Quality of Life as a Factor in the Legitimization of the Results of Municipal Refom (Based on the Materials of the Moscow Oblast)

The article examines the role of quality of life as a factor in ensuring the legitimization of the results of municipal reform using the Moscow Region as an example. The authors reveal the issue based on the analysis of expert interview data regarding the quality of life and the dynamics of this indicator in the territories of such municipalities as Sergiev Posad, Korolev and Dmitrovsky District. The concept of legitimacy by P. Berger and T. Lukman served as the theoretical basis for the study. The authors conclude that the specified municipalities are characterized by a fairly high level of quality of life. The dynamics of this indicator after the transformation of the corresponding territories into urban districts is characterized by the presence of a number of significant positive trends. But at the same time, there are factors that partially smooth out the positive effect of changes. The proximity to the capital sets a high level of pendulum migration and ensures the regular appearance of a large mass of tourists and summer residents. As a result, the standards of quality of life of the local population are transformed, whose representatives consider the level of consumption of Muscovites as a standard. In addition, structural problems in the field of health care, housing and communal services, and transport, related to the competence of public authorities, remain. Due to this, the quality of work of not so much municipal as regional and federal authorities acquires the role of a key determinant of the legitimization of municipal reform and its results.