The fifth year of the Working Group
on Local Government focuses on the state and development of local
government/municipal autonomy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
A major theoretical and practical
justification for elected local government systems has been to make a variation
in policies possible across localities. Local government should be able to
engage in activities which they see as locally important. Without some degree
of autonomy or discretion from the upper level of governments, this would be
difficult, if not impossible. On the other hand, the idea of municipalities
exerting complete autonomy in their activities is often considered impractical
and sometimes dysfunctional in modern societies. There is often a tension
between central and local governments on the question of how municipalities
should perform their tasks.
In public administration reforms,
decentralisation has recently been an important trend in many European
countries, often containing the idea of increased local and regional autonomy
or multi-level governance. Nevertheless, there are also other (counter)trends
and developments depending on national policies or international reform
doctrines.
The general aim of the workshops in
2012 is to explore the state and development of local government autonomy in
the context of public administration reforms. Have the reforms and decisions of
upper level governments contributed to the increased central control of local
policy making or have local authorities been given more resources, power and
autonomy in deciding on local affairs? Autonomy can be approached, for example,
from the following three perspectives:
1)Resources of autonomy (financial, material, human
resources).
2)Legislative basis of autonomy (the right of local
authorities to resist subordination to regulation or upper authorities).
3)Political autonomy (dependence on national parties,
civic democracy, institutions).
The papers may also discuss such
issues as the concept of local autonomy and the different outcomes of local
autonomy (or lack of it). What is local autonomy and how is it related to the
functions of local government? Is there also a "negative autonomy” in addition to
the positive outcomes often connected to local autonomy? One definition of
local self-government is given by the Council of Europe in the European Charter
of Local Self-Government, Article 3: "Local self-government denotes the right
and the ability of local authorities, within the limits of the law, to regulate
and manage a substantial share of public affairs under their own responsibility
and in the interests of the local population”.
The coordinators especially welcome
papers which provide within-country or cross-country comparisons of local
government autonomy, the factors that have driven an increase or decrease in
autonomy and the effects of those reforms.
The accepted paper proposals should
go beyond a mere description of the system or problems of public administration
in a given country and should belong to one of the following categories:
·
empirical papers on the actual state, development and consequences of local
autonomy within the context of administrative reforms;
·
theoretical papers on the concept or importance or dysfunctions of local
autonomy;
·
methodological papers on how to study local government autonomy in different
contexts or comparatively.
The papers presented at the workshop in 2012 are expected to contribute
both to LG studies and to administrative and other social sciences in general.
The coordinators hope to obtain the relevant funds to publish the findings.
2. Working Group on Local Government
NISPAcee’s Working Group on Local
Government was established in 2008. The Working Group invites researchers and
practitioners to take part in a project aimed at exploring the reforms of, and
at, the local government level in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The theme of the Working Group is
local government. By using the term "local government” we prefer the broader
context of governance to the internal machinery of local administration. The
core of the mission of the Working Group is built around a comparative analysis
of local government developments in the Central and Eastern European (CEE)
area. The developments are also compared with the European and Anglo-Saxon
local administration models, as well as with the theories of self-governance
and decentralisation.
The Working Group especially focuses
on local government reforms. Members are expected to compare the challenges which
CEE countries face, identify the trends and waves of changes, and draw
conclusions on the convergence and divergence within CEE and between CEE
countries and the rest of Europe. The reforms examined by the group include
both large-scale structural changes of public administration and small-scale
managerial reforms initiated by local decision-makers. Contributions are
encouraged, especially covering the following topics: local government reforms,
multi-level governance, metropolitan governance, local network governance,
e-governance and e-democracy, the relationship of local politicians and
administrators, and local democracy. All these areas of research fields can be
analysed by using political, administrative, cultural and economic views.
The first meeting of the Working Group in Bratislava (2008)
collected various papers on local governments in CEE and the CIS. The second,
in Budva (2009), had a more specific focus on city-regions. A volume was
published with 10 papers and presented at the conference. The third meeting in
Warsaw (2010) provided an opportunity to discuss the impact of the global
economic crisis on local government and the fourth in Varna (2011) focused on
the relevance of history for the future of local governments in Central and
Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
3. Working Group Directors and
Members
Gabor Soos, Institute
for Political Science (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest). He holds a PhD
in Political Science, MA in Sociology, and MA in History. He edited and
co-edited four books on local government in Central and Eastern Europe.
Arto Haveri is a Professor of Local Government Studies at the department
of Regional Studies, University of Tampere. He focuses primarily on local
governance and local government management, and most recently on promises and
problems of democratic network governance. He also maintains an interest in the
problems of administrative reform design and evaluation, particularly in areas
of local and regional government and regional development.