Abstract: The modern development of digital technologies has led to the fact that absolutely all spheres of human activity have been transferred to the virtual space. Many state and political institutions are also moving to an online format (elections, judicial proceedings, municipal polls). The lack of "live communication" and the dominance of communications in the virtual environment have led to the problem of loneliness. The authors pay special attention to the world practice of combating this problem. The subject of the research: scientific works of Russian and foreign scientists devoted to the problems of social isolation and loneliness, normative and policy documents on the implementation of social policy in Russia and foreign countries, information and analytical materials of authorities and organizations containing statistical and other information on the research topic. The methodological basis of the research consists of general (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison) and private scientific (specifically sociological, statistical), as well as special legal (comparative law) methods of scientific cognition. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the strengths and weaknesses of existing methods of combating loneliness at the state level identified on the basis of an analysis of the practice of applying state support measures for lonely people in the UK, South Korea, Japan and Germany. A special contribution of the authors to the study of the topic is the study of the Russian practice of implementing measures of state support for single people in conjunction with the assessment of demographic indicators of the level of population growth in Russia, registered marriages and divorces, as well as formulated proposals for improving public administration in the social sphere. The authors conclude that people have forgotten how to build long–term strong relationships and, as a result, modern society is infected with an "epidemic" of loneliness, the consequences of which pose a threat to the development of the country and the well-being of the population.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the issue of the election and appointment of the head of the municipality, which occupies a central place in the institute of municipal people's representation, representing the municipality in the domestic and international arenas, the interests of residents of the territories. The subject of the study: the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Federal Law of 06.10.2003 No. 131-FZ "On the general principles of the organization of local self-government in the Russian Federation", the provisions of Draft Law No. 40361-8, scientific doctrine on the issue under study. The purpose of the study is to analyze the ways of electing the heads of municipalities "by competition" and "on the proposal of the governor". The methodological basis of the study: general scientific and private scientific methods, a special place in the study is given to the methods of content analysis and right-theoretic modeling. It is established that the "competitive model" (introduced by the legislator in 2014 for the election of heads of municipalities) deprived the local community of the opportunity to directly choose their mayors - through indirect democracy (through deputies of representative bodies). Special attention is paid to the analysis of the draft law of the new Federal Law "On the general principles of the organization of local self-government in the system of unified public authority", which proposes to replace the "competitive" model with the "governor's" one. The advantages and disadvantages of both methods of electing heads of municipalities are revealed. The novelty of the work is due to the fact that the author's approaches to the interpretation of "competitive and "gubernatorial" methods of electing heads of municipalities have been introduced into scientific circulation. Proposals are formulated to improve legislation in terms of the proposal of the author's design of a "competitive model" for the election of heads of municipalities, taking into account the opinion of the population of the relevant territory. It is concluded that the strengthening of control over local authorities by the state authorities of the regions, which began in 2014, in the event of the adoption of the analyzed Bill, will finally put local self-government in a position dependent on the region and marks a return to local government.