Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
CENTRE FOR REGIONAL STUDIES
OF HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
DISCUSSION PAPERS
No. 83
Local Governance in Hungary
– the Balance of the Last 20 Years
by
Ilona PÁLNÉ KOVÁCS
Series editor
Gábor LUX
Pécs
2011
Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
ISSN 0238–2008
ISBN 978 963 9899 39 1
978 963 9899 40 7 (PDF)
© Ilona Pálné Kovács
© Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
2011 by Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Technical editor: Ilona Csapó.
Printed in Hungary by Sümegi Nyomdaipari, Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Ltd., Pécs.
Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
CONTENTS
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 5
2 The powerful influence of roots ................................................................................... 7
3 The main specifics of the Hungarian local government model .................................... 8
3.1 Constitutional foundations and basic principles ................................................... 8
3.2 The structural specifics of the model on the basis of the Act of 1990 .................. 9
3.3 The evolution of the instruments and tasks according to the practice of
financing and the circumstantial regulation of tasks........................................... 11
4 Attempts to correct the original model in the previous 20 years ................................ 13
4.1 Limits to rationalising the level of settlements................................................... 13
4.2 Attempts to reform meso-level governance........................................................ 16
5 The distinctive features of the operation of the self-government system in
the last 20 years .......................................................................................................... 23
5.1 The contradiction between the widening responsibilities of service provision
of local governments and the narrowing of their effective scope of action ........ 23
5.2 The deteriorating conditions for finance............................................................. 24
6 Local political dimension ........................................................................................... 25
6.1 Local elections.................................................................................................... 25
6.2 Local society....................................................................................................... 28
6.3 Local direct democracy ...................................................................................... 30
7 A balance of 20 years ................................................................................................. 31
7.1 Centralisation...................................................................................................... 31
7.2 Interest cleavage, codified conflicts ................................................................... 32
7.3 The poor overall standard and low efficiency of local governmental
services ............................................................................................................... 33
7.4 The democratisation of local governance ........................................................... 36
8 New phenomena, perspectives ................................................................................... 37
8.1 The less likely optimistic scenario of decentralisation ....................................... 38
References........................................................................................................................ 40
Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
List of figures
Figure 1 LAU 1 and LAU 2 compatible micro-regional and municipal borders
with micro-regional centres............................................................................ 15
Figure 2 Cities with county rights, NUTS 3 regions and their populations, 2009........ 17
Figure 3 NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 units in Hungary ......................................................... 19
List of tables
Table 1
Main figures of local municipalities, 1991–2009............................... 10
Table 2
Geographical units and their recent institutional status................................. 21
Table 3
Rescaling and power shifts............................................................................ 22
Pálné Kovács, Ilona : Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years.
Pécs : Centre for Regional Studies, 2011. 41. p. Discussion Papers, No. 83.
1 Introduction
The objective of the present study is to give an overview of the development of
the Hungarian local government system in light of international development
trends. The author’s aim is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the spatial
frameworks of public power practice in an international and theoretical context
with an emphasis on Hungarian specifics. The actual relevance of drawing up a
balance is justified by the fact that the institutional framework of local govern-
ments was created 20 years ago at the change of regime, and so the time is ripe to
evaluate the experiences of their operation, the more so since the reform of terri-
torial public administration is proposed regularly.
On the basis of examining the past twenty years, the author would like to take
a stance about whether the Hungarian system of local government has been able
to transform the previous centralised Hungarian state, and to what extent it may
provide an ideal framework for the democratic functioning of local power and the
organisation of local administration and services. Where do we stand today and
where lies our destination?
We already know, having completed the euphoria-influenced legislation, that
the quality of local democracy and administration is not a function of the chosen
model or macro-political ideological factors, but, among others, the tangible na-
tional and local socio-economic conditions, the public legal fine-tuning of the
model, the culture of central and local politicians and also the specific features of
local society.
There is a broad consensus about the fact that autonomy is a distinctive feature
of local government, yet there are large disparities in the interpretation of this
notion:
One basic starting point can be the retention of individual rights permitting the
individual to decide to what extent he is willing to submit his freedom to govern-
ment.
The other basis is provided by the right of the community sharing a common
territory, culture, religion etc. to self-governance (Loughlin, 2004).
Even though constitutional and political guarantees serve the autonomy of lo-
cal governments in different ways, it is still a fact that in practice local autonomy
is nothing more than the possession of certain capacities with the purpose of pro-
viding local services for citizens. In the course of history, these capacities have
undergone a constant evolution amidst different economic, sociological and po-
litical boundaries. The primary focus of studies dealing with local governments is
to examine to what extent these limitations have reduced the scope of action of
local authorities (Goldsmith, 1990).
Despite the centralising tendencies cyclically gaining power and the changing
position of local authorities in the system of multi-level governance, local and
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territorial governments occupy a significant role among the institutions of public
authority. The degree of the role of territorial and local governments and the
enforcement of decentralisation are among the indicators of democracy. The con-
centration of power is restricted not only by the classical horizontal distribution of
power, but also its vertical territorial system.
Local governments are primary, yet no longer exclusive, agents of the exertion
of local-territorial power. In the “governance-type” practice of power, public
authority agents mingle with the economic and civil sectors and the different
levels of hierarchy with each other. The previous rigid walls separating branches
and levels of power disappear, become permeable, and strong networks develop
defying the models based on traditional institutions. It is no longer possible to
confine the description of local and regional authorities to the public sector
(Bovaird–Löffler–Parrado-Diez, 2002).
In our evaluation, it is inevitable to reflect on to what extent the Hungarian
system of territorial governance is compatible with the European administrative
space. The role of external influence or “conditionalism” is of outstanding sig-
nificance in the development of Eastern Central European transition countries.
With the EU-accession of ten countries, the need to create a minimum standard in
public administration has become more urgent. During the Copenhagen Summit
in 1993, a system of criteria was adopted to evaluate the maturity of candidate
countries. Decentralisation was most strongly recommended in the framework of
the development of territorial public administration, besides the need to establish
sufficient connections between the different hierarchical levels, to achieve the
social embeddedness of local authorities and to assure the legal protection of the
clients of public administration, i.e. the consumers of public services.
Concerning the realisation of the recommendations, the evaluations produced
later on have remained quite cautious. On the one hand, it was declared that sig-
nificant reform programmes had been implemented in several Eastern Central
European countries, which nonetheless were halted in several cases. The conclu-
sion was that these countries should refrain from mechanically adopting Western,
more developed, market-type practices and innovations, but rather, attention must
be paid to objective and subjective (cultural, political, mental) conditions of
implementation (Tönnisson, 2004).
In the evaluation of the Hungarian system of public administration, the present
study will examine the evolution of centralisation/decentralisation, as well as the
agents of local governance and their relations; and all this in light of the pre-
vailing European processes.
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2 The powerful influence of roots
In order to understand what kinds of reasons and circumstances have influenced
the opinions and value systems of the authors of the Act on Local Governments in
1990, it is useful to shed light on the preceding events. The history of the Hun-
garian state, and more specifically of the local-territorial public administration
points towards the fact that local government decentralisation has no strong his-
torical roots even if we prefer to paint a rosy picture of our past. Strong centrali-
sation did not only characterise the period of state socialism from 1950–1990, but
also the bulk of previous stages of state development. The foremost “victims” of
centralisation were local communal and small town municipalities and local
societies. The administration of larger towns and counties showed signs of
autonomy according to the will of the power elite and in the forms of privileges.
In Hungarian public administration, professionalism and the collective control
role of effective local governance could only be detected in the administration of
cities (Bibó, 1990).
The county and district levels have served as the framework of local
governance and central administration from the very beginning. It is due to the
very nature of central state administration that local self-administrative units have
remained the weakest elements in the system, their attachment to central power is
stronger partially due to the economic and public legal dependence of local
governments and also the deconcentrated organisational system established at the
level of counties.
We must not confine our investigation about the historical roots of local
governance within the boundaries of the public legal sector. The examination of
how the political elite and civil society have contributed to or hindered the
development of strong historical traditions can open up extremely emotive dimen-
sions for us. The influence of external factors on the development of the Hun-
garian state is also not negligible. The limited public and national sovereignty, the
obligatory application of foreign state models within the framework of the Habs-
burg Empire, later forced modernisation and the challenges of adaptation to
Western requirements have undoubtedly exerted a decisive influence on the
mentality of the Hungarian political and governing elite and their ideas about
local governance. It is likely that the behaviour, the negative image of the effi-
ciency of the layer of high-office holders in local government and later on of the
party-political elite and their paternalism served as motors of the centralising
efforts hostile to autonomy, and moreover, the traditionally weak local civil
society was unable to counterbalance all these endeavours.
The development of the state, and the evolution of territorial and local
governance within the public legal framework can only be understood roughly.
To justify this, we must examine the circumstances surrounding the change of the
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local government model. The necessity of changing the model of local govern-
ment was articulated well before the change of regime among the circle of profes-
sionals and intellectuals and also in certain movements of local society. During
the decades preceding the change of regime, empirical studies depicted the domi-
nant processes in civil society. These analyses did not only register the necessarily
apathetic, paternalistic attitude of local society, but also those promising signs
indicating the emergence of a demand for local democracy and pluralistic power
exertion (BĘhm–Pál, 1983–1988; Bihari, 1980; Pápay, 1987). The need to reform
local-territorial public administration into a local government type system was
also voiced by the professional elite, who, moreover, elaborated the concept of the
reform (Verebélyi, 1988).
The first freely elected parliament after 1989 did not rely on the realistic state
of local society nor the rational model based upon professional analysis, but such
abstract values as autonomy, freedom, liberty, basic democracy and international
standards and patterns which guaranteed its place in democratic Europe. But to
follow these high-minded aims, values and patterns without taking reality into
consideration carried the possibility of error in itself, not only because it did not
consider the circumstances of implementation, but because it favoured profes-
sional and political values hostile towards the creation of the foundations of effi-
cient and professional local governance.
