Monitoring of the Implementation of Municipal Reform

Within the framework of this study, we have been monitoring the development of municipal reform from the moment of the enactment of Federal Law No. 131-FZ, “On general principles of the organization of local self-government in the Russian Federation,” until mid-year 2006. This paper describes the evolution in approaches to municipal reform at the federal level, analyzes the results of reform of the territorial foundations of local self-government, and discusses the policies of regional authorities in respect of newly formed settlements during the reform's transitional period. Significant emphasis in the study has been placed on the analysis of the experience of implementing municipal reform in Novosibirsk Oblast and Stavropol Krai – the two pilot regions for municipal reform. Tver Oblast is described as an example of the specific features and consequences of reform of the system of financial relations between regions and municipalities