Discussion Papers 1992. No. 14. 
The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of Local Governments in Hungary
CENTRE FOR REGIONAL STUDIES 
OF HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
DISCUSSION PAPERS 
No. 14 
The Basic Political and Structural 
Problems in the Workings of Local 
Governments in Hungary 
by 
PALNE KOVACS, Ilona 
Series editor 
IIRUBI, Lfiszlo 
Pecs 
1992 

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Discussion Papers 1992. No. 14. 
The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of Local Governments in Hungary
The Discussion Papers series is sponsored by 
BAT Pecsi Dohanygyar Kft. 
a Member of the British-American Tobacco Company Group 
The research and publishing of this paper are sponsored by 
National Research Fund 
(OTKA) 
ISSN 0238-2008 
© 1992 by Centre for Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences 
Technical editor: Dombi, Peter 
Typeset by Centre for Regional Studies, HAS 
Printed in Hungary by G-Nyonidasz Ltd., Pecs 

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Discussion Papers 1992. No. 14. 
The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of Local Governments in Hungary
CONTENTS 
Local governments and politics (5) 
1. Macropolitical aspects (5) 
2. Local political aspects (7) 
The regional structure of state administration (14) 
1. The separation of regional tasks into state and local governmental 
sectors (16) 
2. Counties' position in the local government system (20) 
3. Further phenomena'of disintegration in the local government 
system (32) 
References (35) 

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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND POLITICS 
I. Macropolitical Aspects 
The importance, content and democratism in the activity of local govern-
ments are all essentially decided by macrocontexts: legal and constitu-
tional regulations, the settled division of labour and economic conditions 
and the macropolitical situation. It is especially so in Hungary where the 
working of local governments is just being framed and local governments 
cannot rely on well proved norms, practices and traditions. Power, 
authority, property, resources for functioning and resources for develop-
ment are shared between local governments and state and this is primarily 
a political issue. The outcome of this depends on the bargaining position 
of the participants involved. 
To form an opinion of the local governments macroposition, it is 
interesting to sum up the central political power relations and, within it, 
the possibilities of local governments to represent their own interests. 
The following question evidently arises: to what extent can the pro-
portion of Members of Parliament (M.P.$) in the Parliament serve local in-
terests and to what extent is it local-government-friendly? 
The parliamentary electoral system does not guarantee the presence 
of regional interests as the majority of M.P.s are elected on lists and to be 
nominated on a list, even on a county-list, does not mean that there is a tie 
of any kind between the M.P. and the region. This is because the M.P. 
does not have to live permanently in his (or her) constituency. In the case 
of individual constituencies the tie is formally stronger, but as the great 
majority of candidates in the constituencies are supported or nominated by 
parties, one can assume that the M.P.'s territorial identity is not stronger 
than his (or her) party-loyalty. (The fact that I did not find any data indi-
cating where M.P.s live neither in the results of the election nor on the 
composition of the representative body in Parliament would suggest the 
unimportance of an M.P.'s living place.) 
The representation of regional interests does not play any role in the 
working system of Parliament. M.P.s work in fractions or in committees 
and the M.P.s of a county or a region belonging to different parties do not 
co-operate with each other. The group of M.P.s from the Great Plain is an 
exception as they have stronger inclination to lobbying perhaps because of 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
their political culture. Besides this the representation of interests of re-
gions, more precisely of local governments, is not settled formally in the 
work of Parliament except for the Committee of Local Governments. 
However, the party-fragmentation seems to be stronger than the profes-
sional or branch-solidarity in the parliamentary committees' activity. 
Beyond parliamentary representation the associations of local gov-
ernments — as it is their original task — mediate local standpoints to-
wards the central government. The constitutional regulation of this func-
tion is quite loose so it is no wonder that their role is rather insignificant in 
practice. That is, the Law does not clarify which state organ would be the 
partner of the association(s) of local governments, what happens if the 
law-codifying organ does not ask the opinion of the association(s) and 
what formation should be considered as a national association. It is also 
true — there are numerous examples of this in practice — that the right 
to give an opinion is quite a weak one and if the decision-makers, used to 
sharpened political conflicts, will not accept it they will not feel the con-
sequences of it. 
The political insignificance of the local governments' associations 
can be rooted in the fact that the number of them is too high and they 
rarely co-ordinate their activity. Moreover, sometimes motives of plots 
against each other can be noted. "The so called „right to propose" of local 
governments — which can be practised individually or collectively — also 
is not an effective means to assert or protect interests. At most it is ap-
plied in the judgement of individual cases and — not so frequently — as a 
possibility for the correction of legal regulations. The role of the Consti-
tutional Court remains imperceptible for the time being. This can be ex-
plained by the fact that it has very little chance to select and to discuss real 
„philosophical state issues" because of the unlimitedness of the proceed-
ings instituted at the Constitutional Court. 
The relation of parties to local governments can be characterised as 
rather ambivalent which is rooted in the outcome of local elections. As a 
result of it the majority of the representative bodies and the leaders have 
emerged as independents or as members of or supported by the parties of 
the parliamentary opposition. This is why the central government and the 
governing parties make the decisions concerning the local governments in 
macropolitical dimensions and the almost natural contradictions between 
central and local power have become more and more obvious. The out- 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
come of the local elections — most likely — did not help to form a local-
government-friendly attitude in central government. This situation is very 
harmful from the point of local governments because — as I have men-
tioned — at present the shaping and acquiring of future legal, constitu-
tional and property positions is ongoing. In this procedure the prospects 
of local governments to assert their interests are much less and a weak 
bargaining position has a bearing in the long run operating possibilities of 
local governments in power. This is especially so for the aspect of the or-
ganisational system of labour-division, the headway of deconcentrated 
state administration and the formation of state asset ownership by local 
governments. 
So the macropolitical position of local governments as a whole is 
weak. The party-centric political mechanism and electoral system, the 
weak corporative elements and the tendency towards centralisation by the 
state government cause that local governments do not form a significant 
branch of power. At the very most they have only constitutional impor-
tance though even this is being questioned. Pure legal means are not 
enough to solve the problem. Furthermore without a more effective sys-
tem for representation of regional interests the decentralised model of 
state structure is in danger. 
2. Local Political Aspects 
Before I outline the state of affairs it would be expedient to sketch out 
roughly the local political conditions preceding the systemic change which 
— in my opinion — will leave its mark on the operation of the power for 
a long time. In the period of the soviet system based on hierarchy and 
monoparty-system (and as part of the homogenous state power) it was 
oriented only for carrying out orders, there was no local power existing in 
the aspects of constitutional law and macropolitics. The „power" of the 
local political and economic elite dominating the decisions in local issues 
existed „only" horizontally, only towards local society. Towards central 
and regional administration it did not reach for more than accommoda-
tion, lobbying and outwitting. In a centralised, deformed political system 
democratic operation of local power can hardly be expected. The most 
harmful aftermath of the past from the aspect how the present freedom of 
local governments can be „operated" is not the fact that the elite did not 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
get the opportunity to learn the technique of democratic politicising but 
the fact that the local elite and local society became estranged because of 
the lack of real opportunities for association and the lack of mutual inter-
ests. Therefore the political attitude of local society and the demand for 
influencing local decisions have wasted away. Undeniably, there existed 
organisations, initiations of civil society, especially in villages or in private 
residential communities but these showed complete political abstinence 
and their activity remained mostly in the area of culture, sometimes that of 
environmental protection, improvement of the village or in the field of lo-
cal history. In the eighties, as a sign of the regime's crisis, the activity and 
movements of civil society tended to oppone the local elite(s) but this 
phenomenon was campaign-natured and did not embrace the whole re-
gional policy. 
