Regional policy on the development of municipalities: efficiency assessment and implementation specifics in the current context

After the adoption of the Strategy for Spatial Development of the Russian Federation until 2025 in February 2019, special importance was attached to the issues concerning the formation of the coherent system of the RF entity’s regional policy on the development of municipalities, which takes into account socio-economic and geographical features of different territories. In this regard, the goal of this article is to develop methodological tools for efficiency assessment and for analyzing the specifics of interregional policy in the RF entity (on the materials of the Vologda Oblast). Scientific novelty of the research consists, first, in the fact that it uses expert opinions, which were obtained during a questionnaire survey of the Vologda Oblast municipalities heads, and second, in the analysis based on our own criteria of spatial (territorial) aspects reflection in strategies for development of constituent entities within the Northwestern Federal District. The research uses methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, methodological tools based on economic and statistical, comparative analysis, and expert survey. We reveal that, despite the efforts of state authorities of the Vologda Oblast to develop municipalities, the number of problems, concerning interregional policy implementation, still exist. They are: insufficient consideration of specifics and features of certain municipalities’ development; bureaucratic obstacles in the cooperation between state and local authorities; limited powers of local authorities, etc. The results of the conducted research might be used in the activities of state authorities of the Russian Federation entities. Also, the research might serve as the foundation for further scientific studies on the ways to improve the forms, methods, and tools of the interregional policy implementation.