Original scientific paper

Levelling of Local Self-Government Units

Stjepan Ivanišević ; retired professor of administrative science at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb

Abstract

The dilemma about the establishment of one or more levels of local self-government units is one of the most important problems of territorial organisation of local self-government. Levelling is structural answer to the problem and needs to integrate local self-government system itself and to integrate that system into a wider organisation of a state as a whole. At the beginning, the paper deals with general discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of levelling. The situation in almost forty countries has been analysed, including two groups of countries:
developed democracies (Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Island, Italia, Japan, Luxemburg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA) and transition countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Serbia). Four different types of territorial frames for local self-govern mentsystem integration have been identified: one-tier, mixed or segmented, two-tier, and three-tier systems. Decision to select one of them is conditioned by the average size of local units, monotypic or polytypic design of territorial division of a country, the size of a country in terms of the number of inhabitants, and form of
political organisation (federation or unitary state).

Keywords

local self-government; territorial organisation (division); local self- -government system integration, levelling; regional self-government; comparative analysis

Hrčak ID:

136010

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/136010

Publication date:

2.9.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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