It occurred at the local elections following the systemic change that 
local society, not accustomed to dealing with local public issues, got a 
chance to make a decision in the basic problem of local policy: „who 
governs?" 
Local power conditions and frames of policy-making of local gov-
ernments are partly limited by legal standards and partly formed by special 
local sociological, political etc. conditions. 
The most important constitutional rules on local diffusion of power 
are those which refer to local elections and direct participation. Regula-
tion of local elections is a relatively detailed and complex system and its 
effect appears definitely in the outcome of these elections. The integrated 
list-system (essentially individual, majority-principled) of small settlements 
is perfectly fitted for the purpose that those persons should get into the 
representative body who are locally well-known and have won the confi-
dence and respect of the citizens. If a representative post opens it will be 
filled automatically by a member of the list. This member represents less 
number of voters and less legitimacy. This rule is questionable. 
Direct election of the mayor is also a democratic procedure in itself 
and it is in accordance with the model of a strong mayor. But it is defi-
nitely a negative consequence, however, that the mayor, when elected, 
gets into a defenceless position, unilaterally subordinated to the body 
which exercises the rights of the employer towards the mayor. Actually, in 
settlements with population number less than 5000, the body is entitled to 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
decide whether they employ the mayor „elect" full time. Among the 
causes of a mayor's resignation this is particularly common. 
The election mechanism of larger settlements is more favourable to-
wards the parties. Though other social associations also had the opportu-
nity to enter for the elections the results definitely show the lead of the 
parliamentary parties. It is no wonder as parties have got the routine of a 
parliamentary election and much better communications and financial con-
ditions in the background. The roots of associations of the civil society 
were not strong enough to achieve considerable influence in a party-domi-
nated political mechanism. 
Therefore the large proportion of representatives tied in with parties 
was almost a necessity called forth by the electoral system and local social 
conditions. Several answers can be found why the parties of the parlia-
mentary opposition took the lead but it has little to do with the regulatory 
characteristics of the system. So I do not wish to deal with it in this paper. 
Much more important is the rule that, in larger settlements, the 
mayor is elected or „called in" by the representative body and he (or she) 
is not even required to be a member of the body. One of the problems of 
this regulation is that the indirectly elected mayor is a „strong mayor" 
though he has almost no social legitimation. The other problem is that the 
freedom of the mayor to manoeuvre is very limited if he is „linked" to the 
body or to certain parties in majority. 
In practice the party-based working of representative bodies has 
ended almost in a failure, independently of the diversity, let us say 
„flexibility" of the coalitions having emerged after the elections. Party-
mindedness in the operation of the bodies naturally brings about distrust 
and monopolistic tendencies. 
The operation of parties can inevitably be characterised by central-
ism and by the leading role of central party organs. The content and inten-
sity of this can be very delicately detailed and is periodically fluctuated. 
The scope of action of local party organs is evidently limited by central 
party-influence and their attitude becomes biassed and distorted by ideol-
ogy or party-interests. All these reduce the ability of local party organs to 
compromise and to be flexible within the representative bodies. A greater 
problem is — and it is not easy to correct — that the nearly exclusive par-
ticipation of parties in the bodies has really excluded other social associa-
tions and interest groups from institutionalised local politics. So the basis 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
of information and legitimation of local government decisions is smaller 
than the optimum size. 
If parties prevail, the above mentioned phenomena are unavoidable 
and appear in the practice of Western European countries, too. But in 
Hungary this symptom is worsened by further problems. Normal cycles of 
party-operation are determined by elections therefore the activity of the 
parties decreases around the middle of the electoral period. In Hungary, 
however, the defeat of governing parties in local elections and non-con-
solidated macropolitical conditions cause party-fighting in local politics to 
be much stronger than usual. 
In Western Europe lawyers, experts of political sciences and local 
governments say that openness and direct participation of professional 
and public interests in local government decisions are essential elements of 
local politics. It is so not only because the function of local governments 
is extremely complex and can hardly be categorised into ideological cli-
chés. There is the media, direct participation and other correlating institu-
tions to correct and complete the predominance of parties. Unfortunately, 
in our country there are no — or very few — such pursuits in spite of the 
fact that the  Act  of Local Governments  guarantees much freedom to build 
the institutional system of local democracy. 
For various reasons committees play a key-role in the operation of 
local governments. The committee, as a more efficient organ of a few 
members, is well fitted to reconcile political (body) and special (official) 
standpoints, to prepare decision-making and to organise and check imple-
mentation. The committee can face this function only if special and other 
organisational aspects appear in its structure. With disregard to this con-
cept, many local governments in Hungary set their committees up on the 
base of party-parity ignoring special branch considerations. Even non-
elected outsiders are chosen with a view to parties. A body exposed to 
party-interests and contaminated with distrust is very reserved in delegat-
ing competencies to committees. But without these competencies the 
work of committees becomes formal and unimportant. A further sign of 
distrust on the part of the bodies that they delegate competence neither to 
other organisational units nor to the mayor. In towns one can find that a 
great number of the submissions bypass the office. This self-imposed se-
clusion of the body evidently brings about many dysfunction. The sessions 
of noisy personal debates drag on because of too many and often unpre- 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
pared items on the agenda. Efficiency decreases often to inability for de-
cision-making. Unsettled decisions must often be revised and it occurs 
that dilettantish decisions get lost in the turnings and twisting of the pas-
sively resistant office. The attention of the body disintegrates and finally 
disappears in the unprepared and unselected series of important and un-
important, individual and conceptual decision-making. This syndrome 
transgresses the bounds of the city hall and the lack of internal division of 
labour and power endangers rationalism and the effectiveness of local 
government working. 
In principle over and above democratic elements, institutions of di-
rect participation have an important role in local government politicising. 
Regulations by the Act of Local Governments give them a relatively large 
scope of movement and within the frames of freedom to establish organi-
sations, local governments themselves can establish relationships in vari-
ous forms with local society. However, it seems that institutions of direct 
participation will not gain significant standing either. While a considerable 
reservedness can be observed in the electoral behaviour of citizens (mainly 
in cities) — and it is not necessarily the case that they are uninterested —
in the case of institutions of direct participation passivity is typical both on 
the part of local governments and local society. Local governments — be-
cause they look upon their legitimacy as a four-year fidei commissum 
—do not feel inclined — except in obligatory cases — to hold local referen-
dums, meetings and public hearings. The most saddening thing is not the 
fact that the leaders of local governments do not show a preference for 
more democratic and more open local policy-making but the fact that they 
cannot recognise that openness in politicising is essential for effective and 
expedient decision-making . 
Meanwhile in Western Europe there are numerous efforts to draw 
local public administration nearer to citizens, not just so that citizens 
should feel more comfortable or because of a demand for democracy but 
because decision-makers can obtain the most useful information through 
direct relationships. 
Hungarian politicians in local governments, however, seem not to 
want to seek communication with local society. 
Obviously the absence of the local community is typical of larger 
settlements as in villages there are no secrets about the activity of the 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
small body or that of the officials. Anyway, resignations of mayors, the 
absence of voters in by-elections are not by any means hopeful signs. 
