LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT, a system, in which the population of an administrative territorial unit independently manages the affairs (directly or through elected bodies) within the limits of the rights established by the state. Within the tribe or clan, the Bashkirs’ Local Self‑Government was administered by biys, tarkhans, and elders (aksakals) who relied on the Popular Assemblies (yiyin, kurultay) decisions. Public relations were governed by customary law. Justice was administered by both People’s courts and Sharia trials. After the Accession of Bashkortostan to Russia, the volosts were established. The volosts were headed by Starostas and Starshinas (ref. Administrative and Territorial System). The restriction of Local Self‑Government was among the reasons which led to the Bashkir Uprisings of the 17– 18th centuries. In 1831, the canton system of governance was introduced to the Bashkir volosts while popular assemblies were banned. From the 2nd half of the 18th century, cities get the L.G. rights. In 1785, the Diploma for the Rights and Benefits of the Cities of the Russian Empire established the rights and privileges of cities, ownership of their lands and duties of citizens. Every city had its own coat of arms. The rights of population were protected by the City Magistrate. During the City Reform of 1870, class bodies of city administration were replaced by all‑class bodies. City Dumas (assemblies) and Upravas (municipal councils) were opened in Orenburg and Ufa. In 1864, the system of all‑class zemstvos was established, with Zemstvo Assemblies as the control bodies and Zemstvo Upravas as executive bodies.. Zemskaya (1864) and City (1870) Reforms were aimed at decentralization of the Russia’s administration system. The reforms opened roads to the ideas of elective power (self‑government) and self‑financing. In the middle of the 1860s, Orenb. and Ufa provinces were introduced with the peasant self‑government bodies — Volost Pravlyeniya (boards). After the revolution of 1917, a new administrative system of cantons and volosts was introduced on the self‑proclaimed autonomous Bashkortostan territory. In the 1920s, the institutions of the L.G. were replaced by the bodies of the Soviet power — Councils of the Deputy Workers. Such a system of local government remained until the middle of the 1990s. In the RB the Law on L.G. was adopted on December 20th, 1997. This Law created selo, posyolok, city and raion municipalities under the control of the RB state authorities. On the basis of the Law of the Russian Federation On General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation of February 6th, 2003, the RB on March 18th, 2005, adopted a new Law on L.G., according to which 54 municipal raions, 9 city okrugs and 14 city settlements were created.
