity to control an indefinite circle of authorities and their officials;
- assuming the court’s impact on the suspension, amendment and revocation of the adopted acts.
Inadequate or complete failure to comply with the decisions of the referendum and authorities entails prosecution according to the norms of the law.
Judicial self-defense
In the process of development of local self-government, another direction of guarantees for the realization of the rights of urban and rural authorities was determined - judicial protection. It applies to the following entities:
- citizens residing in the relevant territory;
- local government;
- officials.
According to the norms of Article 133 of the Constitution and the corresponding Federal Law, local authorities have the right to apply to the arbitration court to file claims for recognition of acts that violate their rights invalid.
At the same time, the city and rural authorities are not entitled to apply to the Constitutional Court with the relevant statements, bypassing the constitutional (charter) court in the subject.
Implementation of prosecutorial supervision, other methods of extrajudicial protection of authorities
The protection of the sphere of authority of local authorities is also carried out by the prosecutor's office. Her responsibilities include normative examination of acts of the federal level for contradictions to the norms of legislation in the field of violation of local government rights.
If during the verification such facts are revealed, the prosecutor’s office issues an order to eliminate them. The document should be immediately recognized as non-normative, and the consequences of its implementation should be eliminated in a timely manner.
Economic guarantees of local government
The system of guarantees of the rights of local self-government includes economic types of protection of the interests of the authorities of the city and rural levels. The legislation identifies six areas of guarantees:
- recognition of municipal property and its protection by the state;
- independence of city and rural budgets;
- freedom of movement of services, goods, finance;
- unity of economic type space;
- freedom in the field of economic and financial activity;
- municipal ownership of land.
Guarantees in the field of economy are considered effective if the state is economically strong, the monetary sphere is well developed, the budget and tax systems are balanced, and the powers between different levels of government are clearly distributed.
Political guarantees of local government
An important role is played by guarantees of local self-government in the field of politics. This area is designed to provide the city and rural authorities with independence in the system of control by the state and in the relations of the federal authorities with local authorities.
In general form, important political guarantees for the work of city and rural authorities are the form of government and the political regime. According to the norms of the Russian Constitution, political guarantees include the following areas:
- Local governments are isolated, while remaining under state authority.
- Establishment of a democratic political regime in the country.
- Local self-government bodies are independent within the scope of their authority.
- The proclamation of the people as the only source of power that they exercise directly and through elected officials.
- Local governments are elected.
The stability of the state in the political sphere, the planning and implementation of reforms of the municipal and administrative types, the stability of legislation are the key to the successful realization of citizens' rights to self-government and the normal functioning of local authorities.
Spiritual guarantees of local government
Legal guarantees of local self-government also affect the spiritual sphere. The purpose of this block of guarantees of a general type is to provide the necessary understanding of the institution of local government, its organization and implementation by the population, each individual citizen, community of people, practitioners, and scientists.
Of particular importance refers to the spiritual guarantees of local government, which are reflected in the federal law of 2003, which defines the general principles of urban and rural bodies in Russia.
According to the norms of the second part of the first article of the said law, spiritual guarantees are the realization by the population of their competencies, based on historical and other local traditions.
A few words in conclusion
As you can see, guarantees of local self-government are a necessary set of measures that allow bodies of urban and rural types to independently solve managerial issues in the region, while interacting with federal authorities. Such a right is regulated by certain legislative acts and regulations.