Activities of local authorities in the years of NEP: peculiarities of organizational and legal regulation

The study focuses on organizational and legal regulation of local authorities' activities in NEP years. In the 1920s. The RSFSR was undergoing a process of active state-building - the regional boundaries were determined in an experimental way, the principles, methods and mechanisms of work of local authorities were developed, the structure and hierarchy of local institutions were defined, their functions and the degree of centralization of the financial sphere. A comprehensive study based on the concepts of historical institutionalism is promising. (D. North, D. Ajezemol, D. Robinson et al. ). Within this area, we can trace the process of institutionalization of individual management structures, study their interaction and decision-making mechanisms, assess the role of formal and informal institutions in the field. The key conclusions were drawn on the basis of an analysis of Soviet legislation, local case studies and transcripts of meetings of the All-Russian Congress of Councils from the standpoint of historical institutionalism. Thus, the specifics of the Soviet law-making institute, the rush to state-building in the RSFSR in the 1920s. , the dualism of local authorities, the operation of the principle of «double subordination» and the «mechanism for protecting local interests» created conditions for: 1) the rise of conflict potential in the sphere of governance (intercontrol, overlapping of powers and interests of different actors of regional development, emergence of disputed zones of responsibility, mismanagement, sabotage of decisions of higher authorities); 2) construction of semi-formal (provision of mutually beneficial services, imposition of self-taxes, formalization of the «donor-recipient» relationship system) and informal institutions (personal communication systems), designed to compensate for the deficiencies of the system and stabilize it; 3) as well as maintaining the potential for «pendulum oscillation» of the system from decentralization to centralization throughout the NEP.

NEP, management system, budget system, historical institutionalism, side effects, dualism of power, principle of dual subordination, protection mechanism, local interests, system fluctuation