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: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.20
How to Cite:
Rustamzade, A., & Huseynov, S.Z. (2023). The constitutional nature of local self-government. Amazonia Investiga, 12(72),
226-235. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.20
The constitutional nature of local self-government
Yerli özünüidarənin konstitusiya xarakteri
Received: November 3, 2023 Accepted: December 29, 2023
Written by:
Aykhan Rustamzade1
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9410-960X
Sahil Zahir Huseynov2
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0732-7110
Abstract
The relevance of the study lies in the importance
of the functioning of local self-government
bodies for ensuring democracy in European
countries. The purpose of the study is to examine
the constitutional foundations of the institution of
local self-government, and the task of the study
is to analyse the role of the European Charter in
this process. The following methods were used in
the study: induction, deduction, and abstraction.
The main conclusion of the study is to argue that
the European Charter launched a local
government reform aimed at improving the
efficiency of local governments as an
independent level of public authority, as close to
the population as possible. However, today,
municipal authorities in many countries are
fundamentally different from those that were
created in previous years. This is primarily due
to the lack of the necessary amount of own
revenues to enable them to exercise their powers
independently. The majority of municipalities
need government assistance and
intergovernmental transfers. The need to control
the expenditure of state budget funds has led to
the main trend in the development of local self-
government in the Republic of Azerbaijan being
its integration into the vertical of public power.
Keywords: local self-government, centralization
of power, European Charter, Azerbaijan.
1
Doctor of Law Science, Professor, Dean of the Faculty «Economy and Law», National Aviation Academy, Baku, Republic of
Azerbaijan.
2
National Aviation Academy, Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan.
Rustamzade, A., Huseynov, S.Z. / Volume 12 - Issue 72: 226-235 / December, 2023
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Introduction
The expansion of representative democracy and
its forms at the local level in the Republic of
Azerbaijan, involving residents of its regions in
various forms of local self-government, is one of
the most relevant tasks of municipal and broader
state building. According to the constitutional
nature of local self-government as the most
proximate level of public authority to the
population, local self-government opens up
broader opportunities for the use of forms of
direct expression of the will of citizens compared
to other - state - levels of public authority. In
countries whose statehood is based on the
principles of legal democracy, the direct
participation of the population of municipal
entities (given its small size) in the elections of
local self-government bodies is manifested not
only in the voting process but also in the
nomination of candidates for deputies. At the
level of local self-government, the subjects of the
electoral process are usually entities operating
within the local community - territorial
collectives (community organizations,
professional groups, interest organizations, etc.)
according to their number, organization, degree
of participation in the resolution of local self-
government issues in a particular municipal
entity, as well as individual citizens.
Accordingly, the feedback between the deputies
of representative bodies of municipal entities and
the citizens who elected them is closer than at
other levels of public authority.
The analysis of the practice of implementing the
institution of local self-government in the
Republic of Azerbaijan in recent years suggests
that there is a certain tendency to smooth out the
peculiarities of local self-government. In order to
increase the degree of controllability of the
regions, the state is increasingly integrating state
power into local government on various issues,
and therefore “depriving” local government of
the features inherent in public power. Thus, in the
near future, it may become a level of state power
exclusively, albeit with some features inherent in
public institutions. This situation seems to be due
to the fact that the optimal model of relations
between local self-government and state power
in Azerbaijan has not yet been created, although
it has been under construction for more than a
decade.
In this context, this study aims to examine the
interaction between state and municipal
authorities, with particular attention to the
institution of local self-government. The study
will analyze the main provisions of the European
Charter and their impact on the functioning of
local self-government, taking into account
constitutional provisions.
The study is divided into three sections. The first
section provides a literature review on local self-
government and centralization of power. The
second section analyzes the methodology used in
the study. The third section presents the results of
empirical research on the interaction between
state and municipal authorities in Azerbaijan.
Accordingly, the purpose of the study was to
examine the issue of interaction between the state
and municipal authorities, to enshrine the
institution of local self-government at the
legislative level, and to reflect the principles of
its operation in the Constitution of the Republic
of Azerbaijan. In accordance with the objective,
the tasks of the study were to examine the main
provisions of the European Charter and to study
its impact on the functioning of the local self-
government institution, taking into account
constitutional provisions.