The question arises: why should one be impatient? Even democracy 
has to be learned. No doubt, the lack of political culture, the reserved atti-
tude of citizens towards politics and the innumerable uncertainties of the 
transition do not encourage the progress of local democracy. At the same 
time one must not forget that establishing the organisational frames of lo-
cal government principle and formalisation of local power alone are not 
enough to create democratic conditions of power. This is why, it seems, 
development of local democracy must be promoted and driven politically 
and — within limitations — also by legal regulations. So, for example, it 
cannot be looked on with folded arms that organisations of civil society 
waste away amidst over-fervent party-fighting. Paradoxically, as a conse-
quence of over-paternalism of the state or local governments, non-profit 
organisations, initiations can not take shape. They would be able not only 
to substitute the former hegemonic state and soviet system of provision 
but they could give opportunities to charitable, cultural, etc. groups of the 
society. Democratic roots of local governments are essential, not only 
from the point of effective, optimal decision-making but also because har-
monious division of labour in organising and carrying out local services 
can be made only in close relations with local society and economy. 
At the next elections efforts should be made — first of all by 
amending the electoral system — that, along with a slowly solidifying 
party-structure, the countless forms of interest groups, professional alli-
ances and social organisations should be reorganised and they should ob-
tain representation (power if you like) both on national and local level. 
The same would be desirable in the case of experts, personalities and the 
so- called independents, especially locally. If organisation of non-party-
centric alternatives of political socialisation will not start in the near fu-
ture, it is to be feared that the next elections will be unsuccessful because 
of low participation. (Liberalisation of legally regulated rates of participa-
tion would be — in my opinion — a cynical and anti-democratically tech-
nocratic answer.) 
The working of local government systems up till now shows that the 
local government organisation does not become democratic and open 
automatically therefore it must be forced upon it. In certain aspects, citi-
zens have to be protected from local power and guarantees must be given 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
them that they can realise their rights to local governing. Let us not forget 
that „checks and balances" of the relative independence of local govern-
ments from the state are participation and control by local society. With-
out this — as many have pointed out — local power degrades to the rul-
ing of local petty „monarchs". 
A point of great nicety is how to compel a local government to 
function democratically and how efficient this could be. The Act of Local 
Governments contains binding elements (for the cases of local referen-
dums and hearings) but this is not enough to guarantee that the local ad-
ministration will function continuously „close to the citizen". However, 
such a regulation is feasible whereby competencies should be automati-
cally delegated to obligatorily established committees or that in certain 
cases of local government decision-making, compromises would be 
obligatory. To order more democratic and open politicising by legal regu-
lations, after all, is a paradox. 
Local governments themselves have to find their own place „in 
space" and also in local society, they themselves have to establish their 
own relationships for co-operation and association and their own local 
social and economic partnerships. The failures of a closed up and auto-
cratic working of local governments and the more deliberate attitude of 
local society would further much more local democracy than any legal 
regulations. 
In any case, political and legal limitation (that is public control) of 
local power is as essential a function today as it used to be in the hierar-
chic soviet system based on monolithic party-ruling. 
The fundamental difference between the two models is that in the 
case of local governments this is a realisable objective while in the case of 
the soviet system these were only big words. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
THE REGIONAL STRUCTURE OF STATE ADMINISTRATION 
The local government system in comparison with the former — soviet —
model of regional administration brings about the opportunity for a much 
more decentralised state organisation. The explanation the constitutional 
law offers is that local governments are relatively more independent from 
central state organs than the hierarchically organised soviets. These were 
integrated into the implementation structure of the socialist state based on 
the unity of power. Here it is unnecessary to speak about the evolution of 
local government independence. However, it should be noted that within 
or parallel with local government systems there has always worked — and 
is working — a deconcentrated regional system of state administration. In 
the 19th century, at the period of the formation of modern civil states lo-
cal governments were integrated into the state mechanism. Then they did 
not assume all regional functions of the state. There have always been 
state functions which demanded a hierarchic structure which is classically 
characteristic of state administration. Such functions are, for example, 
administration of defence, taxation 'and financial affairs. The inner logic of 
deconcentrated state administration has always been that to complete suc-
cessfully certain state functions a uniform and „servile" implementation is 
needed. It is in the common interest that these tasks should be uniformly 
performed everywhere and towards everybody, following the path of bu-
reaucratic rationality and not that of local democratic consideration. An-
other reason for deconcentration could be that the state undertakes such 
functions which should be uniformly realised towards everybody, unre-
lated to their place of residence and the capacity of the given local gov-
ernment. These functions are the following: social policy, public health 
care, education, etc. There are many factors to determine the division of 
tasks and competencies between the local governments and the state or-
gans on the territorial level and their proportion will finally decide about 
the extension of state decentralisation. In many states certain state func-
tions are conducted by local governments on behalf of the state. By all 
means, local governments have a wide scope of competence and a general 
authority for local issues. At the same time there are some state structures 
where dozens of separate state-authorities function parallel with the local 
governments. Some of them have quite strict control over the working of 
local governments. The interesting thing is that the level of centralisation 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
can be similar in entirely different types of state structures, for example in 
Great Britain and in France. 
In the case of the soviet-type regional administration power on re-
gional level does not separate into representative (local governmental) and 
state administrational spheres. The most diverse functions are amalga-
mated in the system of soviets from representational politicising through 
controlling companies and organisation of services to individual-purpose 
tasks-management, keeping the whole under representative control, for 
the socialist state is not distrustful of regional level soviets. This is why 
extra deconcentrated apparatus of state administration is not set up. It is 
so, also because the state could govern and control the whole mechanism 
of the soviets after regional administration had been arranged in hierarchi-
cal order. Therefore in 1990 the local government model came into an al-
most totally unified system of regional administration. From the point of 
this heritage we should highlight another characteristic element of regional 
administration of the past 40 years. 
The Hungarian system of soviets functioned not only as a unified 
but also as a territorially very integrated and concentrated organisational 
mechanism. It was characteristic in the administration of small villages, of 
the gravity zones of the cities and also in the administration of cities. The 
high degree of integration has probably increased the effectiveness and 
skill of the administrative work but it has also resulted in a large „deficit 
of democracy" and has taken away the political element from the opera-
tion of the soviets. 
The most important centres of the integration were the soviet-type 
county councils which penetrated the activity of local soviets. Such func-
tions of the county councils were legal control, conducting the operation 
of specialised administrative authorities, distributing financial resources, 
being the forum of second level, top services and main investors. 
These preliminary factors — in my opinion — have influenced the 
codifiers of the Act of Local Governments at least as much as the local 
government models of Western Europe or pre-war Hungary. There are 
two aspects in the trends of the Hungarian local government system which 
are almost totally opposite to those in Western Europe. The two facts 
that, firstly, the efforts of villages for absolute autonomy and autarchy 
and, secondly, that regional governments have lost all their ground are the 
tendencies in contradiction with Western European models and processes. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
However, the aforesaid is in itself a phenomenon neither positive nor 
negative. 
Still, the experiences of the past one and a half years indicate that a 
disintegrated regional administration might bring about many disadvan-
tages. Let us see which institutions, regulations and concepts have led to 
this situation. 
1. The Separation of Regional Tasks into State and Local 
Governmental Sectors 
The most important question is whether the Act has designated the 
boundaries of local government and deconcentrated state administration. 
In my opinion even its legal regulation is questionable but the practice of 
state-construction, that is the expansion of deconcentrated organs, since 
the time Act came into force proves that there are no constitutional guar-
antees for the local-government-dominated regional administration. The 
Act of Local Governments declares: the local government  „independently 
acts in local public issues coming within its tasks and competencies". 
The definition of „local public issues" is not precisely formulated:  „these 
are in connection with the following issues: 
- to provide citizens with public services, 
- local government type exercising of executive power, 
- local production of the organisational, personal and financial 
resources of all the above". 
Later the Act declares:  „The bindingly prescribed and voluntarily 
undertaken tasks and competencies of the local government embrace a 
wide scale of local public issues. Exceptionally the Law may delegate a 
local public issue to the tasks and competencies of another organisa-
tion." 
