SELECTED ASPECTS OF TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Changes are constantly being made to legislation regarding the establishment of types of municipalities. Features and problems of the territorial organization of local government in the Altai Territory significantly affect the effectiveness of local government as a whole. The region's settlement system is characterized by processes of compression and rarefaction of space, consolidation and disaggregation of municipalities. The article examines the features and trends of population settlement in the Altai Territory as the basis for the organization of local self-government. The administrative-territorial structure of the region is historically determined by the settlement system. The study analyzed the specifics of the population settlement system and the administrative-territorial structure in the agro-industrial region — Altai. The authors confirm the conclusion that space is being compressed, the number of rural settlements without population is increasing, space is being sparse, and its polarization is increasing. According to the authors, the main factors of population depopulation are primarily economic: unemployment and low wages.