It is expected that this study will contribute to
understanding the trend towards centralization of
power in the bodies of local self-government in
Azerbaijan and identifying possible ways to
address this issue.
Literature review
This literature review examined research on local
self-government, recognizing decentralization of
power, citizen participation, the use of
information and communication technologies in
local governance, and human rights protection as
important issues in the field of local self-
government. It was argued that this thematic area
is relevant and will be further investigated in the
future. This study aims to contribute to
understanding local self-government by
examining the research question of the
mechanism of implementing the institution of
local self-government. Thus, Hedulianov (2023)
notes that at the present stage, much attention is
paid to the activities of local self-government
bodies. In particular, the scholar notes that the
bodies of self-organisation of the population
cannot be recognised as “representative bodies”
(despite the presence of adjectives in the name of
the analysed institution of constitutional law and
the analysed group of bodies). According to the
scholar, they are of a public nature since they are
an element of the local self-government system.
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An important research question is the study of the
history of the formation of the institution of self-
government in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
According to Chernadchuk et al. (2023), the
institution of local self-government has
developed gradually, and in the post-Soviet
countries, the final stage of its formation was the
decentralisation reform, which significantly
expanded the organisational and legal support for
the activities of local self-government bodies.
Normative regulation of this institution is
contained in the constitutions of the countries,
which contains the definition and basic principles
of local self-government and is fully ensured by
the relevant laws on local self-government.
Organisational support is provided by
departments and offices that are authorised to
establish local self-government bodies within
their competence and delegated powers.
An important research question is the study of the
history of the formation of the institution of self-
government in the Republic of Azerbaijan. As
Singh (2023) rightly points out, local
governments can distribute administrative
burdens and handle local affairs democratically
and with better understanding, as it serves as one
of the cornerstones of building democracy from
the grassroots. The growing trend of
decentralisation of power, according to the
scholar, provides people with a platform for
direct participation in the functioning of
democratic governments. However, as the
scholar notes, local authorities are constantly
facing numerous challenges, and one of the most
notable problems is the lack of fiscal autonomy,
and in most countries, a wave of greater
politicisation of local government by political
parties is steadily growing.
It is important for the further development of the
institution of self-government to regulate issues
regarding defining its relationship with politics,
as well as its influence on the processes of
decentralization of power. As Kryvoshein (2023)
rightly notes in his research paper, at the present
stage, society has received qualitatively new
opportunities for obtaining political information,
so political actors are forced to work not only on
disseminating information but also on creating
demanded political content. According to Naldi
& Magliveras (2013), negative political
phenomena are no less of a threat to the
institution of local self-government in the world.
For example, a country may decide to withdraw
from the Council of Europe, resulting in the
cessation of obligations under numerous
international legal instruments, such as the
European Charter, as they will lose their legal
force. In many cases, a legal withdrawal is
provided for if certain conditions and stipulated
requirements are met, but, as the scholar rightly
notes, the question remains whether states have
the unilateral right under international law to
withdraw from such obligations in the absence of
express permission to do so. Scholars have
concluded that, in light of the special nature of
human rights treaties and frameworks,
withdrawal is legally inadmissible in the absence
of a clear indication to the contrary.
The question of the impact on the institution of
municipal governance by factors such as
pandemics and armed conflicts between
countries is relevant. A similar point of view is
supported by Juszczak & Sason (2023), who note
that recent events, such as the COVID-19
pandemic and Russia's war against Ukraine, once
again confirm the need for the EU to protect its
citizens from the exploitation of known and new
potential vulnerabilities, fully respecting
fundamental rights and freedoms, as preventing
violations of their rights, detecting such
violations and enforcing the relevant
constitutional provisions for protection are key
components of the EU security architecture,
including in terms of the exercise of the right to
self-determination. It is equally important to take
into account the requirements of the new time
and the digital era, as Contini (2020) notes,
digital technologies in the modern world are used
in various types of legal activities, including
judicial, law enforcement, law enforcement, and
human rights protection. It is also relevant that
the function of establishing law and stabilising
social relations is most clearly expressed in
relation to the procedural status of various
subjects: the establishment of fundamental
human and civil rights and freedoms, the
competence of bodies and officials, and the legal
personality of individuals and legal entities
(Khalilov, 2023).
