Peculiarities of municipal public policy in the Republic of Karelia in the context of local government reform

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to present the results of a sociological study of the specifics of the state of municipal public policy (hereinafter MPP) in the capital of the Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk, in the context of proposed or already underway municipal transformations, which makes it possible to identify trends and prospects for the implementation of the planned reform of local government, taking into account the minimization of its social consequences. The empirical research was based on the methods of quantitative collection of empirical information based on the index approach. The complex nature of the concept of municipal public policy allows us to judge the optimal balance of political and administrative properties of state and municipal authorities, combining administrative regulation and the use of forms of public participation of the population. In Petrozavodsk, according to the MPP integral index, a discontinuous and at the same time unconsolidated type of MPP has developed due to the cancellation of the elections of heads of municipalities, the increase in directive management methods and the loss of the right of legislative initiative by the nonprofit community. The study showed that the discontinuous type of MPP, and even more so the unconsolidated one, worsens the situation with the reform of local self-government institutions associated with a lack of representation of the public interests of rural and urban settlements being abolished, their remoteness from the decision-making center, and thereby increases the level of social tension. Only the partnership type of MPP contributes to the constructive implementation of ongoing municipal transformations by implementing technologies of intersectoral partnership and developing principles of public dialogue, mutual consideration of public expectations.