Developing public participation in local government in municipalities of the Republic of Buryatia[Развитие Общественного Участия В Местном Самоуправлении В Муниципальных Образованиях Республики Бурятия]

Local self-government should be based on active involvement of citizens in solving significant local problems of municipalities with their space forming the skills of democratic population participation in public administration. At present, a gradual change in the paradigm of interaction between the population and local authorities can be observed, aimed at building the institutional structure of the civil self-organization at municipal level. The task of the Russian municipalities is to create efficient institutions of public participation in local self-government and enhance their role in managerial decision-making on social, economic and other socially significant issues. However, it is impossible to find solution to these important tasks without interaction with various social sectors (municipal bodies, business and society), which requires finding certain universal tools and mechanisms that would help reveal and implement the existing potential of public participation in local government. The existing normatively fixed forms of public participation in local government should be systematically studied and analyzed by expert community for their practical relevance and implementation opportunities in municipalities of various territorial organizations for the further public and municipal policy development and improvement in terms of population engagement in local problem solving. The reported study used such research methods as synthesis and generalization of the information obtained, comparative analysis and statistical observation. Normative legal acts, materials of the annual monitoring of the state of local government in the municipalities of the Republic of Buryatia, statistical data, sociological research results and other information sources formed empirical base of the given research work. It is the first time that all forms of public participation in local government in the municipalities of the Republic of Buryatia have been analyzed, where legal regulation is provided by the current RF legislation. Key problems of participation of population in local government in the municipalities of the Republic of Buryatia are identified and recommendations to address them for both the authorities and public institutions representatives are proposed.