3 The main specifics of the Hungarian local government model
3.1 Constitutional foundations and basic principles
The message of self-governance during the change of regime was primarily of
political nature declaring the need for autonomy, freedom and proximity to citi-
zens. The theoretical pillars of regulation can be derived from the requirements of
the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and to a certain extent they even
exceeded European standards in certain fields. Since the new constitution, singu-
larly in Europe, defined the right to local self-governance as a collective right of
the community of voters, it became an extremely difficult task to validate sector-
rational aspects of the organisation of public administration. Naturally, the legis-
lator did not intend to place the professional and organisational circumstances of
service provision into the background. However, it is a fact that the requirement
of democratic functioning in the exertion of local power and the guarantee of
organisational autonomy prevailed, so their doctrinal interpretation became hin-
drances to modernisation.
The “fundamental rights” listed in the constitution indicated that the aim of
the legislator was to grant a real scope of action to local self-governments. The
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standpoint of the Hungarian Constitutional Court [8/1993 (III. 19) Decree AB]
was that the fundamental right of the community of voters was the mother right of
self-governing rights, and consequently enjoyed the same protection as funda-
mental rights.
The legislator of the constitution regarded local self-governments as the
guarantees of democracy and autonomy, and wished to safeguard the above-
mentioned aspects and values suggesting that in reality they constituted a fourth
branch of power (Kukorelli, 1990). However, the frameworks of the structure,
content, procedures and organisation of local power were not designated, so these
should have been regulated in a law on self-governments.
3.2 The structural specifics of the model on the basis of the Act of 1990
The Act on Local Governments is the first significant product of the freely-
elected parliament in the period of regime change, surrounded by regime-
changing enthusiasm, the need to reject the past similarly to the previous process
of constitution-making. The legislator’s concept was that it would be sufficient to
take local aspects into consideration facilitating the development of integrations
between local governments and an optimal division of labour. Moreover, almost
unlimited liberty could be granted not only in the establishment of access points
and contents, but in choosing the desired forms as well.
On the basis of this logic of regulation, four marked structural specifics can be
detected in the Hungarian system of local government different not only from
Western European, but from several Central and Eastern European countries:
the fragmented organisational nature of the level of communal munici-
− palities,
the lack of differentiation in the implantation of competencies,
− the voluntary model of the system of associations,
− finally, the weakness and disrupted nature of the meso-level of territorial
− self-government and public administration.
The legislator explicitly defined the level of settlements as the basis of the
Hungarian system of local governments, empowering each local community and
settlement to create their municipalities regardless of their size. Thus, the number
of local decision-making units doubled from one day to another. Each new level
or unit of integration obtained only secondary roles.
Due to the fragmented system of communal municipalities, the institutional
system of local public services also became fragmented. The disadvantages of the
chosen model have become evident in light of the past twenty years of their
operation, yet the success of corrections have only remained limited, and the di-
lemma is unresolved to the present day (Table 1).
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Table 1
Main figures of local municipalities, 1991–2009
Year
Total number Localities with Villages join-
Number of
Seat of district notary
of local muni-
independent
ing district
district nota-
Town
Large
Village
cipalities
offices
notaries
ries
village
1991
3097
1562
1535
529
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1992
3115
1676
1439
506
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1993
3131
1734
1397
499
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1994
3137
1752
1385
499
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1995
3149
1773
1376
494
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1996
3149
1849
1300
494
25
41
428
1997
3150
1852
1298
492
27
38
427
1998
3154
1827
1327
505
30
37
438
1999
3154
1818
1336
509
29
37
443
2000
3158
1762
1396
536
29
36
471
2001
3158
1668
1490
580
33
34
513
2002
3158
1632
1526
593
35
33
525
2003
3168
1613
1555
605
35
35
535
2004
3168
1582
1586
616
37
34
545
2005
3168
1551
1617
631
43
33
555
2006
3168
1525
1643
646
49
30
567
2007
3175
1466
1709
669
49
30
590
2008
3175
1251
1924
762
65
36
661
2009
3175
1210
1965
771
65
32
674
Source: Gazetteer of the Republic of Hungary, 1991–2009.
One underlying reason for this is to be found in the structural specifics, namely
that in the regulation of the Hungarian system of local government, the question
of associations is heavily laden with political considerations. Contrary to public
beliefs, integrated local governance has dominant traditions in Hungarian local
public administration, and not only in the system of councils characterising state
socialism (Somlyódyné, 2003). The legislator during the change of regime was
quite suspicious of all types of associations, especially obligatory ones, and re-
garded associations as a right of municipalities, refusing to make them obligatory.
The deliberate weakening of the level of counties was one of the most severe
disadvantages among the structural specifics of the Hungarian system of local
government. The attitude of the legislator must have been fed by the negative
experiences accumulated regarding the county councils during state socialism,
and the regulation of the county level was carried out accordingly. County
councils could not become influential and equal players in the system of self-
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governance due to the very pillars of regulation. The basic principle was that the
meso-level could not fulfil any integrative, controlling role “over” settlements.
County councils obtained weak legitimacy from a political viewpoint as well,
gaining tasks and resources according to the remainder principle, and were
deprived of all opportunities and instruments of the territorial enforcement and
integration of their interests. For the very first time in history, the deconcentrated
state administration obtained positions in the place of weak self-governments at
county level.
To sum up the structural specifics created by the Hungarian law on local
governments, it must be highlighted that the structure exceedingly favouring the
autonomy of the “base”, i.e. the chosen model, has inevitably led to the extreme
fragmentation of the system. The autonomy of basic units (settlements, cities with
county rights, districts of the capital) was of higher significance in the eyes of the
legislator than the integration between elements (associations, the level of
counties and the capital). The positioning of the points of gravity within the
system proved to be also quite disadvantageous. The regulation failed to take into
consideration that in the era of the transformation of public functions, the
necessity to respond to the newest challenges would valorise the role of large
cities and meso-level governments instead of the small communities of micro-
settlements.
The errors in the regulation of the public legal model were enhanced by the
autocratic behaviour of self-government stakeholders mostly unwilling to cooper-
ate, as well as the system of financing and interests, and the lack of instruments
facilitating functional integration.
3.3 The evolution of the instruments and tasks according to the practice
of financing and the circumstantial regulation of tasks
The above-mentioned public legal model defined by the Act on Local Govern-
ments and the constitution has constantly become more distorted due to the trans-
formation of the system of tasks and particularly those of financing.
The most crucial element of every local governmental system is the provision
of tasks local authorities are willing to undertake. The distribution of tasks
within the Hungarian model does not dispose of solid public legal bases, even
though the standard of the distribution of power and decentralisation heavily
relies on this besides the organisational guarantees of autonomy. There is a great
danger of exploiting the over-generalised, ambiguous regulations in both
directions. On one hand, the local municipalities have become overburdened with
obligatory tasks on the basis of posterior regulation of competences; in spite of
lacking the necessary conditions for their provision. On the other hand, tasks
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could freely be transferred to the public sector, particularly in the sphere of the
competences of meso-level governance.
In general, the greatest dilemma was posed by the fact that broad responsibili-
ties were coupled with meagre instruments; and so, the system of broad responsi-
bilities became trapped in broad irresponsibility. At the level of the entire system,
however, the central government and its deconcentrated organs have made
available significant competences in the domain of “local public affairs”.
The regulation of the economic foundations and finances of local municipali-
ties rests on the basis of local government autonomy in the public legal sense,
although this could hardly slow down or prevent the financial bankruptcy of mu-
nicipalities. This is significant from a macro-economic, or if you like, macro-
political viewpoint, since, among their European counterparts, Hungarian local
governments belong to the Scandinavian model on the basis of their role in the
economy and the state budget with high expenditures per GDP and state budget
(Kusztosné, 1998, Vigvári, 2005), and so the financial crisis of their operation
exceeds local affairs. One can observe that the quite disturbing, liquid legal regu-
lations, the legal uncertainty, and especially the unpredictability of resources, and
the mostly unsuccessful bargains conducted from one year to another have
become characteristic. If we examine the regulations on the tasks and functioning
of local municipalities after transformation, it becomes clear that while the state is
not permitted to use instruments of organisational hierarchy, the control of mu-
nicipalities has remained unresolved as yet. On the other hand, through legal
regulation (and obviously, through finance) it was able to reduce autonomy to a
minimal level.
The internal disorders and weakening of the system of local government was
“compensated” by a spreading territorial system of public administration. This
system has been a victim of the incessant improvisation since the regime change,
manifested apparently in a series of conceptual modernising and rationalising
programmes. A primary cause is that the actual governing power, profiting from
or in certain cases exploiting its supremacy over the executive branch of power,
engaged itself in arbitrarily building or destroying this organisational system
according to its actual interests, aggravating, and by no means tackling the
problems of meso-level governance.
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4 Attempts to correct the original model in the previous 20 years
4.1 Limits to rationalising the level of settlements
The problems of the fragmentation of the sector of local governments at the level
of settlements can be hardly resolved by obligatory instruments of regulation as a
result of constitutional barriers (moreover, these problems increased with the birth
of new communes in the nineties, when almost 100 new independent communes
were established). The public legal autonomy of small settlements has been taboo
since the change of regime, which renders it impossible to talk about the merging
of settlements. Its alternative, the system of associations, has not gained a pre-
dominant role in the Hungarian system of local government for a long period of
time, even though a separate law on associations was adopted in 1997. According
to a targeted investigation of the State Audit Office, the adoption of the law on
associations and the establishment of the system of financial support failed to
produce decisive changes. In the functioning of institutions for the provision of
municipal tasks, the proportion of associations did not even exceed 6.9% in 2000
(ÁSZ, 2000). Among the small communes, aversions to associations could stem
from the negative experiences of the council system of the past, and also from the
fact that newly elected politicians regarded collaboration as a direct threat to
autonomy, and wished to advocate the advantages of autonomy to citizens.