It is clear that concepts are used quite nimbly and the interpretation 
will play too important a role. Especially the interpretation of local public 
issue and the possibility of „exceptional" delegation to another organ 
makes the question undecided: can local governments protect themselves 
with means of the constitutional law against the nationalisation of re-
gional-local functions? 
The uncertain regulation, the tendency towards centralisation by the 
state government and the fact that the ministries uphold their position for 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
a direct management have all started an energetic progress for deconcen-
tration. Characteristic features of this process are eventuality, direct 
manifestation of the ambitions of certain ministries and the fact that most 
of the „nationalised" functions could be found among the competencies of 
the former, soviet-type county councils. So in this respect the elimination 
of the „power on county level" has increased not the competencies of lo-
cal governments but those of the central and local state organs. In princi-
ple the following aspects determine how to separate the tasks to be dele-
gated: 
– some of the tasks — by their nature — are better not to be ex-
posed to the influence of local interests, 
– uniform management of them is a national interest, 
– successful implementation of them cannot be allowed to depend 
on the various conditions of local governments, 
– some of them demand a special knowledge. 
This is why it is more rational if the management of taxation, na-
tional defence and national health care is delegated into the competence of 
the deconcentrated state administration. The mechanism of local govern-
mental decision-making asks for an entirely different way of thinking. It is 
local characteristics and consideration that play the decisive role in this 
procedure. Local decision making takes into account the aspects of local 
political interests just as much as those of efficiency. 
A good local knowledge and a demand for local identity and de-
mocracy is essential in the workings of local governments. This is why a 
local government organ is best fitted for the tasks of forming the living 
conditions of the settlement, local development, supply for the citizens, 
public education etc. 
The proportion of the decision-making model of local governments 
and that of deconcentrated organs depends mainly on current political ten-
dencies and on the efforts of the national government for centralisation 
and not on special rationality. It is the same in Hungary too. Since  the 
time local governments got formal legal independence for decision-mak-
ing from the state the central government has had a tendency to narrow 
the reach of the local governmental sphere. The outcome of the local 
governmental elections might have increased the distrustfulness of the 
central governmental power towards local governments but in the end it is 
the traditional  slate versus local government  conflict that can be found in 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
the background. The situation in Hungary is more problematic as local 
governments have got much fewer chances and resources in this fighting 
for power and authority. The central power — lacking a coherent concept 
for state-construction — organises the deconcentrated regional system 
determined by the interests of the sectoral ministries. Ministries are satis-
fied that their special and political interests will be realised only if the 
„sectoral" tasks are carried out by organisations directly subordinated to 
and continuously manageable by them. One by one, almost every ministry 
sets up its local „agency", authority. The majority of these organisations 
administers positively the so-called local public issues. At the period when 
the system of soviets was established a definite objective was to unify the 
state administration. The public administration in the  Horihy regime,  es-
-
pecially from the nineteen thirties onwards, showed a preference towards 
the establishment of deconcentrated organisations to push local govern-
ments — especially on county level — into the background. The over-
growth of the deconcentrated organisations appeared to the citizen as a 
completely confused system of decision making forums. The organisation 
of the unified and uniform system of soviets — among others — was 
aimed to eliminate this disintegrated and uncoordinated system. It was 
definitely a positive feature of the soviet system that it was clearly ar-
ranged for the citizen (and naturally for the superiors), it had a uniform, 
easy-to-manage information system and most of its decisions could be 
controlled by a representative organ. 
It seems as if the present organisation of the public administration 
does not take into account these not „system-specific" but most rational 
points of view. The unified regional administration has disintegrated into 
many independent decision-makers, increasing in number. In this con-
glomerate co-ordinative and integrative relations are not regulated and di-
rected. The whole thing has slipped out from the control and influence of 
local society. 
The virulence of the deconcentrated public administration has a 
negative bearing especially on the county level as a unit of local govern-
ment. If we survey the deconcentrated organisational mechanism it will 
turn out that most of them have got the competencies of the former 
county councils: TAKISZ (budgetary and information office of the Min-
istry of the Interior), offices of agriculture, job centres, offices of the 
„Representatives of the Republic", environmental organisations etc. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
So if we closely examine the practice in competence-delegation it 
will come out clearly that the decision-making competencies have slipped 
onto a higher level — and not to a lower one — local governmental prin-
ciples or not. 
In the deconcentrated institutional mechanism we should turn our 
attention in particular to the  Representatives of the Republic  and their 
ever increasing power. As is well known, this organisation and post have 
got into the Act of Local Governments as the result of a considerable po-
litical compromise. 
Simply legal control cannot be exercised by the local government 
organisation as it is not in accordance with the inner logic of local gov-
ernmental principles. The aim, more precisely the alleged reason, was that 
the tasks of legal control of local governments and those of the second 
level of individual-purpose tasks management should be delegated to an 
outside organisation with purely an administrative character. The parties 
of the opposition crossed the plan that this post should be fulfilled with 
the ill-famed  Lord Lieutenant  of the pre-1945 era of the Hungarian public 
administration. This is why this post has been constructed so that it is the 
President (and not the Government) who nominates the Representatives 
of the Republic and their offices are organised on regional basis instead of 
county basis. Real practice, however, has overstepped the announced aims 
and frames very long ago. Beyond the President's formal right for their 
appointment the Representatives of the Republic are definitely bound to 
the Government and to the Ministry of the Interior. Their commitment 
was based clearly on political considerations. The competence of these 
organisations is far from limited to legal control which means a consider-
able power and influence in itself. 
Based on the flexible regulation of the Act of Local Governments 
more and more state-administrational competence was delegated to the 
Representatives of the Republic. Moreover, by a recent governmental 
declaration they have got such tasks which are quite far from the idea of 
neutral public administration. Namely a demand has arisen for the co-ordi-
nation of the workings of the local governments' and the deconcentrated 
organisations of a region also from the aspects of regional and local deve-
lopment and those of local implementation of regional programs of the 
central government. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
Lately the Representatives of the Republic appear in such forums 
and form such opinions which indicate that they are not neutral authorities 
anymore with primarily legal control functions but they can be character-
ised as regional centres of power. Politicians of the central government 
more and more frequently speak about  regions in a way as if those territo-
ries under the competence of the Representatives of the Republic meant 
more than a unit of public administration, as if these were „organic" re-
gional levels of the Hungarian state-development. 
It would be a very dangerous tendency if the future model and the 
territorial structure of the Hungarian regional administration were deter-
mined by the demands of the central power. Let us not forget that the -
Constitution says no more than:  „the Government guarantees the legal 
control of local governments... d) by the Representatives of the Republic 
with the co-operation of the Minister for Home Affairs"(35  § (1)). 
Summing up, my opinion is that the model of the regional admini-
stration is not settled yet by the constitutional law. Local government and 
state-administrative spheres coexist. The development of their relations is 
subordinated to current demands as there is no mutual understanding in 
the future model of state administration. 
