ORGANIZATIONAL AND LEGAL IMPROVEMENT OF LOCAL COUNCILS UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

This paper examines the organizational and legal guarantees available to party groups and to the political minority within the Councils of People's Deputies. It treats party groups not merely as political associations but as political and procedural institutions of local representative democracy, whose function is to shape the session agenda, participate in committee work, advance alternative proposals and translate the interests of the electorate into legal form. Employing political-legal, institutional, formal-legal and functional analysis, the study identifies four directions of reform: guaranteed participation in setting the Council agenda, the development of the institution of the alternative draft decision, proportional representation of party groups in standing and temporary committees, and the recognition of political minority status as a distinct legal-procedural category. The paper argues that a political minority is not a destructive force opposing the majority, but a democratic institution that renders decision-making balanced, transparent and accountable. It concludes that these procedural rights should be secured at the level of statute rather than left to internal practice.