Municipal management strategies and their formation factors

Abstract

The subject of discussion is the phenomenological typology of practically implemented municipal management strategies, as well as the influence of external factors on the preference of a certain type of strategy. The research hypothesis assumes that the choice and preference of a certain management strategy depends on external non-political factors. Using a qualitative methodology (direct observation and in-deep interviews) the materials of several hundred field studies of the practice of municipal government in provincial local communities in 2006-2021 were summarized. We have previously described four extreme cases of management strategies: (1) real local self-government; (2) "landlord" management; (3) "Soviet-type” governance; (4) "politicized" governance. The used management strategies remain unchanged in municipalities for a long time. The preference for a certain strategy is mainly due to several factors. Those are (1) spatial isolation of the local society, (2) the duration of community’s live, (3) possibilities for the population to use local natural resources and ownerless property, (4) the ability to resources’ control by representatives of local authorities, (5) dependence of the municipality on external state financial and economic support. The revealed non-political factors have predictive value for the governmental administration from the point of view of the local level of public authority.