Currently, there is a focus on studying the impact
of technological progress and innovative
technologies on the institution of local self-
government. The introduction of information and
communication technologies by local
governments and their application in their
activities was also studied by David et al. (2023),
who noted that, in accordance with the provisions
of the European Charter, the following digital
strategies can be used through the lens of people,
processes and technological frameworks: (a)
those related to people aspects, including
creating a platform for public participation,
building skills of employees and developing
positive thinking of decision makers; (b) those
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related to As Valle-Cruz & Sandoval-Almazan
(2017) noted in their paper, new technologies in
developing countries (including the Republic of
Azerbaijan) improve organisational efficiency,
create new channels of communication,
overcome bureaucratic barriers, and facilitate
decision-making, while technologies that are
backed by laws, such as the European Charter,
increase transparency and improve government
interaction with citizens.
Despite numerous studies on this issue, the
following issues remain unresolved. The
European Charter of Human Rights obliges the
states that have joined it to apply fundamental
principles guaranteeing the political,
administrative, and financial autonomy of local
communities in the context of decentralisation of
power, which involves the transfer of decision-
making rights to bodies that are not hierarchically
subordinated to central authorities and are most
often elected by the citizens concerned, but the
justification for decentralisation is usually
twofold. First, decentralisation, by placing the
management of affairs directly in the hands of the
people concerned, has democratic advantages,
and democracy is much more realistic at the local
scale than at the national level. Secondly,
decentralised governance, as long as the
necessary means and conditions are provided, is
much less difficult and much more practical than
centralised governance. Effective
decentralisation, therefore, requires that local
communities be given certain competence and
adequate means to address the issues they are
mandated to address, that they be given the
opportunity to form their own self-governing
bodies, and that central government control over
the activities of local bodies be limited.
Methodology
The research was conducted using theoretical
methods, namely: methods of induction,
deduction, analysis, synthesis, and abstraction.
The method of induction was used to study the
nature of the institution of local self-government
in the Republic of Azerbaijan, to philosophically
understand the origins of its formation, and to
find out the peculiarities of its formation in a
country that belongs to the post-Soviet states. By
using the method of induction, the study found
that in world practice, local self-government is
recognised as one of the main foundations of a
democratic society. The strategic goal of local
self-government is the active development of
municipalities, which are a real element of the
constitutional order of a country.
By using the method of deduction, the study
concludes that the most important significance of
the European Charter for the institution of local
self-government is that, according to its
provisions, and even the general understanding,
the principle of local self-government should be
recognised in the legislation of the participating
countries in one way or another, and, as far as
possible, in the constitution, and the powers of
local authorities should be established in the
constitution or law. The European Charter thus
aims at transforming local self-government into
a full-fledged constitutional and legal institution.
The implementation of the European Charter in
the Republic of Azerbaijan had its own
peculiarities due to the fact that local self-
government in Azerbaijan, unlike in a number of
other countries, was established not at the
initiative of the population, but at the initiative of
the authorities. The reason for this process is that
there were no deep traditions of local self-
government in this country, so it was impossible
to form the institution of municipalities
immediately after the adoption of the
Constitution, and it was necessary to create an
idea of local democracy among the population
and authorities.
Using the method of analysis, this study
concludes that the approach enshrined in the
European Charter has to some extent determined
the dynamics of further changes in the legislation
of the countries of Anglo-Saxon law - members
of the Council of Europe. In these countries, the
principle of “positive” regulation of local
authorities has traditionally been applied,
whereby the scope of their powers is established
by a detailed list of their rights and obligations.
Local authorities were usually entitled to perform
only actions directly provided for by law.
