Initiative budgeting as a factor of socio-economic development of rural territories (on the example of regions of the Republic of Bashkortostan)

The article presents the results of a study of the participation of rural municipalities in the largest practice of initiative budgeting in the Republic of Bashkortostan - the Local Initiatives Support Program (LISP) in 2020. The level of involvement and the quality of preparation of projects for rural settlements in the region were analyzed, and the districts were ranked according to the indicated indicators. There was also an assessment of the sources of funding for projects - the winners of the competitive selection of the LISP. It has been established that the main sources of financing are funds from the regional and local budgets, while there is a tendency to an increase in co-financing of projects by the population. An analysis of the typology of projects was carried out, and it was revealed that the largest number of projects of rural settlements that won in 2020 was associated with the arrangement of burial sites, road repairs, landscaping, and the repair of cultural and educational institutions. The study revealed a significant differentiation between rural municipalities in terms of the implementation of LISP projects. The authors show the effectiveness of initiative budgeting as a tool for financing social projects in rural areas and point to the expediency of increasing the volume of budget co-financing of initiative budgeting projects and further expanding the scale of involvement of rural settlements in LISP.