The inward-looking attitude of towns was of a quite different nature. The task
of caring for the needs of neighbouring settlements was delegated automatically
to the competences of and constituted a financial obligation for the centres of
urban districts designated on an obligatory basis. In the new environment of
regulation and interests, this “caring” or integrative role lacked all sorts of legal
(competence-based) and financial guarantees. Therefore, it is unsurprising that
towns, especially at the start, did not strive to collaborate with communes.
Undoubtedly, the collapse of the system of agglomerations had posed the gravest
consequences in a fragmented system of settlements. An individual town is
obviously unable to organise the basic and meso-level service provision for 30–50
communes in its field of gravity. This necessitated the birth of a network of small
towns and large villages that could integrate the smaller settlements unfit for self-
sufficiency on a finer territorial scale.
The constantly accelerating process of obtaining city status would have served
this objective as well. However, urbanisation after regime change produced towns
only in the legal sense (which could hardly be called towns, or at best village-
towns), the bulk of which were unable to fulfil an integrative role in their
respective territories due to their size and functions. Currently, from among the
over 300 settlements only 200 can be regarded as proper towns on the basis of
their functions, and according to professionals, the chances for the other 100
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settlements to become proper towns are very limited (Beluszky–GyĘri, 2006). The
differentiated allocation of tasks is not a characteristic feature of towns, which
poses further problems from the aspect of their territorial integrative role.
According to Hungarian public law, there are hardly any areas of public services
where the differentiated division of competences would take into account the size
of the respective settlement or town; therefore, even the smallest one may
undertake the provision of any type of local government task.
It can be stated, therefore, that the rationalisation of local public services lacks
all necessary pre-conditions such as the merging of villages, associations, and the
differentiated division of competences in the case of larger settlements.
Whereas the nineties were characterised by the atomisation of the level of
settlements, and the consecutive slow, spontaneous, bottom-up integrations of
groups of settlements or communities, the first years of the 21st century brought
about significant structural transformations with the emergence of the “tier” of
micro-regions. The secret of the “success story” of micro-regions is that mayors
of settlements were forced into collaboration at the level of districts, predomi-
nantly in geographical frameworks designated by the government as areas of
development policy intervention. When the area of the country was divided into
territorial statistical units in hope of obtaining EU funds, NUTS 4 (now LAU 1)
units became the more and more regulated geographical framework for coopera-
tion between local municipalities. The initially 138, later 150, 168 and currently
174 micro-regions have gained more and more functions and became institu-
tionalised in different organisational forms and legal status (Figure 1).
Micro-regions served primarily as the framework for cooperation in spatial
development until 2004, initially in the form of spontaneous, bottom-up coopera-
tion, while later the Law on Spatial Development established micro-regional
spatial development associations which became beneficiaries of development
funds on the basis of the adoption of shared development programmes.
The objective of the governmental programme adopted in 2002 was that
micro-regions should not only serve as units of development policy, but rather
develop into an appropriate organisational framework for the provision of ser-
vices and administration. The reform plan of public administration included in
the governmental programme balanced cleverly between theoretical and pro-
fessional requirements and political opportunities. Apparently, it did not abolish
the traditional level of county-level public administration, nor did it mention what
public administrative status the micro-region would be granted. As a result of the
motivating influence of the system of financing, this “level” gained an
increasingly defined role in the provision of local government tasks, especially
post-2004 when the legal grounds of the system of multi-purpose micro-regional
local government associations were laid down.
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Currently, micro-regions are “containers” with fixed boundaries set down via
legal norms and a legally regulated institutional system, which may obtain com-
petences in the field of public services, administration and development solely
through legal authorisation, yet on the basis of the decision of associated local
municipalities. Since the Hungarian system of local governance is not familiar
with the system of obligatory associations, the scope of task-sharing may differ in
each micro-region (within the framework of the tasks defined by legislation) and
the same applies to their institutional system. Obviously, there is no guarantee for
every settlement of a micro-region to join a given association through legal
enforcement. Although micro-regions currently cover are almost 100% of the
state territory thanks to the incentives provided by public support, yet one has to
remain cautious about the long-term success of the model. Would the willingness
to join associations be the same in the absence of financial incentives? Do asso-
ciations undertake the joint provision of those tasks which can be most benefi-
cially organised at this level, or does collaboration serve only the obtainment of
extra sources of financing for local municipalities? The vulnerability of the model
lies in its voluntary nature. From the government, top-down initiatives operate or
may fail to operate according to the will of the government. Moreover, on the
basis of the analyses of professionals, a basic contradiction is that while the
micro-regional unit proves to be too large for the organisation of basic services
for areas with a large number of micro-settlements. Therefore, in a bizarre way,
within such micro-regions, settlements organise themselves into even smaller
“mini-micro-regions”, while it is also peculiar that in micro-regions with larger
settlements, 2-3 settlements form an association for functions the provision of
which could be rationally organised by one single settlement, or at a much larger
scale (county). This is where the original contradiction of micro-regional division
is revisited, since the NUTS 4 system in the first years of the nineties was not
created for the integration of the system of municipal public services. As we shall
see, the turmoil surrounding rescaling can be detected not only in the modernisa-
tion of local, but also of meso-level governance.
4.2 Attempts to reform meso-level governance
The deliberate weakening of the role of counties was a successful instrument of
the Act on Local Governments at the change of regime to fully marginalise
county governments. Since according to the regulatory model, meso-level govern-
ments, i.e. counties, execute tasks which settlement governments are unable to or
unwilling to fulfil; therefore, the system of competences of counties is determined
on one hand by the individual decisions of local municipalities of a given county,
and on the other hand by central laws dealing with the transfer of competences.
The analysis of the actual situation shows us a quite chaotic picture. Counties do
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not have a standard system of functions, and on top of it, the uneven, ad hoc com-
petences may change in time and space moving up and down between county and
settlement governments. Since settlements are empowered to delegate certain
functions and their accompanying institutions in each new cycle or deprive them
of these, the entire system is unstable. The opportunity to delegate the responsi-
bility of service provision led to the postponement of renovation and develop-
ment, and no strong linkages were able to develop between the maintainers and
the beneficiaries of services. Even though one of the aims of the seemingly com-
prehensive reform of the Act on Local Governments in 1994 was to strengthen the
position of county governments, not much was achieved in reality. The law
declared that counties are territorial governments, and so the legislator would
have been able to delegate certain functions to the exclusive competences of
counties; however, the lobbies of settlement mayors practically prevented this
from happening, and there are almost no functions even in our days which would
distinctly adhere to the stable competences of meso-level governments (for Hun-
gary’s county divisions, see Figure 2).
Figure 2
Cities with county rights, NUTS 3 regions and their populations, 2009
Source: Hungarian Central Statistical Office.
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In the history of county governments, the Act on Spatial Development did not
result in a positive turn; on the contrary, counties lost a decisive battle in the war
for meso-level power. The law on spatial development practically eradicated
county governments from the actors of spatial development. As we shall reflect
later, the legislator started to erect a parallel institutional system with the
establishment of regional development councils, thus further eroding the position
of county governments. On the basis of posterior events, it is justifiable to pose
the question whether a more efficient institutional system has truly been created
for regional policy.
1998 meant a new turn in the evolution of the position of county governments,
when the newly elected, otherwise left-wing liberal government announced its
more characteristic programme of regionalisation. A government decision
declared that it would examine the opportunity of the implementation of regional
public administration, and the process of reorganisation of public administration
into regional areas of competence was launched. As an alternative to county
governments, a new spatial dimension, the region was given priority (Figure 3).
This policy resulted in the organisation of the various regional-scale institutions.
Nevertheless, by the end of the cycle, the objective of regionalisation sank into
oblivion.
Another new turn, as usual, was linked to the election of the new government,
but it was unique in that once more the left wing was given the authority to
govern. The governmental programme of 2002 promised the election of regional
governments from 2006. However, it remained cautious concerning the future of
counties, did not explicitly mention their full eradication and still envisaged to
operation of certain institutions in the form of associations at the county level.
The extremely ambitious governmental programme was not realised, however.
Even though preparations and certain draft legal rules were elaborated in the field
of the reform of regional self-governance, the process did not even enter the
political decision-making phase. The government elected in 2006 made attempts
towards the comprehensive reform of the constitution and the local government
act, yet it failed to gain parliamentary support for regional reorganisation.
It is worth noting that the government made no real effort to attain support for
its reform ideas, since a few weeks after the elections, before the summer holi-
days, the proposals submitted to Parliament without previous agreement were
hardly acceptable in the eyes of the opposition, due to the very nature of the pro-
cedure. The fact that the government did not really consider regionalisation to be
a serious matter became obvious after the events of the era following the un-
successful reform package. A dominant tendency towards re-etatisation appeared
instead of the elected regional governments counterbalancing the strong central
power, substituting the comprehensive political decision about the future of terri-
torial public administration. By the end of 2006, the government prescribed re-
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gional reorganisation for territorial public administrative organs functioning pri-
marily in the framework of counties until that point. This “breakthrough” towards
regionalisation is not without contradictions, however. The integration of county
organisations at a regional scale meant only a change of tables in several cases as
well as a point of reference for massive dismissals. Besides the achieved “person-
nel savings”, no-one calculated to what extent the rising costs of travel added to
the augmentation of expenditures and what real benefits regionalisation would
provide, no ex-ante or ex-post evaluation suggested that there would be any. A
specific charm of regional integration was that geographical disorder was pro-
duced after the designation of the seats of regional public administrative organs.
The cities aspiring for central status have managed to implant the official seats of
different types of organisations in various towns of their regions. An even more
delicate question is whether the regionalisation of the system of self-governments
will follow the overly advanced regionalisation of public administration.
Figure 3
NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 units in Hungary
Source: Hungarian Central Statistical Office.
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It is quite a realistic fear that the government’s will to pursue effective regional
decentralisation will disappear or weaken following the establishment of a
regional-level public administrative apparatus, for it is natural to suppose that the
creation of self-governing regions with strong political legitimacy would limit the
scope of action of central power.
