Constitutional and Legal Regulation of Organization and Activity of City Government Bodies in Ukraine

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the constitutional and legal regulation of the organization and activities of public authorities of cities in Ukraine. To achieve this, the following tasks were formed: to clarify the constitutional principles of formation of public authorities of cities; to single out the circle of relevant bodies; to find out the constitutional and legal status of public administration bodies in Ukraine. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study was a set of general and special methods, techniques and tools of scientific knowledge, with their comprehensive application aimed at achieving the goal and solving research problems. The constitutional and legal regulation of the organization and activity of local public authorities in Ukraine is the subject of long-term scientific research, which results in a wide variety of proposals for reforming this system of government. The choice of methodological tools should provide a systematic study of current trends in improving the constitutional and legal regulation of the organization and activities of local public authorities in Ukraine. The application of the principle of systematization allows to carry out research of the institutional mechanism of realization of local public power in cities. The method of constitutional modeling made it possible to develop proposals and recommendations for improving the constitutional and legal regulation of the organization and activities of local public authorities in Ukraine. The scientific novelty lies in the formation of theoretical and methodological foundations for improving the constitutional and legal regulation of the organization and activities of local public authorities in Ukraine and substantiation of practical proposals for optimizing the system of local public authorities in Ukraine. Conclusions. 1) In general, the constitutional and legal regulation of the organization and activities of local public authorities in Ukraine creates a dualistic system that includes local executive bodies, which in turn include local state administrations and territorial bodies of central executive bodies – on the one hand, and mayors, the city council and its executive body, which are local governments – on the other. It should be noted that local state administrations at the city level operate only in Kyiv and Sevastopol, and are also established in the districts of the respective cities. 2) The main influence on the formation of local state administrations has the head of state, because it is he who appoints the relevant heads, who in turn form the composition. 3) Territorial bodies of central executive bodies at the city level perform not city-wide administrative functions, but specific functions of the state entrusted to the relevant central body. But local governments – the city council and its executive body, and the mayor, who is the main official of the territorial community of the city, just in accordance with Art. 140 of the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine «On local self-government in Ukraine», just responsible for addressing issues of local importance. 4) At the same time, in general, Ukraine, according to most scholars, needs a reform of decentralization, which should certainly include reform and urban management systems, taking into account the successful experience of EU countries.

Keywords: local public authorities in Ukraine; local self-government; local public authorities of cities in Ukraine; local state administrations; local self-government bodies.