The phenomenon of collective public leadership in legislative process of Voronezh and Tambov regions

Modern regional political systems are facing increasing public demand for expanding channels of political representation and opportunities for real participation in shaping the political agenda. Various public stakeholders in the regions are interested in creating necessary conditions for implementation of civic engagement and collective initiatives in legislative process.
In this paper, an attempt is made to reveal the possibilities, limitations of the formation and use of the institute of collective public leadership to solve the problems of the regional legislative process in example of two regions of the Central Chernozem region – Voronezh and Tambov regions.
This article presents the results of an expert survey of a group of current deputies of regional assemblies and focus groups of representatives of opposition political parties and the expert community of Voronezh and Tambov regions. The study participants described their attitude to the phenomenon of collective leadership, competencies and qualities of a public leader. They told about their experience of participating in the process of discussion and political decision-making at the regional level. The informants pointed out the difficulties of holding public hearings, public examinations of draft laws and revealed some mechanisms for involving the population in these procedures.
The article analyzes the problem of implementing initiative budgeting in legislative process, including practice of interaction of deputies with initiative groups, specifics of the work of expert councils, public institutions and discussion platforms. It is concluded that it is necessary to develop formats of direct communication channels (not imitative and not nominal) between legislative authorities and society in order to receive operational “feedback” and realize the potential of collective public leadership in the regions. 

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