The progress of regionalisation in the area of spatial development was also
laden with contradictions. Out of the competing micro-regional, county and
regional councils established simultaneously by the Act on Spatial Development
of 1996, it is evident that the regional level became the most influential. This
process could even be applauded, since the multi-level institutional system clearly
proved that only the regional level was suitable for efficient regional policy and
the management of EU funds. What thoroughly contradicts this effort and
revelation is the fact that with EU accession, the entire institutional system of
national development policy lost its positions, including the regional level.
In a paradoxical way, while the law on spatial development of 1996 was
already born in anticipation of the coming EU accession, and named accordingly
the law of regionalisation, the Hungarian management system of EU Structural
Funds became strongly centralised. Each operational programme, even the so-
called regional operational programme is managed by the managing authority
concentrated in the National Development Agency. The regional development
councils and agencies were not granted decision-making positions; they are only
endowed with a certain intermediary and advisory role. It is important to note
that since the assurance of own contribution necessary for the absorption of EU
funds devours the entire amount of domestic resources, the institutional system of
national spatial development was practically exhausted. The previous institutional
system of domestic development policy slowly progressing towards decentralisa-
tion and regionalisation was pushed to the periphery with EU accession.
Arguments in favour of centralised management have undoubtedly existed, it
might also be that the front line fighter of regionalism, the European Commission,
did not insist on regional partners, but it is still quite contradictory that the
formerly consciously supported process of regionalisation was halted after 2004.
Strong centralisation and the marginalisation of regional stakeholders in decision-
making will hardly augment the number of the advocates of regional reform.
A new period began with the ambitions of the right-wing government gaining
power in 2010 in overall terms and also in relation to spatial public administra-
tion. Overtly defying the previous neo-liberal civil philosophy, we can currently
witness the centralising and nationalising efforts of the neo-Weberian state, which
has obviously to do with the need to cope with the emerging economic crisis as
well. The new government has undertaken the establishment of a new constitu-
tion, as a symbol of the beginning of a new era, claiming that the one created by
the political elite of the era during the change of regime 20 years ago was only
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meant to be temporary. An unofficial concept of the new constitution is available,
but it is already quite evident from governmental measures that the position and
status of self-governments in a strong and centralised state will undergo serious
modification, and, in the meantime, the government will refrain from regionalisa-
tion in structural aspects with the stabilisation of counties as the meso-level of
governance. Of counties, and not county governments! Following the example of
the French system of the prefecture, commissioners will be appointed in counties
whose stronger official and authoritative background will grant them a more
influential position than that of county governments.
The future is hard to forecast in the case of micro-regional associations, but the
prevailing ideas seem to foster the strengthening of positions of the state at this
level as well. At the same time, no significant reforms are anticipated from the
aspect of the consolidation of settlement governments, as the government does
not wish to formally limit the autonomy of self-governance in small settlements.
The marginalisation of the entire system of local government is a dominant trend,
however, which will quite clearly curb the scope of action of the smallest unit to
the greatest extent (Table 2–3).
Table 2
Geographical units and their recent institutional status
Level
Scale/number
Status
Basic level
3200 municipalities,
Self governmental units
cities, LAU 2
Constitutional status
Micro-region
138∅174
Associations of self-
NUTS 4/LAU 1
governments
County
19+capital
Self-governments, state
NUTS 3
administration offices+courts,
police, chambers, parties etc.
Constitutional status
Macro region
7 (since 1998),
Statistical unit and frame of
NUTS 2
different public institutions
NUTS 1 region
3 (since 2007)
None
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5 The distinctive features of the operation of the
self-government system in the last 20 years
Even though the structural specifics discussed above foretell a lot about the per-
formance of the Hungarian system of local government, we must analyse the spe-
cific features of its functioning which were not solely determined by the structure,
but other factors of economic and cultural nature. The analysis of the experiences
of operation sheds most light on the fact that the regulatory and institutional
aspects of the change of the local governmental model are a lot more transparent
despite all its contradictions than its de facto operation. The above described pub-
lic legal model, whose distinctive feature was the guaranteeing of autonomy,
gradually became more distorted due to the transformation of the system of tasks,
and particularly to the system of finance. While the central government is usually
not permitted to use instruments of organisational hierarchy, the control over local
municipalities has remained unresolved in many respects. On the other hand,
through legal regulation and obviously finance, it has succeeded in reducing their
autonomy to a minimum level.
5.1 The contradiction between the widening responsibilities of service
provision of local governments and the narrowing of their effective
scope of action
A crucial element of each system of self-government is the scope of tasks whose
provision is guaranteed by local governments. Its significance from the viewpoint
of politics is whether local interests can be considered in the organisation of pub-
lic tasks and, more broadly, whether the interests of consumers, members of the
local society have any part to play. To put it very simply, the organisation of ser-
vices by municipalities is more democratic compared with private or other public
formations, but we must also add that broad self-governmental competences
without the necessary instruments are no more than the devolution of responsi-
bility.
In the Hungarian model, the generalised, ambiguous rules were later exploited
in both directions.
On one hand, the central power overburdened municipalities with obligatory
tasks, while the conditions for their provision were lacking and have gradually
deteriorated.
On the other hand, tasks were simply transferred to the public sector,
− especially in the domain of competences of meso-level governance.
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The “danger” of the hollowing out of self-governments at the local level
− becomes even more acute as the crisis and the exhaustion of financial
reserves led to the rationalisation of local public services in the form of the
integration, eradication and the transfer of services to the state level.
Depletion and overburdening go hand in hand, due to which neither the
interests of citizens to access to services, nor the aspects of the economies of scale
and quality can be validated.
The fact that broad competences were coupled with a narrow system of
instruments meant that the system of broad responsibility was caught in the trap
of broad irresponsibility, with the result that both sides can easily accuse each
other of contributing to the growing disillusionment of society.
5.2 The deteriorating conditions for finance
The regulation of the economic foundations and finances of municipalities is
based on the principle of municipal autonomy, yet this was far from sufficient to
prevent the financial bankruptcy of local authorities. This is significant from a
macro-economic, or even more, a macro-political aspect, since Hungarian local
governments are responsible for a very broad scale of public services and their
share of expenditures per GDP and state budget is high, therefore, the financial
crisis of local governments has crucial impact on the whole public sphere.
The deteriorating position of municipalities can be explained by the changes
that have occurred in central redistribution and the exploitation of own resources,
as well as the lack of modernisation of the management of resources, property and
public services. The most crucial problem of the system of financing does not lie
in the degree of income centralisation, but in its unpredictable nature, „structural
messages”, and in the fact that it restricted the autonomy of the economic activity
of municipalities to a minimum level. According to Illés (2005, 21), „real
autonomy is not a function of incomes and expenditures, but rather the free
disposal of these, and the possibility of rearrangement”. The model of financing
has not been resource-based for a long time, the model of task-financing fosters
the conservation of the institutional system. The influence of the state in the
domain of operation and development and determination is unhealthy – sectoral
and territorial aspects rarely coincide.
A clear proof of the main deficiencies of the normative system of financing,
or, more precisely, the permanent differences in municipal conditions is the
overemphasised role of the system of supplemental state support in compensating
for the bankruptcy of the financing of operations. The initial system designed for
tackling temporary disorders and problems of installation became an organic part
of the system of local government finance, and became a permanent resource for
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a great number of municipalities. The biggest problem with the system of
„önhiki” (“shortage of resources”), and in certain respects of vis major support is
that they are not designed to provide a solution in particular cases, but to regularly
make up for permanent shortages. The financial conditions of local governments
in light of the GDP and the state budget carry an important message from the
aspect of political science and the theory of power. The loss of positions justifies
that the virtual decentralisation of resources is still a task of the future. The
financial bankruptcy of local goverments and the deterioration of the quality of
public services cannot be halted through legal regulation, and the simple
modification of the distributive system, but rather, the thorough analysis of
effective processes, scanning the operation of the more than 12,000 municipal
institutions, and a comprehensivce reform of redistributive systems.
6 Local political dimension
This chapter is going to examine how efficient the change of the model of local
governments has been in the development of local democracy. During the change
of regime, the particular attention granted to local societies, the revalorisation of
the role of localities, were a part of a new paradigm of power theory, which
hardly prevailed in previous eras.
As we have already seen, the constitutional frameworks have provided an
outstanding opportunity for creating a totally new, bottom-up model of power in
Hungary. Local governance could not be automatically identified with
democracy, just as the decentralisation of functions does not necessarily indicate
its presence. A thorough examination of the concrete national and local contexts
is inevitable (Pickvance, 1997). Further scrutiny clearly indicates that the creation
of public legal frameworks in itself is not sufficient for democratic local politics.
6.1 Local elections
Already the first local elections dissolved the illusions about the somewhat
stronger „localism” preceding the change of regime. The role of the new political
elite gaining legitimacy through free elections was to make decisions about basic
political, social and economic measures, and naturally, attention was primarily
directed towards parliamentary elections, the central level of governance. The
participation data of the first free local elections indicated the lower degree of
attention paid to the local level, and the rate of participation did not show any
significant improvement in later periods. As a sign of the sharpening political
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conflicts, the rate of participation at elections was significantly higher in 2002,
but this was not true in case of local governmental elections, for while the rate of
participation at parliamentary elections was 70%, in local elections it barely
exceeded 50%. It can be declared that the eradication of the minimum validity
threshold of participation and of the second round in 1994, despite the fact that it
stirred up a great political debate, was still based on political reality, while it was
confirmed that local elections are of less interest to Hungarian society.
In order to create the world of local politics, the analysis of the outcome of
elections is also required. The relation between the mechanism of election and the
chances of becoming players in local politics is quite hard to measure in Hungary,
since the rules of elections vary by settlement type, were modified with time,
while the number of settlements have changed with that of eligible
representatives. The system of small lists in settlements below 10,000 inhabitants
favours independent candidates, while in settlements over 10,000 inhabitants,
individual electoral districts and compensatory party lists rather favour parties.
