Municipal reform in Russia in the context of world models of local government organisation in federal systems

The federal structure of a state as a special kind of multilevel system of governance gives an additional dimension to the theoretical discussion about the “social” or “state” nature of local self-government. Both of these approaches can have different institutional manifestations and that is why they cannot be considered decisive characteristics that allow for an unambiguous qualification of the institutional design of public authority unless a number of essential factors are taken into account. The general logic and the main trends in the development of federal systems as a special kind of multilevel governance is one such factor that must be taken into account not only in the process of cognitive activity, but also in the long-term strategic planning of social development. A closer look at several heterogeneous federal systems reveals one of the stable trends that have emerged in recent decades: the progressive and multidimensional inclusion of local self-government institutions in the multilevel system of public power institutions. The Russian experience in this respect follows the general trend, but not always consistently for political reasons. With the new law “On the general principles of organisation of local self-government in the unified system of public authority” was recently passed, this paper analyses three models of the organisational correlation between federalism and local self-government: the full attribution of local government to the exclusive competence of the entities of the federation; the establishment of the general foundations of the local level of government in federal constitutional legislation, with subsequent detailing within the framework of the legislation of the constituent entities; and the full inclusion of local government institutions as full members of the federative system. The nine federal states chosen for the analysis represent a broad sample of cases, allowing us to draw conclusions about how each of the three models works under different social conditions, which is made possible by the methodology of critical realism. The comparative study is not focused on reaching general conclusions, but on the application of the experience of foreign federal systems to the main provisions of the new law under discussion and subjecting it to scholarly criticism.