The dualism of the category “municipal service”

Introduction: the variety of interpretations of the category“municipal service” gives rise to semantic diversity and variability of interpretation of the concept. In this regard, the authors aim to conduct a historical research and comparative analysis of existing approaches to the definition of “municipal service”, presented in the legislation and legal science. Methods: the methodological framework for this study, which has a complex character, is a set of methods of scientific knowledge, among which the main ones are the comparative-historical, general scientific dialectical, logical-syntactic, and semantic methods of cognition, as well as the methods of cause and effect analysis, forecasting, synthesis and analysis. Results: in the paper the authors reveal the debatable aspect of the correctness of the use of the term “permanent basis” as a fundamental feature of the concept of “municipal service”, reveal its fundamental features, and study the semantic and syntactic meaning. Conclusions: the authors conclude that the cause of the variable interpretation of the concept under study in both objective and subjective senses is the interaction of these two sides of a single phenomenon, outside of which the statutory will cannot exist and be put into practice. The ways of further research in connection with the presence of the debatable theoretical legal category “public service” are also outlined.