2. Counties' Position in the Local Government System 
During the period when the Act of Local Governments was being drafted 
a general desire was that the future regional level should essentially differ 
from the characteristics of the former soviet-type county council. This 
general anti-county attitude was natural then because the county council 
represented the main obstacle to local independence, for everybody, es-
pecially for the settlements. The county council as part of a hierarchically 
organised administrative structure was in an extremely ambivalent posi-
tion already from the aspect of the constitutional law. That is according to 
the  Council Act,  the county council had to be eligible for the local repre-
sentation of central power and for the protection of local interests at the 
same time. Its structure was in accordance with these contradictory func-
tions. The executive committee of the county council exercised legal and 
special control over the local soviets. The county council's official struc-
ture was set up on the basis of the central sectoral structure. At the same 
time it had a body where the members were delegated by the local soviets 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
so this was the forum where the mediation and representation of local in-
terests took place. This mechanism, working under pressure from below 
and above at the same time, necessarily led to dysfunction and to a shift in 
the centre of power. The activity of the representative body became 
empty and formal. The lobbying mechanism for local interests was aimed 
at the official apparatus and at the officials of the county council. The cen-
tral administration practically „swallowed" the official, implementing units 
of the county level in the interests of the realisation and „collection" of 
central expectations. On the one hand, the leaders of the county council 
made definite efforts for lobbying and for realising the interests of the 
county as a region against the central organs. On the other hand, as being 
the county level of the allocation of resources, they continuously came 
into conflicts with the representatives of non-preferred regions and set-
tlement-types. The situation was further complicated by the role of the 
county-level party-management. County councils undertook the tasks of 
organising and solving the infrastructural problems of the region while the 
county-level party-committees — by their economic-managerial functions 
— influenced the economic decision- making. 
The role of the county-level — as it clearly has come to light —
was contradictory as a result of the administrational structure already. In 
many (legal and sociological) aspects it acted under pressure. (It is appar-
ent in the twofold existential dependence of the officials: as elected lead-
ers they were bound to their own representative body but as officials to 
the superior level of state administration.) 
But in my opinion the content of the county-role in the system of 
soviets was specified much more by the given mechanism of distribution 
and economy and by the official policy for regional and local develop-
ment. The county level played a very important role in the central redistri-
bution mechanism, especially until 1984. Within the frames of the priority-
system for development in power the conditions of settlement develop-
ment depended on the decisions of the county-level. As it is well-known it 
was the county's right to point out the lower-grade centres and to resolve 
the roles in settlement development and supply, primarily in the case of 
villages. Besides, the allocation of resources for regional development and 
distribution of directed state-subsidies within the county was among the 
county's tasks. But in contrast with the public belief the scope for county-
level movement was very limited. With their decisions they could not 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
serve —  de jure —  anything other than central infrastructural and eco-
nomic priorities. Counties tried to assert the interests of their whole re-
gion for development in the central decisions on distribution, first of all 
with informal lobbying methods. At the same time, on the one hand, they 
savagely fought against the rival counties, on the other hand, they had to 
undertake the often unpopular role which goes with local allocation of the 
seized resources. 
The earlier role of the counties underwent a considerable change 
after 1985. This change was effectuated by the liberalisation of economic 
regulations, by the introduction of normative methods into the distribution 
and by the modification in the regional development policy. Discretional 
decisions in distribution have lost ground but it is worth mentioning that it 
occurred at a time when resources for development had already decreased 
to minimum. 
The antipathy towards the county-level of the soviet system is 
caused by various complicated reasons as the above shows. This is why it 
is an oversimplification to declare that the subjective attitude and „county 
policy" of the county-councils adversely affected the interests of local 
soviets. Dependence of local soviets was brought about by the immanent 
characteristics of the soviet-type administrative model and by the distribu-
tion mechanism where the county-council was only a cog — and not even 
an important one — in the machinery. I emphasise this because the sim-
plification of the county-problem has had very deleterious effects on the 
formation of the local government regulation. 
Each of the county-alternatives drafted by the experts or by parties 
took a decreased-power county-model as a starting point and looked 
upon the maximum independence of local governments as an „axiom". 
Not only a traditional antipathy towards the county but also a per-
sistence on the classical interpretation of the local government principle 
helped to develop the above attitude. The starting point of legislators was 
that it is the local community which is originally entitled to the local gov-
ernment rights so the basic unit of the local government system is the local 
government of the settlement. Every local government unit other than that 
of the settlement can play only a complementary, a so-called  subsidiary 
role.  There were such county-alternatives which did not regard the middle 
level as a local government unit. One of them wanted to delegate middle-
level functions to an organisation working as an association of settle- 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
ments. By another one the middle level should function only as an 
„official" state-administrative organ. 
Fortunately the third one has got onto the Act of Local Govern-
ments. The county is a local government unit which undertakes functions 
which local governments of the settlements do not want or are not able to 
undertake. The local government of the county is „equal" (if not second) 
in rank with that of the settlement. 
The disadvantageous starting position of the local government of 
the county can be seen already in the basic legal regulation. Let us start 
with the election itself as the basis for legitimation of a local government 
unit. The local government organ of the county is set up in an indirect 
„electoral system". It means that its legitimation is „secondary" origi-
nated from the local governments of the settlements. Though — in this 
sense — the county-level means the representation of local governments 
of the settlements but just this connection (between the county and the 
settlements) is uncertain. 
On the one hand, not every settlement's local government is repre-
sented in the county-assembly. The proportion of representation is espe-
cially low in counties with many small villages. On the other hand, the law 
does not regulate the direct relationship of the local government of the 
county with that of the settlements taking rigorous care that the independ-
ence of local governments of the settlements should not suffer any 
abridgement. 
The fact that the county's local government is second in rank can be 
traced also in the model of function- and competence-delegation. The 
county is entitled to manage such functions which extend over the terri-
tory of a county or a district. But any settlement's local government can 
voluntarily undertake the management of any county-function, alone or in 
associations. In this regard the functions and competencies of the county 
may change in time and in space. It is being altered by the decisions of the 
settlements' local governments. 
The third element to limit the activity of the county's local govern-
ment is the legal regulation for the legal status of  towns with county 
rights.  It is worth mentioning perhaps that at the period when the Act of 
Local Governments was being drafted the experts followed the principle 
that there are cities with regional functions and their regional role should 
be backed with some extra regulation. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
The majority of the proposals concerned only a narrow sphere: only 
those cities which had a regional gravity zone. What is more, the majority 
of the experts insisted that the special legal status of the cities should be 
institutionalised in partnership with the counties. 
In this regard the decision of Parliament — affected by a good deal 
of subjectivism and improvisation — extended the legal status of towns 
with county rights over too wide sphere without reason. Moreover, the 
conflict between the local government of the county and that of the town 
with county rights became almost institutionalised by the fact that they are 
not represented in each other's body and these local government units are 
doomed to rivalisation by Parliament's decision. 
So if we survey the basic regulation concerning the county-level in 
the Act of Local Governments we can see that within the local govern-
ment system the county has suffered grievous losses of its former prestige 
and power. It was primarily caused by the former anti-county atmosphere 
and by the absolutisation of the independence of settlements' local gov-
ernment. If we limited our analysis exclusively to the local government 
sphere we would have to say that a firm decentralisation has occurred in 
the regional decision-making mechanism. The aims of it are to be wel-
comed even if they are not unambiguously rational in regard to reality. 
But other tendencies in state-construction give the problem quite different 
dimensions. Pushing counties into the background and into uncertainty is 
much more the instrument and the proof of an etatist and centralising ten-
dency than that of liberation of settlements' local governments from 
county-oppression. 
Among various analytical dimensions of the territorial middle-level 
international bearings are also important but only in that case if we want 
to build a structure compatible with Western European systems of deci-
sion-making. 
Western European local government structures are created by a de-
velopment over the centuries. At the period of the bourgeois transforma-
tion when local governments of the modern public law were established 
settlements were the central units of local government systems. Urbanis-
ing processes of the 20th century, increasing role of the state, professional 
interest for rationalisation of public administration and the demand on the 
state's part to influence and plan regional development especially in the 
second half of the century resulted in forceful integration tendencies. The 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
territorial-organisational integration manifested itself, on the one hand, in 
the elimination of small settlements' independence and in the formation of 
optimum-size units of public administration and also in the increasing im-
portance of regional administrative-local government units. This process 
was the basis for the formulation of a new paradigm in the late 1970s and 
throughout the 1980s: the concept of Europe of Regions.  International re-
gional co-operation has destroyed the rigid bounds of international state-
and government-centric relationships and has opened new doors for the 
co-operation of state and local government units of the regions. 
