LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RUSSIA AS A FLUCTUATING POLITICAL REALITY (DEDICATED TO THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION)

The article discusses the prerequisites for the inclusion of an article on local government in the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993. The study shows that at the time there were no objective prerequisites for the formation of local government in Russia in a radical form of local government bodies operating outside from the system of state authorities. Such a scenario was not considered in public discourse up till 1993. It emerged reactively in the context of a political confrontation between the Supreme Soviet and the presidential government in 1993. Soviet officials, in charge of local administrations during the collapse of the Soviet system of power, were the political force interested in such a radical move. In exchange for political support, the presidential draft of the constitution included a clause stating that local authorities are not part of the system of public administration. After political struggles get resolved, the need for the institution of local government disappears. Similar cases in Russian history were also caused by situational political reasons. Hence it is possible to talk about cases of local government emergence in Russia as a special fluctuating political reality. There are limits to institutional methodology, which absolutizes the role of institutions in solving problems of social development.