If we choose absolute numbers as reference points, it turns out that the
majority of the total number of local government representatives was independent
in the first two cycles. The most homogenous and transparent group is
constituted of mayors of small settlements, within which 80% have remained
independent since the change of regime; what is more, this rate is increasing. It is
not by chance that ambitions surrounding the first elections after the change of
regime directed towards the dismissal of the previous political elite,
demonstrated the least succes in small settlements. Moreover, based on the
outcome of the local government elections in 2010, out of the 3200 mayors, 576
have been in office for 20 years, indicating the low level of competition.
On the contrary, in settlements over 10,000 inhabitants, where the party-based
electoral system has prevailed, the rate of independent representatives (13%) and
mayors (8%) is low and decreasing, just as the rate of the candidates of civil
organisations is decreasing compared with parties. The percentage of
independent representatives decreased from 29% in 1990 to 15% in 2002 nation-
wide, while the rate of civilian candidates fell from 3.4% to 3.2% (Kákai, 2004).
In the meantime, if we focus on data of larger settlements, then despite the 80%
superiority of parties, the number of mandates of civil organisations rose
significantly, from 3.5% to 12.6% (Kákai, 2004).
In settlements over 10,000 inhabitants, the party-based electoral systems have
led to the strong attachment of representatives and mayors elected in larger
settlements to parties, but even in settlements over 3 000 inhabitants, the domi-
nant presence of parties is characteristic. In larger settlements, neither inde-
pendent candidates, nor other local groups have great chances of gaining local
power. It is also true that independent candidates and civil organisations are quite
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often backed up by political and economic interest groups (BĘhm, 2002), thus
their independence from parties is realised only formally.
The participation of parties in local government over the last 20 years has been
greatly transformed due to the change in the party structure, the modification of
the electoral system, and the changes occurring in local government and their civil
social environment.
The differing results of the first local elections from parliamentary elections
can be explained by the general political situation and social climate. During that
period, the euphoria characterising the change of regime was soon overshadowed
by signs of disillusionment, and the “votes of condemnation” punishing the losers
of the change of regime appeared not only to demonstrate the disappointment, but
also because preferences for parties were far from solid at that time, so conse-
quently national and local political forces opposed each other.
As BĘhm stated “Local elections did not redesign the line of force of macro-
politics” (BĘhm, 1996, 29). This fact is not necessarily a sign of fidelity towards
the victorious socialists and free democrats, since the likelihood of re-election in
local politics is much higher. Two-thirds of the representatives and mayors were
re-elected in 1994, and this phenomenon has generally become permanent.
The eradication of the second round since 1994 has forced parties to form pre-
liminary coalitions and alliance parties. Local and pragmatic aspects are hardly
validated in the formation of preliminary coalitions, in the name of which ideo-
logically extremely distant parties of the previous era cooperate “to serve the in-
terest of the town” (Kákai, 2004, Szoboszlai, 1996). The number of independent
mandates of parties has gradually decreased since 1994, particularly in the case of
smaller parties. Parties often enter elections in coalition with each other, and
attach to themselves a part of civil organisations as well. It must be noted,
however, that, despite the dominant role of parties, parties and fractions still do
not appear with their names in the organisation order of local governments. Local
organisational and operational regulations constitute a special case, which, getting
rid of “party-prudery”, regulate operational questions of fractions and relation-
ships between them.
During the previous decades, polarisation in the party structure has generally
resulted in the formation of blocs in the sphere of local government as well. A
significant number of smaller parties were erased not only from parliamentary,
but also municipal representatives, or at least became strongly marginalised.
Parties were trapped within the limits of national party struggles and power
relations at local level as well, and cooperation is rare in the sphere of locality
offering the chances of pragmatism and consensus. Regarding the elected stake-
holders of local politics, a highly integrated and polarised field developed, which
is in dominant position in the capital and larger settlements, and the role of inde-
pendent candidates and civil organisations remained significant only among small
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settlements. Further drastic changes had occurred in the proportion of parties and
civil or independent candidates by 2010. We must note that drastic changes were
partially due to corrections in the electoral system which the government rising to
power in 2010 carried out with a two-thirds parliamentary supremacy. On one
hand, there has been a significant reduction in the number of local governmental
representatives, minimalising the chances of smaller parties to become board
members. The proportion of independent representatives and mayors fell from the
previous 80% to 64% (equalling 34% of total submitted votes), the mandates
obtained by parties is 34% (on the basis of 61% of the submitted votes) and civil
organisations only dispose of two percent representation. The formation of party
systems was accompanied by strong polarisation, since out of the 43% of man-
dates obtained by parties, 29% are shared by the two governmental conservative
parties.
The strong influence of parties, the restriction of competition (which is due to
the weakening of small parties and the high rate of re-election) went hand-in-hand
with the strong elitism of local politics. According to analyses about the origin
and social position of elected representatives, “the overrepresentation of the elite
in local power exceeds by far its weight in society”, the presence of the economic,
intellectual and cultural elite is particularly predominant, yet varying in each
settlement type (Bugovics, 2006).
6.2 Local society
The Hungarian constitutional reference point is that the direct subject of local
governance is the local community of citizens eligible to vote. This ideal, unique
base in Europe, was far from sufficient to assure the support of local and civil
society for local governments. The relations of local society and local
governments cannot be separated from the general context of civil society and
politics. Hungary belongs to the group of countries where, similarly to other
Eastern Central European countries bearing the marks of the heritage of state
socialism, trust towards institutions remains relatively low (Szabados, 2002).
The problems of democratic embeddedness originate primarily from the level
of organisation of local societies. The formation of party systems related to the
change of regime “decapitated” awakening civil societies. The previously active
group in local politics became party politicians, getting hold of functions and
roles which do not exactly fit into the framework of parties. Besides the loss of
the active group involved in politics and the expansive, “catch-all” attitude of
party politics, the frequently intolerant style of domestic politics, the prolongation
of the clarification of interest relations necessary for permanent partnerships
acting as new sources of the disillusionment and indifference of society had
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paralysing effects on civil organisations. It is noteworthy that the low level of the
participation of civil society, its capacity problems, party dependence are also
present in neighbouring countries due to the common heritage (Soós–Zentai,
2005).
In the twenty year-long evolution of the relations between civil society and lo-
cal governments we can detect certain tendencies and phases in the transforming
role of the former:
During and due to the change of regime, civil society was one of the most
influential players in local politics; it frequently initiated significant changes,
appointed representatives and mayors.
By the mid-nineties, this enthusiasm had sufficiently decreased; a part of the
activists of civil society joined the arena of public power or party politics, though
the participation of civil organisations in elections still remained significant.
As a result of the conscious support of civil social organisations, especially
through financial incentives, their involvement in local public services, and the
spread of non-profit organisations initiated by the public power, we can witness a
significant quantitative increase from the second half of the nineties. The spatial
distribution of improving financial conditions is quite uneven and varies from
settlement to settlement (Kákai, 2004), indicating that the struggle for resources
and influence in the development of civil society evolves with unequal chances.
Nevertheless, the price to pay for the strengthening of civil society is quite high.
A qualitative and quantitative improvement is induced by the proximity to public
power and public funds. A part of civil organisations maintain direct relationships
with local power, or are directly involved in it; another part of them remain in the
periphery of power as civilians “in reality”, all this contributes to the quite
ambivalent nature of the relationship towards the political practice of power. Péter
(2000, 305) characterises this ambivalence on the basis of her own empirical
research “To completely denude this phenomenon, a great majority of civil
organisations can be situated on the axis of the coordinate system where one
extremity indicates relatively strong social embeddedness with lacking resources,
while the other end illustrates the virtually illegitimate “power” position without
community support, yet stemming from economic stability. Is there any other
available or attainable alternative for social organisations searching for their
place?” (Péter, 2000, 305 p.)
Questions posed 10 years ago are still difficult to answer and phenomena
occurring since the turn of the millennium are not too promising. Civil
organisations, like we have seen in the analysis of elections, can only become
board members in alliance with parties in larger local governments, and in this
measure they have also lost their occasionally important role in promoting
consensus. While the number of civil organisations is rising, and a great majority
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are actively involved in interest assertion and organising services, it seems that
they have lost positions in the realm of local politics as compared with parties.
Thus, we can see that the development trend from the aspect of a key element
of local governmental democracy is laden with contradictions. On one hand, we
can observe a definite quantitative growth, higher level of organisation and
increasing activity in the civil sector, while on the other hand the position of civil
organisations in the realm of local politics has not become stable; on the contrary,
they are on the road to marginalisation.
Undoubtedly, many share the view that civil stakeholders are “civil” due to
their distance from local public power. Instead, their role is to exert control and
influence over it and to demonstrate interests which are not necessarily advocated
in the institutional system of traditional representative democracy. On the
contrary, domestic civil society has successfully and clearly managed to become
part of local power via participation in local government. This confusion of roles
is less successful in our days, since civil stakeholders are permanently cast out of
local “parliaments”. The question of whether they will be able to exert sufficient
influence on local political decisions in the future as outsiders, remains
unresolved.
6.3 Local direct democracy
Initially, local governments were reluctant to regulate and apply direct forms of
democracy, e.g. until 1994 they had attempted to restrict initiation opportunities
in their local dispositions.
Abstinence in this question emerges in other aspects also. For instance, no
verified data is available about the pre-1999 period, since the Ministry of Internal
Affairs made the declaration of local referendums obligatory only after 2000, and
the reconstructing of organised referendums encountered serious obstacles due to
indifference from the local media (Nagy−Tamás, 2004). In the history of local
referendums, the first years of the nineties can be considered atypical, since, most
typically, the separation of communes was voted on the basis of obligatory
regulation (altogether in 52 cases out of the 79 local referendums between 1990
and 1993). Following the regulation crystallised as an outcome of constitutional
legal disputes, the results of the period 1999–2001 can be called remarkable. Out
of the 58 referendums organised during the three years, a significant number (23)
were called to resolve territorial organisational questions. The topic of these
referendums organised bottom-up and outside local governmental organs ranged
from large-scale investments to environmental protection questions. The
invalidity of 50% of organised referendums indicates that the mobilisation of
citizens is by no means always successful.
