Local Self-Government Autonomy in Saint Petersburg

In modern history, public authority has expanded its political and legal interpretation. By an amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation from 2020 on improving the regulation of certain issues of the organization and functioning of public authority, the bodies of local self-government were included among the bodies of public authority. Based on Article 132 of the RF Constitution, LSG bodies entered the unified system of public authority in the Russian Federation and began to cooperate with state authorities for the most effective resolution of tasks in the interests of the population residing in the respective territory.

The European Charter on Local Self-Governance defines and the Constitution of the Russian Federation enshrines the historical and legal basis for the establishment of local self-governance in a particular territory — its autonomy. The cultural and historical peculiarities of the inhabitants of these territories must be taken into account.

The people of St Petersburg exercise their constitutional right to exercise power through local government. It has its own cultural code, which is expressed in special history, local customs and traditions, a multinational population, and a multitude of confessions. Local self-government is represented by 111 inner-city municipalities and 1 Council of Municipalities. Local government is regulated by the law on organization of local government in St Petersburg. The degree to which the residents’ right to power, and thus political stability in the region, depends on the quality of the local government’s performance of its powers.

The 2019 municipal elections changed the quality of the representative bodies by supplementing them with independent, non-systemic deputies. This circumstance allowed for a different perspective on the specifics of local government and the functioning of LSG bodies. In the opinion of the authors, this renewal is not so much the desire of the population of the metropolis to change the composition of the representative bodies, but rather the consequence of a consistent government policy of centralizing local self-governance. After the incorporation of local self-governance into the system of public authorities and the artificial subordination of its legal nature to the needs of state power, the managerial principle of federal megacities of urban unity became the main reason, exploiting which, as a screen, the state power consistently deprives LSG bodies of independence, reducing the financial basis, the number of issues of local significance, and traditionally local functionality.

The article attempts to determine the level of autonomy of LSG bodies of St. Petersburg, the direction of the vector of normative-legal regulation of state power in relation to the constitutional institution, to analyze the results of the findings, to draw conclusions and to assess the level of autonomy of local self-government in the political aspect, as well as the possible consequences of such state policy on the ground.

The aim of this article is to provide scientific substantiation of necessity of certain decisions of state power bodies with the aim of preventing governmentalization of local self-government in St. Petersburg, to offer concrete measures for decision-making by state power bodies.

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