Abstract: The author of the article analyzes correlation of notions “competency”, “authorities”, and “area of responsibility” in respect to institutions of local government functioning as the public authority bodies of the Russian Federation. The author considers various approaches of modern scholars to definition of the above-mentioned categories. The article reveals the structure and the content of notions “competency”, “authorities”, and “area of responsibility”. The author studies normative provisions of the Federal Law “On general principles of the organization of local self-government of the Russian Federation” from October 6, 2003 with amendments. Special attention is paid to various classifications of authorities and areas of responsibility of the institutions of local government in the Russian Federation. The methodology of the research is based on the up-to-date achievements of epistemology. The author uses the general philosophical and theoretical methods (dialectics, the system approach, analysis, synthesis, analogy, deduction, observation, and modeling), the traditional juridical methods (formal-logical), and the methods, which are used in special sociological research (the statistical method, expert evaluations, etc.).