Public administration and local self-government: the search for optimal interaction is delayed

In Russia for a long time, including the periods of the Russian Empire and the Soviet state, at all levels (state - union and autonomous republic, region, territory, province - district, county - city, settlement, village) there functioned both individual and collegial bodies of a single, hierarchically structured, centralized "state" power, formed by appointment and election. However, after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the situation began to change, and with the adoption of the Constitution of Russia in 1993, the system of public-authority relations changed fundamentally: in addition to the "state" power at the federal and regional levels (the level of the subjects of the Federation), a municipal level of public power appeared in the form of local self-government bodies, and these bodies, according to Art. 12 of the Constitution of Russia, are not part of the system of state authorities, that is, local self-government bodies, being local authorities, now have their own competence and do not have administrative subordination with state bodies. The article examines the specifics of interaction between state (regional) and municipal structures from the point of view of its legal regulation. It is noted that since that time there has been a complex and contradictory process of searching for the optimal variant of this interaction, which can be evidenced by the fact that over the past years, federal municipal legislation has been significantly transformed with a gradual narrowing of the powers of local government, which causes an ambiguous reaction from scientists and specialists.