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Undoubtedly, changes have occurred in recent years. As the number of
national referendum initiatives shows an increasing tendency, the institution of
local referendums might become an instrument of sharpened party political
struggles, and we can already see signs pointing towards this direction.
7 A balance of 20 years
7.1 Centralisation
While powerful processes of institution-building have occurred in the area of
local and territorial governance, new levels and actors have emerged, in overall,
the power structure has remained centralised. The multi-actor, fragmented and
insufficiently conditioned spatial sector was unable to gain dominant positions to
counterbalance the central administrative level. The persistence of centralisation
can be detected in various forms:
Local governments were delegated few tasks from territorial public
administration which were centrally managed; thus, the so-called deconcentrated
sector remained strong.
At the meso-level of governance, new institutions (development councils,
youth councils, tourism committees, etc.) were created mostly in a top-down
fashion, representing the influence of the government, and the principle of
bottom-up organisation is much weaker in institutional expansion.
The position of local governments has deteriorated in the redistribution of
national funds and community resources, central redistribution and resource
allocation still occupy a predominant role in the financing of operation and
development in particular.
Local governments are solely beneficiaries of EU support, without being
involved in decision-making, due to the weak position of meso-level govern-
ments, and their role in the management of EU resources is also negligible.
There has been no significant improvement in the practice of interest
reconciliation. Due to the great number and political cleavage of local govern-
mental interest alliances, the government is not forced into making compromise.
The public legal model which permits the simultaneous possession of the position
of mayor and parliamentary representative has resulted in a situation where a
great number of mayors have obtained parliamentary seats (almost 20% of all
parliamentary representatives), while the overall prestige of local interests and
lobbying force has not improved significantly.
The sharpening political conflicts spread into the battlefield between the
government and local governments as well. The actual government is mostly
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committed to centralisation, while the opposition is primarily pro-local govern-
ments, without constituting a sufficient counterbalance.
There are no signs to indicate that the Hungarian system of local government
has obtained strong positions in the system of European multi-level governance,
the lobbying institutions in Brussels have remained under-exploited or are
considerably weaker than the influence of the central government (Ágh, 2007). It
is also true that the regional/local level of multi-level governance has remained a
peripheral actor in most EU member states (Gualini, 2008).
7.2 Interest cleavage, codified conflicts
The loss of positions in the national power structure occurred not only as a result
of the centralising efforts of the government; internal contradictions and conflicts
in the spatial sector have also contributed to the process:
Even though various informal and institutional forms of collaboration have a
significant role in the relations of settlement governments, the existence and
adequate functioning of these relies mostly on the system of public funding and
incentives and much less on the situational awareness and long-term strategies of
local politicians. The majority of local government politicians have preserved
their autarchic attitude as a massive feature.
Despite the fact that the number of towns and cities has augmented and micro-
regional associations have emerged covering the entire country, towns are still not
fully aware of the responsibility they have for their environment, which still does
not permeate town leaders’ decisions concerning economic development and the
organisation of services.
Relations between county general assemblies and cities with county rights are
still low in intensity; the preparation of joint strategies has still not become
customary, and parallel institutions have subsisted. Large towns do not form a
collaborating network, their region-forming force is weak.
County councils are less and less capable of the outward representation of
counties and to assure their internal cohesion, confronting styles of functioning
have become particularly visible since the most recent elections.
Regional development councils which, on the basis of their members, would be
able to integrate the more influential players of the region, have not become
catalysts of consensus-seeking. Primarily because they rather generate than
resolve conflicts due to their mission and resource allocating functions, and also
because their restricted competences and field of action does not permit their
becoming an arena of wide dialogue and joint action of the various stakeholders.
Moreover, the members of regional development councils as potential meso-level
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poles of power, mostly represent the central government, and thus conflicts
between central and local actors become codified within the council.
Collaboration at the national level is a rare phenomenon between local
governmental alliances due to their cleavage and politicised nature, their weak
power of interest assertion and the lack of adequate organisational and pro-
fessional background.
The territorial system of public administration has remained in the “trap of
sectoral approach” despite every effort of modernisation and merging organisa-
tions, rendering the territorial integration of sectoral politics impossible. A change
is anticipated in this respect, while the centralising efforts of the government
rising to power in 2010 have produced county governmental offices with strong
competences which integrate the majority of formerly separated deconcentrated
authorities. The government commissioners representing the government seem to
become powerful politicians, their political force permitting them to establish a
unipolar spatial power structure.
Instruments of public policy are of low efficiency or are lacking which could
serve the purpose of coordination despite the hierarchy of organisation and
interests: the practice of planning is becoming widespread, yet is unable to orient
the activity of actors in respect of procedure, content and quality (Faragó, 2004),
and the hectic changes and inconsistency of the system of financing does not
favour long-term and deliberate collaboration between actors.
7.3 The poor overall standard and low efficiency of local governmental
services
Whereas the requirements and values of local governance have primarily been of
political nature for a long time (liberty, autonomy, proximity to citizens,
cooperation, solidarity, etc.), in our days it is the requirements of efficiency and
profitability that are being changed, even if there is a great uncertainty concerning
the methodology and notions involved in the measurement of these criteria
(Peters – Pierre, 2006).
The satisfaction with public services, public administrative activity, settlement
infrastructure, and built environment maintained by local governments can be
evaluated from the viewpoint of citizens, consumers and the regulating, financing
state (i.e. external actors), but naturally, local governments themselves may
examine their proper achievements provided they have established their internal
evaluation mechanisms. These three types of evaluation are performed along
different system of values and requirements and with the use of different
parameters. During the process of evaluation, the varying conditions respective
local governments and local government types dispose of must be also taken into
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account. It is almost impossible to formulate a general opinion about the
performance of the system of Hungarian local governments which would not
show an imprecise and unjust picture of certain local governments and local
governmental activities and actors. The drawing up of a balance is rendered even
more difficult by the lack of a systematic monitoring and evaluation of the
functioning of the governmental and municipal system, moreover, occasional
analysis may only be based on a sporadic and partial system of information (Hüttl
– Sivák, 2006).
Hungarian local governments are ‘autopoetic’ systems, who have not just
survived and suffered through an era characterised by objective and subjective
external circumstances; rather, they have also actively influenced their conditions
themselves, and despite their limitations, they did have a scope of action in local
decision-making. Local performance is, consequently, a result of complex factors
and effects, where the context and actors also contribute to its evolution.
Local governments meant the success story of the change of regime in Hun-
gary. The thorough elaboration and analysis of this success has not been
performed, instead, it remained conserved in the narratives of politicians. The
success of local governments was foremost linked to development policy, which
produced visible, community-financed infrastructural changes in villages, back-
ward regions in the nineties, and after the turn of the millennium, it also had
visible achievements in the modernisation of cities and reconstruction of public
spaces. The quality and development level of public services was somewhat less
considered as of prime importance. In truth, it is in itself a significant achieve-
ment that local governments successfully managed to maintain their inherited
institutional system without any serious modification. The lack of success can also
be explained by this fact, namely that local governments were unable to and did
not even attempt to locally reform the oversized system of public services
inherited from the socialist era for a long time.
In an almost miraculous way, as the “family silver ran out” (Vigvári, 2006),
the system of local services did not collapse in the midst of deteriorating condi-
tions of financing. The success is due rather to organisational inertia, and not to
municipal reforms of public services, involvement of profit seeking and non-
profit actors, and implementation of other cost saving methods which seldom
characterise Hungarian local government. The state of institutions shows signs of
deterioration in an absence of structural and capacity reforms, and the narrowing
system of finance. EU membership slightly improved this situation, since local
governments received significant support for the improvement and enlargement of
the infrastructural and physical conditions and personal capacities of their educa-
tional, cultural and health institutions. This obvious advantage became a disad-
vantage in since these priorities took away resources from economic entrepre-
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neurship, employment creating investment, and the development achieved in the
public sector is not likely to be maintained in the long run either.
In the public service provision and economic development activities of the
Hungarian local government system, paradigm change is likely to occur in the
present era. The underlying reason behind the radical change is not the situational
awareness of local governments, but primarily the need to tackle the financial
crisis situation, and to a lesser extent, “consumer- pressure or self-awareness”.
However, the interest assertion of consumers has not become as widely and
systematically institutionalised as in local government systems of western
democracies, such as seen in the charter movement (Józsa, 2006).
The external driving forces of the change define its direction as well:
Local public service reforms are usually initiated from the top-down
− (primarily in the form of the “lawnmower principle” of resource
withdrawal). Therefore, local elections also adapt to the changing macro-
conditions (Taylor-Gooby, 1998). A further difficulty of adaptation is that
top-down changes are unpredictable as well. The most serious obstacle to
the consolidation of the systems of public services is the ever changing
direction of new governmental cycles, to which it is extremely difficult to
adapt.
It is also true that there is a shortage of processed and analysed information
− and elaborated strategies at the local level, and evaluations do not appear as
internal functions of learning to the organisation, but only as external
commissions (Weiss, 2005), so answers do not lead to optimal decisions at
the local and regional level. What causes further anxiety is the fact that there
is no clear vision concerning the geographical frameworks of local-
territorial task execution, the previous two decades have seen unceasing
experimentation and institutionalisation of different levels in the domain of
the “supra-settlement” scale.
Since local governments try to avoid conflicts with voters, and consequently
− do not establish systematic relationships with different consumer groups,
pressure from these latter does not become rationally processed. And the
inverse is also true, as measures considered rational and inevitable yet
extremely unpopular among citizens are usually cancelled.
We must not neglect the fact that the overwhelming majority of Hungarian
− local governments are not surrounded by a consultative coalition, or
“knowledge community” (Naschold, 1996), due to their very size, so they
are short of necessary knowledge for the preparation of rational and long-
term sectoral policy strategies.
