Review article

Some Developmental Processes of Local Self-government Regulation in the Republic of Croatia

Vedran Đulabić ; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb

Abstract

The article presents some of the fundamental concepts of local self-government which have crystallized in literature. The concepts of political and administrative decentralisation, the Marxist concept of the commune and the approaches developed within the framework of some international associations, primarily the concept of the development of the community and the principle of subsidiarity are presented.
The content of the right to local self-government and its protection in the legal system of the Republic of Croatia, regulation of local self-government and particularly regulation of the dissolution of local representative bodies are analysed. There are two phases of the regulation of local self-government. The first one, mostly based on the concept of administrative decentralisation, dominated the local self-government regulation for the first ten years of its independence. In that phase, the local government did not sufficiently develop its democratic potential, which was the consequence of a number of
factors. Among others, the legal framework which regarded local units as instruments of central government, high level of centralisation, undeveloped democratic environment, inadequate territorial division, etc. By political, constitutional and legal changes in the period
of 2000/1, the second phase of the local self-government regulation in Croatia formally started. The basic approach to local self-government is dominated by the concept of political decentralisation. Although legal solutions provide for the development of local potentials, there remains the question of the direction of further development of local
self-government in the Republic of Croatia. The experience so far has shown that there is still not enough attention paid to the development of local institutions. There are still numerous problems, while there is not enough political will to lead systematically an active decentralisation policy. The policy of enlarging and strengthening of local units is not clear enough. In the end, it is pointed out that along with the basic provisions which regulate local self-government, it is also necessary to use other mechanisms in order to build a modern system of local self-government prepared for European integration.

Keywords

local self-government; political decentralisation; administrative decentralisation; subsidiarity; right to local self-government; decentralisation

Hrčak ID:

195256

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/195256

Publication date:

9.3.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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