Ways to engage the population in political governance when modernizing the local government system

The paper deals with the reforms of local authorities and organization models of municipal authority over the past decade. The purpose of the research is to investigate reform processes of local government by a case study of Nizhny Novgorod region. The objective of the study is to develop a mechanism for reforming local authorities to increase the engagement of the population in political governance. The paper discusses the ratio among the tiers of municipal government and the effectiveness of governance in the municipal district, rural and urban settlements. Besides, the research examines the Nizhny Novgorod region practices of transforming territories into urban districts.In view of the amendments to the federal law involving the emergence of a new type of municipalities, i.e. municipal districts, an interaction model is proposed for several authorities and public institutions to increase the efficiency of municipal government. In the author’s opinion, this model fully reflects the initial idea of local government as an independent authority.