On the basis of these facts, it is reasonable to assume that reforms in the area
of public services and administrative development only serve the purpose of the
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short-term consolidation of budgets and the avoidance of escalated local conflicts,
and will not be able to assure the harmonisation of settlement, micro-regional,
county and regional decisions in the long run. Prospects of the reform of local
public services are difficult to envisage; what is certain is that local governments
are obliged to ‘do something’ almost everywhere. In order to successfully carry
out local changes of regime, more solid framework conditions, a more systematic
knowledge base and more stable political support would be required.
7.4 The democratisation of local governance
During the introduction of the local government model which coincided with the
change of regime, the ‘rosiest’ illusions were cultivated in the domains of local
democracy, the participation of citizens. On the basis of the experiences of the last
twenty years, we must declare that the involvement of citizens in decision-making
did not necessarily result in growing transparency, participation, and particularly
not that of trust and support. Local democracy shows deficits compared with
ideas formed twenty years ago in several respects:
The effective functioning and character of the local government system and
− the layer of politicians is generally not receptive. Internal political conflicts
restrict the number of stakeholders in decision-making, isolated local
governmental politicians do not regard the civil society as a partner but
rather as a “target group”, which may influence their re-election, yet are to
be counted with only around the approaching elections.
The networks organised around the local government system are less to be
− considered conscious partnership and development coalitions, or public
policy networks, more as influential clientele of party politicians accumu-
lating functions.
Local civil society surrounding local governments may exert an influence
− on local decisions only in case it is institutionally integrated in decision-
making during the elections, the chances of which are increasingly smaller
and smaller. In contrast, the influence of consultative mechanisms and of
the impact of publicity proved to be less efficient.
Trust toward local government is still stronger compared with other actors
− of the political institutional system, especially parties, yet the stability of lo-
cal government politicians is fostered more by the lack of alternative and
fame than satisfaction or positive support.
The problems of meso-level governance, the lack of popularisation of the
− meso-level, the emergence of uncontrollable networks, and the growing in-
fluence of the central government have conserved the “sand glass structure”
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of power, thus further contributing to the fragility of the Hungarian system
of power.
Local governmental policy is becoming parliament-styled, and due to the
− aggressive ambitions of parties, loses its multi-colours, its “true locality”,
and does not provide space for new forms of democracy and participation.
The local governmental political sector has lost its neutralising, buffer zone
− role, becoming a field of party political struggles. Relations with local
governments provide a new area of conflict for the central government as
well, not so much as a result of consensus seeking with local governments,
but of the more intensive lobbying activities of local governments within the
Parliament.
To make local governance more open, receptive and “democratic” is not a
question of reforms of regulation and political programmes. In this field, “path-
dependency” has a bigger role, democratic political culture cannot be prescribed
as a recipe. Yet some of the above listed anomalies may be cured. The establish-
ment of strong pools of local governments can be facilitated by the legislator via
e.g. decisions made about the system of interest reconciliation. The opaque nature
of the meso-level jungle can be eradicated by the creation of strong, elected local
governments.
The situation can be significantly improved by the organisational knowledge
of local governmental politicians and the redesign of mechanisms of decision-
making. Much is to be expected from local society on the road to become bour-
geois, civil organisations obtaining autonomy and the public sphere capable of
fulfilling monitoring functions.
8 New phenomena, perspectives
The resolution of ongoing structural problems since systemic change is inhibited
by internal factors of political, legal, sectoral and ideological nature, meanwhile,
the driving force of external motivations (EU accession, the management of
Structural Funds) has considerably decreased. The outcome of the future is
uncertain, forces are equally inherent to the system, and the direction of progress
may be bureaucratic centralisation or decentralisation based on pluralistic
governance. However, the tendencies following the 2010 change of government
rather point towards centralisation. The government, in tackling the economic and
budgetary crisis, justifiably claims that a strong state is needed, and the
consolidation of local governments will be achieved through the paternalistic
intervention of the central government in the form of redistributing local
competences. Even though no significant reform has been undertaken yet in the
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local governmental sector following the change of government, the perspective
can be foreshadowed in light of the steps already taken. As we have already
noted, the public administrative sector becomes the strongest at the meso-level of
governance with the appointment of governmental commissioners and strong,
integrated governmental offices. There is strong evidence of the emergence of
nationalising concepts for the resolution of problems occurring in certain areas of
public services (public education and health). It is difficult to forecast whether the
local governmental sector will be able to achieve a stable position in the power
structure. Let us review the chances:
The pessimistic scenario of centralisation
In case the top-down initiated and maintained model of micro-regions
− remains unrivalled in the resolution of settlement-level capacity problems, it
will produce an over-concentrated, rigid basic or meso-level which will
prove uncontrollable for small settlements, ultimately separating local
governance from its community roots.
In case the meso-level becomes atomised, remains geographically frag-
− mented and the public administration and delegated corporations perma-
nently occupy the space between central and local governance, chances will
become smaller that the meso-level (county or region) can become the
counterbalance and partner of central government in representative/local
governmental status.
Finally, if the dependence of local governments on central resources
− becomes permanent, then shared service and development coalitions with
local stakeholders will be reduced to occasional associations for the obtain-
ment of state funds. The narrowing scope of action, the poor quality of
functioning will ultimately erode the support of local society, divesting local
communities of the chances of forging local identity, and the already
existing distrust may increase further, crisis management potentially leading
to sharpened local conflicts. All this will prepare the field for the growing
role of the state.
8.1 The less likely optimistic scenario of decentralisation
The optimistic counterbalance of the previous, quite pessimistic scenario can
become a realistic possibility only in case of simultaneous top-down and bottom-
up structural and functional modernisation.
Through the consolidation of the local level, local and meso-level
− competences become clearly distinct, associations of small settlements
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(which may be obligatory) will organise basic services on different scales
while adapting to the country’s spatial and settlement network specifics.
Cities will assume the role of “service provider” in their surrounding area,
− meso-level governments enjoying strong legitimacy and endowed with
complex administrative, service and development competences will fulfil
integrating and interest enforcement functions enabling them to participate
in the international networks and competition of local governments.
The mixed and multi-coloured models of community services will combine
− the resources and knowledge of local economy and civil society with public
elements of control, quality assurance and equity.
Local and meso-level democracy, institutions of public opinion curb the
− self-seeking attitude of the political elite, the receptive tissue of local
networks provides opportunity for new entrants with knowledge, functions,
resources to join.
Upon estimating the chances of the two ideal scenarios, it becomes obvious
that only their combination can be realistic permitting to schedule changes in the
long-term. Nevertheless, the objective of modern and democratic local
governance can be attained, provided that we do not turn back on the road we
started to follow post-regime change. But if we regard failures as a dichotomy of
strong state versus the system of local governments, then the centralised model of
territorial governance under the flag of the neo-weberian renaissance will emerge
victorious, justifying the ironclad law of path-dependency in the region.
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Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
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 5 or 6 issues a year. It will be of interest to geographers, economists, so-
ciologists, 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 develop-
ment 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 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
P.O. Box 199, 7601 PÉCS, HUNGARY
Phone: (36–72) 523 800
Fax: (36–72) 523 803
www.rkk.hu
http://www.dti.rkk.hu/kiadv/discussion.html
Director
Gyula HORVÁTH
Editor
Gábor LUX
lux@rkk.hu
Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
Papers published in the Discussion Papers series
Discussion Papers / Specials
BENKėNÉ LODNER, Dorottya (ed.) (1988): Environmental Control and Policy: Proceedings of
the Hungarian–Polish Seminar in the Theoretical Problems of Environmental Control
and Policy
OROSZ, Éva (ed.) (1988): Spatial Organisation and Regional Development Papers of the 6th Polish–
Hungarian geographical Seminar
DURÓ, Annamária (ed.) (1993): Spatial Research and the Social–Political Changes: Papers of the
7th Polish–Hungarian Seminar
DURÓ, Annamária (ed.) (1999): Spatial Research in Support of the European Integration.