Otherwise, such actions were recognised as
having been taken in excess of their powers, i.e.
unlawful (the principle of ultra vires). At the
same time, at the present stage, the constitutions
of a number of European countries do not reflect
the principle of local self-government. However,
in the Republic of Azerbaijan, given the
importance of constitutional guarantees in the
formation of local self-government, the basic
principles of local self-government are the basis
of all legal guarantees and are enshrined at the
constitutional level.
Using the method of abstraction, the study argues
that the most important strategic problem in
relations between state and local governments in
Azerbaijan today is the issue of delineation of
powers and responsibilities. The absence of
delineation of powers between these subjects of
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power ultimately leads to duplication of their
work, therefore, in accordance with the
provisions of the European Charter for the
Republic of Azerbaijan, the concept of transfer of
functions is a key and fundamental task on the
way to the development of the governance
system. Functions and powers are shared
between state and local governments based on
the principles of subsidiarity, collegiality, and
transparency.
The research is limited to studying and analyzing
contemporary scientific sources that
chronologically belong to the period after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, aiming to avoid any
ideological bias in the study.
Results
Municipal power is a special kind of power, it is
not a continuation of state power at the local
level, but it has the same features that are inherent
in its structure. Municipal power is a special
public law phenomenon, it is united with state
power by the fact that, like the latter, it ensures
subordination of subjects of municipal legal
relations. At the same time, municipal power
differs from state power in that it has its own
specifics.
The constitutional and legal nature of local self-
government in the Republic of Azerbaijan is such
that, in general, it remains an institution of public
authority, as it “absorbs” a number of social
features into its nature. The presence of these
characteristics and a special - municipal - level of
government, the existence of a specific sphere of
social relations related to the resolution of local
issues, allows us to separate local self-
government from the state, to distinguish it as an
independent entity with a unique nature: largely
state, but with elements of public. The new level
of elected local authorities and the application of
relevant legislation on local self-government
create conditions for national elites to use local
elections to strengthen state-building by
strengthening the institutionalisation of mass
political participation and by integrating the local
population into the provision of public goods
(Tajbakhsh, 2019).
After the adoption of the Law of the Republic of
Azerbaijan of 02 July 1999 “On the Status of
Municipalities”, it can be argued that the current
model of relations between the state and local
self-government has undergone significant
changes and that the relations themselves are
sufficiently clearly regulated by law
(Law No. 698-IQ, 1999). In addition, unlike state
authorities, the functional responsibilities of
municipal governments are more diverse
(León-Moreta, 2018). In general, this process is
natural - the model of relations between the state
and local self-government, which was chosen,
first of all, when the Constitution of Azerbaijan
was adopted, cannot be permanent. It will always
tend to shift towards an administrative or
decentralised model.
Local self-government and state power in
Azerbaijan have traditionally been closely
interconnected precisely because they have a
common source - the power of the people.
Among the factors that determine the
establishment of the rule of law and democracy
as real imperatives of public and state relations,
an important place is occupied by the
establishment and development of local self-
government, including the organisation of broad
municipal representation, which provides the
most direct forms of identifying and representing
the will and interests of the population.
In the context of the current crisis of traditional
power relations and various deformations
inherent in the state institutions of democracy
that are taking place in the world, in many cases,
it is municipal structures, based on the “living”
self-organisation of people, that are associated
with hopes for both establishing effective
counterbalances to the bureaucratisation of
public administration and increasing its
efficiency by achieving a greater degree of
flexibility, openness, and control over society. In
addition, there are ten key principles of effective
legislation governing local governments that are
in line with the European Charter: fitness for
purpose; democracy and representation; local
empowerment; fairness; oversight and support;
capacity and sustainability; efficiency,
effectiveness, and equity; community
involvement; intergovernmental cooperation;
clarity and consistency (Sansom, 2013).
The legal nature of the municipal power
competence of local self-government bodies is
determined by the nature and essence of
municipal power in general. Municipal power is
the most important basis of the constitutional
order, guaranteed and protected by the
Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan
throughout the territory of the state. The main
constitutional and legal characteristic of local
self-government is its emphasised independence,
i.e., municipal power is an independent type of
power of the people exercised at the local level,
the power that is public, not state power. The
relevance of the study of the interaction between
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state and municipal authorities is due to the
urgent need to improve the model of public
administration, to carry out administrative and
territorial reform on the basis of decentralisation
(Lobunets, 2019).
