Original scientific paper
Types of Local Self-Government Units
Željko Pavić
; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Republic ofC roatia, having become an independent state, has organized its local self-government according to the polytypic model
(unlike the past 35 years when its Organization was monotypic).
Although, in theory, polytypic Organization is associated with the
countries o fa lower degree o f urbanization, it has not been confirmed
in practice. The problem in Croatia has emerged while determining
the criteria forwhat is considered to be a town. Besides the numerical,
administrative and gravitational criterion, the criterion o f "special
reasons” (historical, economic, geotraffic) has been applied as an
exception from the mentioned possibilities which has been, however,
very vaguely and broadly determined - out o f 123 towns 42% of
them (51 towns) have obtained the status o f the town for "special
reasons”. The tendency o f increase from 69 initial to 123 present
towns in only ten years seems to continue further. Attention is drawn
to more rigorous criteria in the European and world practice - which
is very frequently a combination o f the number o f population and
the portion o f non-agricultural population. It is pointed out that
larger towns hold special status (not only in the polytypic but also in
the monotypic model o f local self-government) because they are
separated from the System o f regional units and have thè status o f the
regional unit themselves. It is proposed to separate larger towns (11)
or only large towns (four with over 100,000 inhabitants) from the
System o f counties. This particularly refers to the largest Croatian
town - Zagreb. In this respect, there are also corresponding suggestions
for regional planning ofthe Republic o f Croatia.
Keywords
monotypic Organization of local self-government; polytypic Organization of local self-government; town
Hrčak ID:
197647
URI
Publication date:
9.4.2002.
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