In Hungary, following the systemic change and the construction of 
the local government system the prospect for regional cooperation has 
opened up. The intensity of relations is determined, however, by the Hun-
garian territorial structure and the present model of power-division. The 
international challenge — among others — requires an urgent revision of 
the county and regional decentralisation problem. Western European 
countries offer plenty of experiences in solving the problems of regions. 
In Western Europe, in the 1970s, drastic public administrative and 
regional reform measures were launched almost everywhere. As a result 
regional governments and administrative units have been strengthened in 
competence and in financial conditions. In accordance with this in Great 
Britain the counties have emerged as key units of the system.  In the 
Netherlands 11 provinces and comprehensive multifunction associations 
of townships exercise regional functions. In Italy 20 regions and 94 prov-
inces; in France 22 regions and 96 departments, in Spain 50 provinces and 
17 domains, in Sweden 23 counties, in Belgium 3 regions, 9 provinces 
and 43 districts tend to be bound stronger to local governments and to 
undertake the political representation of the territory-region. The prov-
inces and cantons in federal countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) 
carry specific „state" quality. It occurs that within some of the provinces 
and cantons representative-local governmental units (districts) develop 
parallel with administrative territorial units (boroughs). 
It is interesting to mention Finland where there is no regional local 
government level. While still the experts constantly bring to attention  the 
lack of this level Finns try to solve functional disorder with diverse  forms 
of association. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
But remaining within the boundaries of our immediate environment 
we can say that the public administrative reforms of the former socialist 
countries have not completely destroyed the regional level. 
However, we should not forget about the other trend of the Euro-
pean regional integration, namely the various forms of centralisation. Be-
sides classical deconcentration (where territorial organs with general or 
special competence, subordinated to the centre, „lure away" originally lo-
cal government functions) more veiled forms of centralisation come into 
being. The more and more strict forms of legal and special control, the 
overburdening of local governments with state-functions and especially 
the centralised redistribution mechanism all fortify the influence of central 
organs. An effective power-balance against these tendencies can be pro-
duced only on regional level. The fierce fight in every country for 
nationalising regional administration and for just the opposite of it that is 
for strengthening its local government-, representative-character is not a 
mere accident. 
European regions show specific interests towards the regions in the 
former socialist countries of Central Europe. 
A sub-central government level of international relationships has 
come to life in the areas of public administration, culture and economy. 
This fact strengthens the conditions of the co-operating partners also in 
their fight against their own central administration. But direct regional co-
operation is rendered more difficult if the partnerships are not made clear 
and if the co-operating partners have different competencies and eco-
nomic resources at their disposal. Evidently, the problem in its entirety 
cannot be solved. For example, the local government of  Vas County  can-
not be brought into the same position as the Bavarian Province. But the 
situation cannot be kept up for a long time that Burgenland has two Hun-
garian counties and three Hungarian towns with county rights as partners 
in Hungary at the same time. These rival with each other in many aspects 
even if they do not declare it for the time being. But we also should not 
forget about the blunt fact that Western European regions want only rep-
resentative units as partners. If we survey the content of these regional 
co-operations (for example the Alps-Adria Working Community) it also 
comes to light that only partners with general regional authority and a 
good information and relation system can take part in the co-operation. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
Present Hungarian regional administrative structure can face the 
European challenge only at the expense of great compromise. Although 
international relationships of counties (especially in  Transdanubia) have 
livened up greatly, these may degenerate into mere official tourism if the 
co-operations will not bring about the expected, primary economic re-
sults. The present system of means standing at the counties' disposal is not 
enough to the economic management of their area and to perform an ex-
tended marketing activity. It is true even if their role were limited to co-
ordination and mediation. As it is well known the activity of counties has 
formally lost the connection with their basis of information, namely with 
local governments of the settlements and also with the economic factors 
of their region. By the above I do not mean the former relation system 
which did not amount to much more than making local soviets to give ac-
count periodically or influencing state-owned companies politically or as 
founders. It is a regional manager-centre, mediating information, co-ordi-
nating and partly developing that is missing. This should be able to repre-
sent flexibly — but not with profit-interests — the autonomous local 
government and economic elements and orient their activity. 
The Act of Local Governments offers five models for how to man-
age the functions which exceed the boundaries of the settlement. Primarily 
— following the inner logic of the Act — the local government of the 
settlement can perform alone regional functions. The reason is, on the one 
hand, that the Act — parallel with recognition of the equality of local 
governments — indicates that larger local government units may get more 
competence. On the other hand, the Act makes possible to any local gov-
ernment to undertake voluntarily the performance of such functions which 
may have otherwise been delegated to the competence of another local 
government organ. In this case the local government is entitled to its share 
of the state-subsidy, too. 
The next organisation model for performing regional functions is the 
association. Local governments can form associations to perform the 
compulsory or voluntarily undertaken tasks. They can elicit the compe-
tence of another local government this way too. 
The next one on the list is the case of towns with county rights. 
They can perform — within their own territory — the functions which 
were otherwise delegated to the competence of the local government of 
the county. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
By the legal regulation the county was primarily intended to per-
form the tasks that local governments of settlements can not be compelled 
to do. (I could not find any traces of the normative regulation of this 
sphere so in this sense this definition is a tautology: the county performs 
the tasks the settlement can not be compelled to do; the settlement can 
not be compelled to perform the tasks which are in the competence of the 
county!) However, the Act puts the organisation of regional-type public 
services into this sphere if the majority of those who apply for the service 
do not live within the territory of the settlement where the centre of the 
service can be found. This rule — already through the interpretation of 
the concept and in practice as well — leaves the services in the compe-
tence of the county which function in settlements with small numbers of 
inhabitants. Usually they are not towns. Another feature of these services 
is that they are special ones which can be effectively and comprehensively 
utilised only on county or regional level. But even this general regulation 
can be ruined by the next paragraph of the Act. It says that the local gov-
ernment of the settlement where the centre of the service is seated can 
undertake the management of the service if the local government proves 
that the majority of those who use the service were the settlement's own 
inhabitants in the preceding four years. 
The above introduced four types of the delegation of regional tasks 
and their relations to each other foreshadow a very disproportionate and 
incidental system in the management of regional tasks. The question 
which services are managed by the county depends essentially on the de-
cisions of the settlements' local governments and this may be altered as 
frequently as in every year. The experiences until now show that — espe-
cially — the towns stick to services which increase their prestige. But 
they try to get rid of those which operate at loss and primarily supply rural 
areas (homes for the elderly, students hostels, vocational secondary 
schools). 
This ever-changing function-management  will  hopefully get stabi-
lised after a while when the conditions of management will be firmly es-
tablished. It is predictable that most of the regional services will be man-
aged by towns. In the system of regional function-management deconcen-
trated organs can also be considered as consolidated factors. 
To sum up, if we limited regional functions to the management of 
regional services very few functions would remain with the counties. But 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
the scope of functions to manage — and which can be managed — on a 
regional scale is much wider and the management of services within it is 
not even the most important one. The legal regulation of competencies, 
tasks for regional functions is rather roughly drawn for the time being. It 
may be natural from the aspect that the most pressing demand for putting 
in order the competence-delegation appeared in the area of operative 
works which affects citizens closely and every day. Another question is 
that during the one-year-long working local governments should have 
realised the fact that one cannot make wise decisions neither in matters of 
detail nor in operative issues without future prospects and strategy of ac-
tivity and without a diagnosis based on detailed analysis of the objective 
situation. Without all of these haste and improvisation may become the 
style of working. This may cause extraordinary losses in the long-run 
functioning conditions. 