Accordingly, it is fair to define municipal and
state power as independent forms of public
authority, since both are an expression of the
power of the people, the channels of direct
exercise of which coincide and differ only in the
spatial and territorial level of their manifestation.
State power is exercised at the national and
regional levels, while municipal power is
exercised in urban and rural settlements and other
territories of municipalities. The independence of
local self-government is manifested primarily in
its organisational and institutional structure: local
self-government bodies are separated from state
authorities and are subordinated to them only
within the limits of the law.
Within the framework of their powers, local
governments are fully independent, for example,
they autonomously manage municipal property,
and the effectiveness of local authorities is an
accurate indicator of how well local authorities
manage their budget (Balaguer‐Coll et al., 2022).
Local self-government as the institutional basis
of local democracy has a triune constitutional and
legal nature, which reflects in its unity different
aspects of its own manifestation: local self-
government as an element of Azerbaijani
statehood and at the same time an expression of
municipal democracy. Thus, citizens suffering
from a certain disability should be provided with
access to the services of local self-government
bodies, as well as other members of a particular
territorial community (Valtolina & Fratus, 2022).
Thus, local self-government can be
characterised, firstly, in the subjective-personal
aspect - as an institution of the legal status of an
individual; secondly, in the social aspect - as a
way of self-organisation of society, achievement
of a certain autonomy of society in relations with
the state, which allows to define local self-
government as an institution of civil society;
thirdly, in the public-power aspect - as a special
form of exercise of public power by the
population at the place of residence. According
to the provisions of the European Charter,
municipalities have a moral and legal obligation
to involve communities in identifying,
prioritising, and implementing socio-economic
development needs, and to achieve this goal,
municipalities should use comprehensive
development planning, which involves a
consistent, phased process (Fourie &
Van der Waldt, 2021). According to the
Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the
people exercise their power in the local self-
government system both directly and through
local self-government bodies.
At the present stage, the solution of many
important economic and social problems in the
Republic of Azerbaijan is determined by the
situation in the field of local self-government and
the prospects for its further reforms. A special
place is occupied by the course of radical
improvement of the municipal governance
system, primarily through its active inclusion in
the practice of strategic planning in the country,
as well as by ensuring a balance between the
public authorities and civil society.
In addition, in the process of digital
transformation of local governments, the
popularisation of new technologies has brought
innovative changes in the ways of deepening
citizen participation in democratic politics and
government response mechanisms (Lu & Wu,
2022). Significant opportunities for solving this
problem lie in the positive perception of the best
international practices of municipalities at
various levels. In the digital economy, the growth
of digital technology companies that provide city
services and services for city governments
promises to spur local innovation and business
opportunities and presents important economic
development opportunities (Botero Arcila,
2021). The European Charter of Local Self-
Government has been considered one of the
sources of such experience in the last quarter of
a century.
Local government systems are usually treated as
independent variables when considering
(possible) differences in recruitment patterns,
professionalisation, the position of mayors in
local and multi-level governance systems (or
horizontal and vertical political networks),
interpretation (or notion) of democracy, problem
identification, and attitudes and opinions towards
decentralisation or centralisation and public
sector reforms ('modernisation') (the 'new public
administration') (Teles et al., 2020). In addition
to these factors, which differ from country to
country and the impact of internal factors on the
institution of self-government in the world,
external factors are no less influential. For
example, in recent years, the organisational and
legal framework of local self-government in
Russia has been subject to significant revision,
first as part of amendments to the Constitution of
the Russian Federation in 2020, then under the
influence of the current geopolitical situation,
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which worsened in 2022, due to which the
aggressor country was forced to denounce more
than two dozen international treaties due to its
withdrawal from the Council of Europe,
including the European Charter of Local Self-
Government. Thus, transparency is becoming a
challenge for public administration reforms at the
moment and in the future towards modern and
better governance, and the political and
economic crisis that has occurred has led to a
significant erosion of public confidence in the
effectiveness of public administration, including
in finance (Yuniarta & Purnamawati, 2020).
