FACTORS PREDICTING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE IMPACT OF COMMUNITY ENLARGEMENT IN SETTLEMENTS OF RA

In 2022, the elections of local self-government bodies in the Republic of Armenia ended the process of community enlargement, which was started in 2011.The community enlargement process deviated several times from the initial implementation methodology, and was conceptually revised in 2018 after the velvet revolution. Currently, multiple deviations and changes from the prescribed approaches have created a situation where a number of communities have been enlarged using the pre-2018 methodology and the rest using the post-2018 methodology. As a result, there was no coincidence that complaints arose, especially among the population of small rural settlements related to the possible deterioration of the socio-economic condition of settlements, the weakening of local self-governance and the disproportionate increase of dependence on large settlements. Illegitimate communal enlargement implies an uncontrollable increase of mistrust among the population towards the policies implemented at the local level and those who implement them, which can lead to the disruption of public life. In this context, the lack of knowledge related to the public perceptions of the changes implemented in the enlarged communities, especially in the context of the discussed problems and the risks arising from them, makes the implementation of research aimed at clarifying the abovementioned issue more than relevant. In April-June 2024, a survey was conducted in the enlarged communities of RA, with the aim of identifying, in addition to a number of research problems, public perceptions of the impact of community enlargement in individual settlements and the factors affecting them. As a result of the ordinal regression analysis carried out in this context, it becomes clear that among a number of research variables, only social capital, place leadership and population dispersion index in enlarged communities meet the statistical assumptions for inclusion in the specified regression model. The odds ratios calculated in the later stages of the model construction show that in the case of social capital, place leadership and dispersion index, the transition to each next category increases the probability of recording positive perceptions of community enlargement among the population. Thus, the proposed hypothesis is also confirmed, according to which: Each 1-level increase in social capital, place leadership and dispersion index in enlarged communities increases the probability of recording positive perceptions of community enlargement impact among residents.