Pregledni rad
LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN SLOVENIA - TERRITORIAL STRUCTURES
Božo Grafenauer
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Mariboru, Maribor, Slovenija
Sažetak
There is a uniform standpoint that local self-government is an essential element of democratic order, but there are significant differences in its implementation in particular countries which are also evident in the territorial structure of local self-government units.
In Slovenia, in different periods in the past (after 1849 when the first legislation in this area was passed within Austria-Hungary) there were great differences with regard to the kind and number of local self-government units. Thus before the First World War there were more than 1,200 municipalities, and in the period between the two world wars in the Slovenian part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (particularly after the land consolidation in the Drava Province (Banovina) in 1933) the
number of municipalities was considerably reduced - to 362 (after the land consolidation in 1926 and 1927). The number of municipalities which were at that time within the Kingdom of ltaly was also reduced - to 62 municipalities. After the Second World War, the number of municipalities, that is localities which were organized according to the world model of government, was significantly increased. After the establishment of the “socialist community” as a commune, which represented a specific “socio-political and economic community” in the socialist self-management system of that time and whose tasks were primarily to carry out deconcentrated state activities, the number of municipalities was considerably decreased (in 1952 to 370, in 1955 to 130 and in 1965 to 62).
After the recognition of the Republic of Slovenia as an independent state (in 1991 ), foundations for the introduction of the system of local self-government comparable to Europe were established by passing the new Constitution and the Local Self-government Act, as well as other regulations (and later also by ratification of the European Charter of Local Self-government). It has been shown that in Slovenia, like in other countries, according to the political (but also the professional) point of view, municipalities have to be large enough in order to perform local activities efficiently and economically and ensure a high standard of public services, but at the same time small enough in order to enable citizens to cooperate more closely in pursuing their interests and offer them a possibility to influence decisions. After new municipalities (147 of them in 1994 and 45 more in 1998) have been established, it can be said that the new System of self-government has started operating properly.
The most complex issue of developing the system of local self-government in Slovenia will be the establishment of larger local self-government units - provinces. Among other things, because the Constitution contains a specific provision according to which provinces are established on the basis of independent orientation of municipalities, which voluntarily associate in order to regulate and perform local activities of wider significance
Ključne riječi
local self-government; territorial structures; organization in the past; provinces
Hrčak ID:
197844
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.12.2000.
Posjeta: 1.579 *