Besides the'lack of a long-run way of thinking a fundamental prob-
lem is the negligence of „thinking in space". Those who are involved in 
the workings of the local government system are absorbed, almost every-
where, in their own immediate organisation problems. Most of them could 
not establish a co-ordinative mechanism even within the boundaries of 
their own settlements not to speak about the scale of small-regions, 
towns, gravity zones, counties or regions. It is a kind of disintegration 
when the former territorial units with an administrative attitude and inte-
grated by administrative methods fall apart. This process of disintegration 
will bring problems into the light when the organisations of supply will be 
reduced to their atoms, after having settled the conditions of ownership 
and competence and when the  inertia moment  of the former strict inte-
gration will completely disappear. Only the local government-type man-
agement-mechanism would be able to prevent these processes but not 
without direction, orientation and motivation. This is the „virgin land" 
that counties — for want of a better area of movement — should occupy. 
At present counties are those organisations that are able to stop the enor-
mous gap in co-ordination, information, planning and management. The 
professional apparatus of counties is relatively continuous, what is more, 
it is not overloaded with administrative and individual-purpose tasks. As 
counties emerged on representative basis they are most destined for per-
forming their activity with an attitude for representing and asserting their 
interests. Another question is what preconditions are missing for this new- 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
type functioning. The most important of these are perhaps the compre-
hensive, thematically arranged and processed information. Some of the 
counties were not shy and have built up, more precisely have kept up di-
rect relations with the settlements. Others, however, are modestly satisfied 
with operating their own body. The information system which has got into 
the competence of the deconcentrated administration (TAKISZ, for ex-
ample) has the purpose of serving exclusively the demands of the central 
administration. It is neither suitable nor available for regional local gov-
ernmental and economic decision-making. 
Complex, conscientious, skilled and — in a good sense — biassed 
handling of economic and crisis problems of the respective regions can be 
expected also from the local governments of the counties. There is no 
question that counties should have financial resources exclusively for re-
gional problems at their disposal. There is no question either that profit 
and non-profit type manager organisations and the central government 
should not be allowed into this scope of functions. And in particular there 
is no question that counties should be the top entrepreneurs and owners in 
the regional economy. Aspiration for omnipotence and such a monopolis-
tic position is out of question even for a unit of local government type. 
One has to recognise, however, that such a multifunctioning, co-ordinat-
ing, planning unit of the system is badly needed. This would be able to 
integrate, catalyse and bring closer — to some extent — sectoral, state, 
local government and market-economic efforts on regional level. 
For the alternative of the local government of the county is at pre-
sent the Representative of the Republic. A not very secret purpose of cen-
tral government is that the Representatives of the Republic should get re-
gional developing and co-ordinating functions besides their comprehen-
sive state administrating tasks. 
It is mutual interest of the local governments of both the county and 
the settlements to stop the efforts towards the nationalisation of regional 
functions. 
As I have mentioned the central government has gained advantage 
in this regard. They did not wait for the regulation of competencies con-
nected with the act of regional development but — by a governmental 
decree — expanded the offices of the Representatives of the Republic 
with regional co-ordinative tasks. 
30 

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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
In my opinion any type of competence-delegation in itself is not 
enough to stop counties in more offensive undertaking of functions. Local 
governments should realise already that within the local government syst-
em they have further opportunities for active working beyond the mere 
possession of administrative state competencies. (What is more, Western 
European local governments complain that they have too many compul-
sory tasks, especially state administration, so they have no capacity re-
maining for voluntarily undertaken tasks which give the very essence of 
local government work.) 
Most of the regional tasks, however, are alien to classical public 
administration. These, to a greater degree, call for the entrepreneurial, 
managerial character, typical of local governments. Consequently, coun-
ties also have to break with their former working methods. They should 
form more flexible, more initiative, manager-type behaviour and methods. 
Another problem is whether the present structure and order of 
counties is optimal from the aspect of the place of appearance, the scale 
and the demand for information of regional functions. It is not at all un-
likely that differences should be eliminated not inevitably by public ad-
ministration and territorial reform but by a much more flexible and ex-
tended system of associations. Regional co-operation of the counties is to 
be welcomed though this could be formalised not only in associations for 
asserting and protecting of common interests but also in those of local 
governments. 
Counties will rise only if they emerge from the narrow bounds of 
their organisation and normative competencies and undertake outright the 
special, informative and political co-ordination of regional progresses. In 
Western Europe regional policy has undergone — and it is undergoing to-
day — a change in its model. Its essentials are the following: decentrali-
sation, utilisation of regional and local identity, mobilisation of endo-
genous resources, differentiation in the regional system of objectives and 
priorities. In making this progress the role the state plays is considerable 
— and in Hungary this role will be hopefully the same — but by all means 
it has a subsidiary nature. That is the state appears only in those areas —
and only to the necessary extent — where regional and local resources are 
insufficient. If our objectives in regional policy are similar to the above we 
have to draw the consequences both in the area of power and administra-
tion and that of the allocation of economic resources. 
31 

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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
3. Further Phenomena of Disintegration in the Local 
Government System 
The fact that counties are thrown into the background would not be so 
distressing if towns and central-position-settlements filled the gap and 
they undertook regional, small-regional and gravity-zone integrative func-
tions. Towns would be marked out to this by the freedom in undertaking 
functions and by the „separated" regional function. But there is nothing to 
compel and to stimulate them to do so. The former practice in settlement 
policy and in the organisation of supply connected the administrative rank 
with the field of settlement activity: a higher rank meant a normatively set 
responsibility for supply. The district systems which were administratively 
held together have disintegrated. It was foreshadowed by the emergence 
of the so-called  surroloidhq;s of 
in 1984, connecting towns and 
their surroundings only officially. Towns could not fulfil the task of ad-
ministrative territorial organisation in that area nor can they now. The 
majority of towns I examined in the last one and a half years have not es-
tablished deliberate connections based on some kind of agreements with 
their surroundings. If they did so those connections were born rather of 
necessity than of realisation of common interests. Small villages of the ag-
glomerations try to find rather a smaller decentre in the neighbourhood as 
administrative partners. I myself have not heard about the existence of co-
ordinated associations which embrace the whole gravity zone of a town. 
There are targeted associations aimed at certain communal and infrastruc-
ture services and developments but general co-operation and planning is 
not demanded. 
Besides the present attitude against planning, the above phenome-
non could be caused by the regulation of associations, too. Though the 
Act of Local Governments declares that associations are very important 
and, accordingly, they are legal entities, the regulation concerning them is 
not detailed and purposeful. It is not equal to the role associations could 
play in connecting atomised local government decision-makers with spa-
tial systems of supply and development. 
The organisation of associations, guarantees for the protection of 
interests of their members, competencies delegated to associations and 
possible cases of forced associations are the themes which should be accu-
rately elaborated in the future regulation of associations. Without correct 
32 

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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
and precise regulation local governments are afraid of losing their auton-
omy to an organisation which may become estranged from them and they 
do not recognise the advantages and necessity of associations. 
The signs of disintegration have appeared also within the organisa-
tions for settlement' supply. Local governments have not yet found the 
suitable forms and methods of service-management. For the time being 
conflicts are typical between the manager local government and the serv-
ices. The situation is even more agitating in that kind of service-manage-
ment where the service is financed (and used) by more than one local 
government. It is also absolutely indispensable that the basic problems in 
the relations between the services of local governments and the consumers 
who use them should be regulated. 