The Republic of Azerbaijan, in forming the
updated principles of organisation and
functioning of its local self-government,
naturally had to turn to the experience of the
leading European countries in organising active
municipal communities, as presented in the
Charter, in order to realise the possibilities of
participation of local self-government
institutions in solving a wide range of tasks of
economic and social development of the
countries - participants of the Charter. In this
context, the signing of this Charter was positive,
as it allowed for a clearer definition of the goals
and objectives of the new stage of
transformations in the country's municipal sector,
taking into account both the positive and negative
results of the previous reforms. For instance, the
institutional breadth and holistic nature of citizen
participation affect the strategic, executive, and
civic levels of governance interaction and their
interrelationships at the local level (Jäntti et al.,
2023).
It can be said that joining the Charter made it
possible to more clearly define the long-term
trend of improving local self-government, taking
into account both the specifics of local
communities and foreign experience of
functioning of self-government and civil society
systems. Since the adoption of the European
Charter, it has become apparent that political,
administrative, and decision-making structures
have been altered; the scope of existing
functional programmes and modes of
implementation have changed significantly; and,
although the issue of local sources of funding has
been resolved in most countries, the financial
hegemony of the centre has not been eliminated
in many of them (Fama & Jensen, 1983).
An example of this is the principle of subsidiarity
in the activities of local governments. According
to this principle, public obligations (i.e., the
obligations of public authorities) should be
performed at the “lowest” level, as close as
possible to the population. These obligations may
be assigned to a higher administrative level (the
level of public authorities) only when it is
practically difficult or impossible to perform
these tasks at the municipal level. At the same
time, it is common for cities and other local
governments - sometimes together with non-
governmental actors - to challenge policies
proposed or implemented by higher levels of
government that they perceive as threatening
their political positions or local communities
(Verhoeven et al., 2022).
The capacities and resources that local
governments should deploy in their activities
have been linked to the results obtained in the
development of public policies and their
effectiveness in addressing the challenges faced
by the public sector (Salvador & Sancho, 2021).
The Charter contains a provision on the need to
provide targeted support to financially weaker
municipalities, which implies the
implementation of financial equalisation
procedures common in international practice.
The form of government creates clear incentives
for executive actions that shape budget outcomes
(Jimenez, 2020). It is for this reason that these
measures should be aimed at overcoming the
negative economic and social consequences of
the uneven distribution of municipal revenue
sources and the burden of budget expenditures.
Discussion
The results show that in the Republic of
Azerbaijan, as in other countries, the problem of
relations between the state and municipal
authorities is quite relevant. To solve local
problems, local governments have always been
an attribute of a democratic society and a form of
self-organisation of the population. At the
present stage, local self-government is
recognised as an equal and independent form of
government. However, when analysing the
institution of local self-government, in most
cases we are talking about the state system of
governance. This naturally raises the question of
the division of powers and the establishment of
interaction between the two levels of
government. Effective functioning of
municipalities is possible through organisational
cooperation between state authorities and local
self-government, in which the provisions on the
latter enshrined in the constitutions of countries
play a significant role. This statement correlates
with the opinion of Semigina et al. (2020) that the
constitutional principles of local self-government
play a crucial role in ensuring citizen
participation, protecting the rights and
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responsibilities of local authorities, and
strengthening democracy at the local level. As
Kumar (2021) rightly notes, at the present stage,
justice and democracy have become one of the
most important human causes that state
institutions must achieve and ensure compliance
with.
The results obtained show that regional public
authorities play an important role in the
formation and development of local self-
government in Azerbaijan. The interaction of the
latter with local self-government bodies
significantly determines the effectiveness of the
implementation of regional policy - solving
economic, political, and social problems of the
development of the municipality and the subject
as a whole. On the other hand, such interaction
ensures the effectiveness of the municipal policy,
contributing to the implementation of state tasks
through the solution of local issues:
strengthening the foundations of democracy,
creating conditions for ensuring the vital interests
of the population, taking measures for social
protection of the population, stabilising the
political system of training personnel for
municipal bodies. At the same time, as Jong
(2021) rightly notes, the quality of local self-
government determines the positive or negative
economic effect of local self-government, while
the degree of decentralisation determines the size
of the effect.
