Bukhvald Evgeny M.

The need to update agglomeration studies stems from the promising course outlined in the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation (SDS) toward territorial agglomeration as an effective trend in organizing the socio-economic space of regions. Based on a quantitative assessment of the scale of socio-economic inequality among the constituent entities of the Far Eastern Federal District (FEFD), an analysis of the demographic and spatial characteristics of urban agglomerations in the macroregion, and a combination of ideas to understand the essence of their formation, the authors sought to identify the basic trends of agglomeration in the Far Eastern territories. The theoretical basis of the study is determined by a combination of scientific concepts in the field of spatial and regional economics. A substantive assessment of the process of emergence and development of agglomerations is given from the point of view of a systematic approach in the focus of comparative and documentary analysis using statistical research methods. The paper summarizes the practical experience of the formation of agglomerations in the Far Eastern Federal District from the standpoint of the need to consolidate legal and institutional status, and identifies the development directions and priority role of this form of inter- municipal cooperation as an object of federal and regional public administration. It identifies the challenges of concentrating and balancing the distribution of powers within the state and municipal governance system, the solution of which will shift the emphasis toward agglomeration self-government. The results obtained identify potential areas for improving state policy for regulating agglomerations based on the development of mechanisms for assessing the effectiveness of agglomeration processes in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.