The consequences of atomised development policy — as one phe-
nomenon of disintegration — will appear only in the long run. The present 
mechanism of financial allocation is the hotbed of non-co-ordinated deci-
sion-making in development. This dissipates resources; it cannot be pro-
grammed for a longer period of time and it cannot take into consideration 
the aspect of efficiency because of its centralised character and the dis-
tance of the distribution centre. 
Summing up,  we should say that the entirety of regional administra-
tion is formulated by a series of non-conceptual and casual decisions. 
These are neither rational nor spontaneous (it is to be feared that they are 
only too intentional). The position of local governments within the re-
gional administrative system is not clear enough, what is more, it might be 
reduced. On the other hand, there are no constitutional and power limits 
against the expansion of deconcentrated public administration. 
It is not easy, however, to speak up for the dominance of local gov-
ernments and for the decentralised administration model if local govern-
ments themselves show serious functional disorders. Though the organisa-
tion's regulations of the local government sphere are set, for the most 
part, but the model itself is not „conformed to space" for the time being. 
The operational schemes and methods within the framework of the organ-
isation are not settled. It seems, legal regulation is also needed to contri-
bute to their formulation. 
It can serve as a lesson for those who created and imagined the Act 
of Local Governments that one decision is not enough to construct clear, 
correct and logical schemes, neither theoretical nor organisational ones 
33 

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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
(though our Act contains errors in its inner consistence as well). The deli-
cate system of an act can be elaborated, refined and adjusted to the reality 
only by constant feedback to the problems occurring in practice and by 
gradual corrections. This procedure, however, requires such an attitude 
from legislators, politicians and researchers that they should be able to 
admit and acknowledge their mistakes and they should not kowtow to the 
naked king because they fear losing their credibility. 
34 

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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
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CROSS, M. MALLEN, D.  ( 1 987):  Local Government and Politics. 
London: Longmann 
DAHL, R. (1961):  Who governs?  New Haven: Yale University Press 
ERICHSEN, A. – HOPPE, W. – LEIDINGER, A. (1988):  Kommunale 
Verfassungen in Europa.  Stuttgart–Koln: Kohlhammer, Deutsche 
Gemeindeverlag 
ESER, W. (1992): Europaische Einigung, FOderalismus und Regionalpo-
litik in Deutschland. – DISP.  108. pp. 34-43. 
HABERLE, P. (1992): Rideralismus, Regionalismus, Kleinstaaten — in 
Europa.  –Die  Verwaltung.  1. pp. 1-19. 
KATZ, A. (1991): Kommunale Selbstverwaltung in Wandel. –  Der 
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KNOTH, E. – MARTOS, P. (1992):  Nachharn mit nem, Strukturen. 
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LEITERMANN, W. (1991): Subsidiaritat und kommunale Selbstver-
waltung in der Europaischen Gemeinschaft. –  Der Steidtetag.  11. pp. 
753-755. 
PALNE KOVACS I. (1988):  Chance of local independence in Hungary. 
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PALNE KOVACS I. (1991): Local power and local governments. – 
HORVATH Gy. (ed.):  Regional Policy and Local Governments. 
Pecs: Centre for Regional Studies. pp. 161-171. 
PALNE KOVACS I. (1992): A helyi hatalom hatarai.(Limits of the local 
power). – CSEFKO F. (Ed.):  Helyi tarsadalom, gazdasag, politika. 
Pecs: Alapitvany a Magyarorszagi Onkormanyzatokert. pp. 60-73. 
PALNE KOVACS I. (1992): Rechtlich-institutonelle Rahmenbedingun-
gen der Selbstverwaltung in Ungarn. – STEINER, M. – ISAK, H. – 
MARKO, J. (Eds.):  Alle Macht nach loam?  Graz: Leykam. pp. 
105-115. 
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Pálné Kovács, Ilona: The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of 
Local Governments in Hungary. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1992. 36 p. 
Discussion Papers, No. 14.
PALNE KOVACS I. (1992.): Teruleti fejlodes, teruleti politika, teruleti 
iranyitis (Regional development, regional policy, regional manage-
ment).  —Magyar KOzigazgalcis. 10.  pp. 619-625. 
SCHMIDT—EICHSTAEDT, G. (1992): Gemeindenverwaltungsreform 
and Kreisgebietsreform in den neuen Bundeslandern. —  Archir fiir 
Kommunalwissenschaften. 31.  pp. 1-22. 
SEELE, G. (1991): Das Europa der Kommunen. —  Der Landkreis. 5.  pp. 
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SZOBOSZLAI GY. (Ed.)(1991):  Democracy and political transforma-
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TAKACS, K. (Ed.)(1991):  The Reform of Hungarian Public Administra-
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Discussion Papers 1992. No. 14. 
The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of Local Governments in Hungary
The  Discussion Papers  series of the Centre for Regional Studies of the 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences was launched in 1986 to publish summaries of 
research findings on regional and urban development. 
The series has 3 or 4 issues a year. It will be of interest to geographers, 
economists, sociologists, experts of law and political sciences, historians and 
everybody else who is, in one way or another, engaged in the research of spatial 
aspects of socio-economic development and planning. 
The series is published by the Centre for Regional Studies. 
Individual copies are available on request at the Centre. 
Postal address: 
Centre for Regional Studies of Hungarian Academy of Sciences 
P.O. Box 199,7601 PECS 
HUNGARY 
Phone: (72) 12-755,33-704 
Fax: (72) 10-390,33-704 
Telex: 12 475 
Director general: Ivan ILLES 
Editor: Laszlo  HRUBI 
* * * 
Forthcoming  in the Discussion Papers series: 
Local Governments and System Change. 
The Case ()fa Regional Centre. 
by 
Edit PFEIL 

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Discussion Papers 1992. No. 14. 
The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the Workings of Local Governments in Hungary
Papers published in the  Discussion Papers series 
No. 1 OROSZ, Eva (1986): Critical Issues in the Development of Hungarian 
Public Health with Special Regard to Spatial Differences 
No. 2 ENYEDI, Gyorgy — ZENTAI, Viola (1986): Environmental Policy in 
Hungary 
No. 3 HAJDU, Zoltan (1987): Administrative Division and Administrative Ge-
ography in Hungary 
No. 4 SIKOS T., Minas (1987): Investigations of Social Infrastructure in Ru-
ral Settlements of Borsod County 
No. 5 HORVATH, Gyula (1987): Development of the Regional Management 
of the Economy in East-Central Europe 
No. 6 PALNE KOVACS, Ilona (1988): Chance of Local Independence in 
Hungary 
No. 7 FARAGO, Laszlo — HRUBI, Laszlo (1988): Development Possibilities 
of Backward Areas in Hungary 
No. 8 SZORENYINE KUKORELLI, Iron (1990): Role of the Accessibility in 
Development and Functioning of Settlements 
No. 9 ENYEDI, Gyorgy (1990): New Basis for Regional and Urban Policies in 
East-Central Europe 
No. 10 RECHNITZER, Janos (1990): Regional Spread of Computer Technol-
ogy in Hungary 
No. 11 SIKOS T., Minas (1992): Types of Social Infrastructure in Hungary 
No. 12 HORVATH, Gyula — HRUBI, Laszlo (1992): Restructuring and Re-
gional Policy in Hungary 
No. 13 ERDOSI, Ferenc (1992): Transportation Effects on Spatial Structure of 
Hungary 

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