Municipal Strategizing: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

Many of these difficulties are caused by gaps and legal issues in the Federal Law of June 28, 2014, N. 172-FZ “On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation”, which does not take into account the specific features of different types of municipalities when regulating strategic planning at the local level. The article states that the system of strategic planning documents in many regions of the Russian Federation is highly unbalanced, and there is a lack of interconnection and common goals between regional and municipal authorities regarding the development of municipalities in their respective strategic documents. Insufficient methodological support of these activities in municipalities is noted. The lack of an integrated system of indicators to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of strategic planning documents at the local level has been revealed. As a result, there is a formal, declarative nature of many municipal strategies that are poorly related to the current activities of local governments. It is concluded that it is necessary to improve the quality of municipal strategizing, especially in the light of the approved Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 with a forecast until 2036, which assumes the expansion of the horizon of economic growth due to the formation of a wide range of anchor settlements, the role of which is becoming increasingly important against the background of the introduction of master plans as long-term strategic planning tools tha determine the priorities of socio-economic and spatial development of territories.