Local Self-Government in the Conditions of Digitization: International-Legal Experience

Nowadays more and more attention is paid to digital technologies, digitization, and the digitization of public services in particular. Progressive countries aim to build "digital" governance and a digital economy. In this aspect, the international experience of using digitization in the field of public administration, including in local self-government bodies, plays an important role. Therefore, it is important to analyze the international legal experience of the functioning of local self-government in the conditions of digitization. The purpose of the work is to study the international legal experience of the functioning of local self-government in the conditions of digitization. The object of the study is local self-government in the conditions of digitization through the prism of international legal experience. The subject of the study is social relations that arise, change, and cease during the implementation of digitization in local self-government in Ukraine and foreign countries. The research methodology consists of such methods as the method of philosophical hermeneutics; dialectical method; classification method; comparative method; target method; method of documentary analysis; generalization method. Research results. As a result of the conducted research, the international experience of the functioning of local self-government in conditions of digitization was analyzed. In particular, the impact of digitization processes on the course of the decentralization reform in Ukraine is summarized. Also, from the analysis of international experience, a conclusion was made about the potential possibility of reducing the existing gap in the process of communication between the central government and united territorial communities thanks to the introduction of the latest technologies in the field of administrative services, to stimulate innovative and economic development of regions, attracting the attention of businesses and potential investors, as well as the functioning of more open local authorities with electronic communication tools.