The article examines the legal nature of public control, provides factors that contribute to increasing attention to problems in the activities of this institution. A retrospective analysis of the emergence and development of public control in Russia is carried out, on the basis of which a conclusion is made about the different nature of popular control and public control in the USSR and public control in the Russian Federation. The correlation of public control with its other types (social, civil, non-governmental, national) is analyzed. Unlike social control, public control means active and purposeful activity of citizens and their associations to participate in the verification and evaluation of the work of public authorities and in other cases related to the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens. Public control can be understood in a broad sense, including forms of direct democracy, providing information about the work of public authorities, etc. In the constitutional and legal theory, public control should be understood in a narrower sense — as a set of organizational and legal institutions and mechanisms enshrined in legislation that allow citizens and their associations to evaluate the activities of public authorities for compliance with the interests of civil society and human rights. The analysis of the list of subjects of public control enshrined in the legislation is carried out, the conclusion is made that it is necessary to adjust it for a broader representation of civil society institutions. Attention is paid to the directions of improving the legislative regulation of the institution of public control, the need to increase the active participation of citizens in its implementation is indicated, which should be the goal of legislative innovations.