The results of the study show that the application
of the institution of vesting local self-government
bodies with certain state powers, which has
received wide international recognition and is
enshrined in the European Charter of Local Self-
Government, is an objective process aimed at
decentralising state power, which implies that
local self-government bodies are entrusted with
the performance of specific functions and tasks
that have lost their national significance. It is
worth agreeing with the point of view of
Dawkins et al. (2019), who noted that it is
important for the full functioning of the local
self-government system, the performance of its
functions by its bodies, and the implementation
of the provisions of the European Charter in its
activities not only to take into account global
trends but also the obstacles that exist on this
path.
The main ones are funding; human resources,
knowledge or data; lack of flexibility and
attachment to the status quo; lack of leadership or
political will; administrative burden; and lack of
regulatory powers or instruments at the local
level. A similar view is supported by Ritonga et
al. (2019), who note that financial efficiency,
cost of services and goods, population size, and
revenue base have a significant impact on the
financial condition of local governments, while
the others (namely population density and age,
community profile, and community wealth) do
not significantly affect the performance of local
governments.
The obtained results support the assumption that
in the current practice of state building,
delegation of powers is widely used as a way of
redistributing powers, promotes the convergence
of the state and society, and avoids a number of
important problems associated with excessive
concentration of power at the central level and
overloading central bodies with purely local
affairs. The delegation of certain state powers to
local self-government bodies is based on the
following principles: legality; reasonableness;
additional delegated powers; material and
financial support; and control over the exercise
of delegated powers. This provision is also
confirmed in the scientific work of Ladychenko
et al. (2021), in a number of countries, in the
process of implementing the decentralisation
policy, local governments have received
significantly more rights and powers, which they
exercise in accordance with the principles
enshrined in the Constitution and other legal acts.
This innovation was aimed at increasing the level
of democratisation of power and enabling local
authorities to resolve issues and disputes at the
local level.
Conclusions
The results show that there is a need to clarify the
legislative concept of the subjects (issues) of
jurisdiction and powers of local self-government
bodies, approaches to the delimitation of
competent spheres of the state and local public
authorities, as well as to enshrine the relevant
provisions at the constitutional level. The results
obtained show that the expansion of the
voluntary (optional) scope of local self-
government should be recognised as a positive
phenomenon (in developed countries, various
territorial communities, autonomies, etc. are
fighting for the expansion of their rights, for the
right to independently resolve as many issues as
possible), but it is also necessary to provide
municipalities with the opportunity to earn their
own money, to ensure that they get out of the
permanent subsidy regime in which the vast
majority of municipalities are currently
operating. We are talking about a large-scale
improvement of municipal social relations and
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one of the most important components of local
self-government - the financial one.
The results of the study show that the European
Charter has taken its special place in the law
enforcement practice that regulates all aspects of
the formation and functioning of local self-
government institutions in the countries that have
acceded to it. The results indicate that its
significance in this sense is very significant, but
it should be borne in mind that the Charter is not
a universal guideline for the activities of local
self-government for a particular country or group
of countries.
Accordingly, further research will be relevant to
expand the competence of local self-government,
transferring certain local initiatives to the level of
international policy, determining options for the
further evolution of the system of municipal
institutions in European countries.
Important for further scholarly inquiries is the
examination of issues related to the
organizational and legal consolidation of local
communities to develop and implement
mechanisms for integrated municipal
development policy. This policy should ensure
simultaneous and fair consideration of all
relevant interests and needs pertinent to the
development of municipal education.
An essential topic for further study is the
investigation of enhancing the transparency of
municipal governance and the mechanisms that
create a balanced combination of representative
and direct democracy in local self-government.
This includes decisions made by local self-
government bodies on matters concerning vital
interests of the majority of the local community
members, which must be subject to prior public
discussion.
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