Characteristics of forming the territorial bodies of state power in tsarist Russia

Abstract

The article provides a periodization of the key public administration reforms that influenced the development of the system and structure of public authorities. The author examines the issues related to the distinction between the actual and formal-legal moment of emergence of territorial executive bodies of state power in Russia. Characteristics of the evolution of the system for public governance in tsarist Russia are presented. The article presents the criteria allowing to refer an authority to the territorial bodies of state power in the absence of relevant concepts in the legal terminology of the respective historical stage. The article aims to form a scientifically substantiated picture of the creation and development of the system for central state authorities and their territorial bodies in Russia in the period of XIV-XX centuries by using a comprehensive system analysis. Through comparisons of the key features characterizing modern territorial bodies of federal executive authorities and state institutions performing the functions of general and sectoral public administration in the administrative-territorial units of pre-revolutionary Russia, we can define their actual similarities. This refers to the function of representation of central authorities in the field, the presence of powers in the sphere of public administration, executive and administrative nature of activity, professional and sectoral division, and subordination to the central bodies of state administration.