Review article
Regionalisation Of Slovenia – Efforts To Establish Mezzo-Level Government
Daria Dubajić
orcid.org/0000-0002-3764-4032
; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb
Abstract
In Slovenia, there have been long political and expert debates about decentralisation and regionalisation of the country. There is a positive attitude towards the need for establishment of provinces (pokrajina) as a medium tier of government. Mezzo-level government would be the institutional exponent and coordinator of a balanced regional development policy in Slovenia. Constitutional amendments of 2006 made possible real decentralisation. However, the establishment and functioning of the provinces remain open issues with controversial
viewpoints. Experts wonder whether political elites at the central and
local levels are (finally) ready to cease part of their competences to the counties. Some are doubtful about justifiableness of introducing provinces into the Slovenian administrative-territorial system considering the country’s small territory and number of inhabitants. The paper analyses the forms of (non-political) regionalisation of Slovenia, the development of regional policy, the concept of provinces as second-tier self-government units, as well as the basic political and
expert controversies over their establishment. There is also an overview of draft legislation on provincial self-government made by the Office for Local Policy and Regional Self-Government of the Republic of Slovenia in 2009.
Keywords
regionalisation – Slovenia; regional policy; provinces; decentralisation
Hrčak ID:
132513
URI
Publication date:
5.4.2011.
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