Regional policy on rural-urban territories

The rural-urban territories are settlements or parts of settlements, the population of which is not entirely urban or rural.The rural-urban territories are workers' settlements, private sector in towns, villages in urban area, suburbs. The most painful socialproblems of rural-urban territories, as Kuzbass experience proves, are the lack or deficit of necessary social and engineer infrastructure,housing problem, ecological problems, unemployment problems, asocial behaviour of population. The problems of rural-urban territoriesare resolved at the regional policy level indirectly. Regional policy is use of power for solving territorial arrangement problems, providingthe social and political development of the population and supporting of relationship balance between different subjects of social-politicalinteraction. Social character (orientation) of regional policy is the condition for resolving the rural-urban territorial problems. A variety ofregional and municipal policies at the low settlement level is micropolicy. It is characterized by immediately exercised self-organization ofpopulation, initiatives of local communities, and interrelations between power bodies and population for realization of specific rural-urbanterritories functions. The problem of usage of the tools of regional policy in a region is that rural-urban territories, which are the low level ofsocial-settlement of the population of localized territories. Regional micropolicy is not possible without strong interrelationship betweendifferent state and municipal power structures not only with rural authorities, but also with inhabitants of localized territories. The startingpoint of micropolicy is the differentiation of population and untying the social bundles in difficult living circumstances in living places.Micropolicy becomes evident, when subjects of state policy penetrate to localized territorial formations through the mediator level of localself-government. The social development of territories orients on interaction between power bodies and population. The active participationof population in realization of regional policy allows making additional corrections in it. However, at present the population sees local selfgovernmentas the lowest level in state power system, as the main tool for local development, not as an independent level of power. Themain ways to solve rural-urban territorial problems through the mechanisms of regional policy are: organization of interaction betweenmunicipal and regional authorities and nongovernmental organizations; program-goal support of rural-urban territories for overcoming thedisproportion in social development; interaction between local authorities and local communities for resolving socially significant problems;strengthening of civil society elements through the direct connection of public elements and administrative efforts for development of civiland political culture of the population.

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