Proceedings of the 11th Polish–Hungarian Geographical Seminar (Mátraháza, Hungary
17–22 September, 1998)
GÁL, Zoltán (ed.) (2001): Role of the Regions in the Enlarging European Union
HORVÁTH, Gyula (ed.) (2002): Regional Challenges of the Transition in Bulgaria and Hungary
KOVÁCS, András Donát (ed.) (2004): New Aspects of Regional Transformation and the Urban-
Rural Relationship
BARANYI, Béla (ed.) (2005): Hungarian–Romanian and Hungarian–Ukrainian border regions as
areas of co-operation along the external borders of Europe
ENYEDI, György – KOVÁCS, Zoltán (eds.) (2006): Social Changes and Social Sustainability in
Historical Urban Centres. The Case of Central Europe
KOVÁCS, András Donát (ed.) (2007): Regionality and/or locality
SZIRMAI, Viktória (ed.) (2007): Social Inequalities in Urban Areas and Globalization. The Case of
Central Europe
ILLÉS, Iván (2008): Visions and Strategies in the Carpathian Area (VASICA)
GÁL, Zoltán – RÁCZ, Szilárd (eds.) (2008): Socio-Economic Analysis of the Carpathian Area
KOVÁCS, András Donát (ed.) (2009): Old and new borderlines/frontiers/margins
Discussion Papers
No. 1
OROSZ, Éva (1986): Critical Issues in the Development of Hungarian Public Health with
Special Regard to Spatial Differences
No. 2
ENYEDI, György – ZENTAI, Viola (1986): Environmental Policy in Hungary
No. 3
HAJDÚ, Zoltán (1987): Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in
Hungary
No. 4
SIKOS T., Tamás (1987): Investigations of Social Infrastructure in Rural Settlements of
Borsod County
No. 5
HORVÁTH, Gyula (1987): Development of the Regional Management of the Economy in
East-Central Europe
No. 6
PÁLNÉ KOVÁCS, Ilona (1988): Chance of Local Independence in Hungary
No. 7
FARAGÓ, László – HRUBI, László (1988): Development Possibilities of Backward
Areas in Hungary
No. 8
SZÖRÉNYINÉ KUKORELLI, Irén (1990): Role of the Accessibility in Development and
Functioning of Settlements
Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
No. 9
ENYEDI, György (1990): New Basis for Regional and Urban Policies in East-Central
Europe
No. 10
RECHNITZER, János (1990): Regional Spread of Computer Technology in Hungary
No. 11
SIKOS T., Tamás (1992): Types of Social Infrastructure in Hungary (to be not published)
No. 12
HORVÁTH, Gyula – HRUBI, László (1992): Restructuring and Regional Policy in
Hungary
No. 13
ERDėSI, Ferenc (1992): Transportation Effects on Spatial Structure of Hungary
No. 14
PÁLNÉ KOVÁCS, Ilona (1992): The Basic Political and Structural Problems in the
Workings of Local Governments in Hungary
No. 15
PFEIL, Edit (1992): Local Governments and System Change. The Case of a Regional
Centre
No. 16
HORVÁTH, Gyula (1992): Culture and Urban Development (The Case of Pécs)
No. 17
HAJDÚ, Zoltán (1993): Settlement Network Development Policy in Hungary in the
Period of State Socialism (1949–1985)
No. 18
KOVÁCS, Teréz (1993): Borderland Situation as It Is Seen by a Sociologist
No. 19
HRUBI, L. – KRAFTNÉ SOMOGYI, Gabriella (eds.) (1994): Small and medium-sized
firms and the role of private industry in Hungary
No. 20
BENKėNÉ Lodner, Dorottya (1995): The Legal-Administrative Questions of
Environmental Protection in the Republic of Hungary
No. 21 ENYEDI, György (1998): Transformation in Central European Postsocialist Cities
No. 22 HAJDÚ, Zoltán (1998): Changes in the Politico-Geographical Position of Hungary in the
20th Century
No. 23
HORVÁTH, Gyula (1998): Regional and Cohesion Policy in Hungary
No. 24
BUDAY-SÁNTHA, Attila (1998): Sustainable Agricultural Development in the Region
of the Lake Balaton
No. 25
LADOS, Mihály (1998): Future Perspective for Local Government Finance in Hungary
No. 26
NAGY, Erika (1999): Fall and Revival of City Centre Retailing: Planning an Urban
Function in Leicester, Britain
No. 27
BELUSZKY, Pál (1999): The Hungarian Urban Network at the End of the Second
Millennium
No. 28
RÁCZ, Lajos (1999): Climate History of Hungary Since the 16th Century: Past, Present
and Future
No. 29
RAVE, Simone (1999): Regional Development in Hungary and Its Preparation for the
Structural Funds
No. 30
BARTA, Györgyi (1999): Industrial Restructuring in the Budapest Agglomeration
No. 31
BARANYI, Béla–BALCSÓK, István–DANCS, László–MEZė, Barna (1999):
Borderland Situation and Peripherality in the North-Eastern Part of the Great Hungarian
Plain
No. 32
RECHNITZER, János (2000): The Features of the Transition of Hungary’s Regional
System
No. 33
MURÁNYI, István–PÉTER, Judit–SZARVÁK, Tibor–SZOBOSZLAI, Zsolt (2000):
Civil Organisations and Regional Identity in the South Hungarian Great Plain
No. 34
KOVÁCS, Teréz (2001): Rural Development in Hungary
No. 35
PÁLNÉ, Kovács Ilona (2001): Regional Development and Governance in Hungary
Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
No. 36
NAGY, Imre (2001): Cross-Border Co-operation in the Border Region of the Southern
Great Plain of Hungary
No. 37
BELUSZKY, Pál (2002): The Spatial Differences of Modernisation in Hungary at the
Beginning of the 20th Century
No. 38
BARANYI, Béla (2002): Before Schengen – Ready for Schengen. Euroregional
Organisations and New Interregional Formations at the Eastern Borders of Hungary
No. 39
KERESZTÉLY, Krisztina (2002): The Role of the State in the Urban Development of
Budapest
No. 40
HORVÁTH, Gyula (2002): Report on the Research Results of the Centre for Regional
Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
No. 41
SZIRMAI, Viktoria – A. GERGELY, András – BARÁTH, Gabriella–MOLNÁR, Balázs
– SZÉPVÖLGYI, Ákos (2003): The City and its Environment: Competition and/or Co-
operation? (A Hungarian Case Study)
No. 42
CSATÁRI, Bálint–KANALAS, Imre–NAGY, Gábor –SZARVÁK, Tibor (2004): Regions
in Information Society – a Hungarian Case-Study
No. 43
FARAGÓ, László (2004): The General Theory of Public (Spatial) Planning (The Social
Technique for Creating the Future)
No. 44
HAJDÚ, Zoltán (2004): Carpathian Basin and the Development of the Hungarian
Landscape Theory Until 1948
No. 45
GÁL, Zoltán (2004): Spatial Development and the Expanding European Integration of the
Hungarian Banking System
No. 46
BELUSZKY, Pál – GYėRI, Róbert (2005): The Hungarian Urban Network in the
Beginning of the 20th Century
No. 47
G. FEKETE, Éva (2005): Long-term Unemployment and Its Alleviation in Rural Areas
No. 48
SOMLYÓDYNÉ PFEIL, Edit (2006): Changes in The Organisational Framework of
Cooperation Within Urban Areas in Hungary
No. 49
MEZEI, István (2006): Chances of Hungarian–Slovak Cross-Border Relations
No. 50
RECHNITZER, János – SMAHÓ, Melinda (2006): Regional Characteristics of Human
Resources in Hungary During the Transition
No. 51
BARTA, Györgyi – BELUSZKY, Pál – CZIRFUSZ, Márton – GYėRI, Róbert –
KUKELY, György (2006): Rehabilitating the Brownfield Zones of Budapest
No. 52
GROSZ, András (2006): Clusterisation Processes in the Hungarian Automotive Industry
No. 53
FEKETE, G. Éva – HARGITAI, Judit – JÁSZ, Krisztina – SZARVÁK, Tibor –
SZOBOSZLAI, Zsolt (2006): Idealistic Vision or Reality? Life-long learning among
Romany ethnic groups
No. 54
BARTA, Györgyi (ed.) (2006): Hungary – the New Border of the European Union
No. 55
GÁL, Zoltán (2006): Banking Functions of the Hungarian Urban Network in the Early
20th Century.
No. 56
SZÖRÉNYINÉ, Kukorelli Irén (2006): Relation Analysis in Rural Space – A Research
Method for Exploring the Spatial Structure in Hungary
No. 57
MAUREL, Marie-Claude – PÓLA, Péter (2007): Local System and Spatial Change – The
Case of Bóly in South Transdanubia
No. 58
SZIRMAI, Viktória (2007): The Social Characteristics of Hungarian Historic City Centres
No. 59
ERDėSI, Ferenc – GÁL, Zoltán – GIPP, Christoph – VARJÚ, Viktor (2007): Path
Dependency or Route Flexibility in Demand Responsive Transport? The Case Study of
TWIST project
Discussion Papers 2011. No. 83.
Local Governance in Hungary – the Balance of the Last 20 Years
No. 60
PÓLA, Péter (2007): The Economic Chambers and the Enforcement of Local Economic
Interests
No. 61
BUDAY-SÁNTHA, Attila (2007): Development Issues of the Balaton Region
No. 62
LUX, Gábor (2008): Industrial Development, Public Policy and Spatial Differentiation in
Central Europe: Continuities and Change
No. 63
MEZEI, Cecília (2008): The Role of Hungarian Local Governments in Local Economic
Development
No. 64
NAGY, Gábor (2008): The State of the Info-communication Markets in Dél-Alföld
Region – Hungary
No. 65
HORVÁTH, Gyula (2008): Regional Transformation in Russia
No. 66
BELUSZKY, Pál – SIKOS T., Tamás (2008): Changing Village-Typology of Rural
Settlements in Hungary at the Beginning of the Third Millennium
No. 67
CSIZMADIA, Zoltán – GROSZ, András (2008): Regional Innovation System in West
Transdanubia
No. 68
HARDI, Tamás (ed.) (2008): Transborder Movements and Relations in the Slovakian–
Hungarian Border Regions
No. 69
ERDėSI, Ferenc (2008): Global and Regional Roles of the Russian Transport
Infrastructures
No. 70
CSIZMADIA, Zoltán (2009): Cooperation and Innovativity: the Network Foundations of
the Regional System of Innovation
No. 71
HAJDÚ, Zoltán – LUX, Gábor – PÁLNÉ KOVÁCS, Ilona – SOMLYÓDYNÉ PFEIL,
Edit (2009): Local Dimensions of a Wider European Neighbourhood: Crossborder
Relations and Civil Society in the Hungarian–Ukrainian Border Arean
No. 72
HORVÁTH, Gyula (2009): Cohesion deficiencies in Eastern and Central Europe.
Inequalities of regional research area
No. 73
PÁLNÉ KOVÁCS, Ilona –VARJÚ, Viktor (eds.) (2009): Governance for Sustainability –
Two Case Studies from Hungary
No. 74
SZÉPVÖLGYI, Ákos (2009): The Effects of the Information Society on Spatial
Development – Hungarian Case Study
No. 75
BARÁTH, Gabriella (2009): The Relation Systems of Metropolitan Areas
No. 76
MEZEI, István (2009): The Development of the Urban Network in Slovakia
No. 77
CARDOSO, Ana Margarida Martins (2009): Territorial Planning, its Actors and
Instruments. The Portuguese & Hungarian Planning System
No. 78
KOVÁCS, Katalin – CARTWRIGHT, Andrew (2010): Controlled Decentralisation:
Institution-Building and Regional Development in Hungary
No. 79
DURAY, Balázs – MEZEI, István – NAGY, Imre – PÁNOVICS, Attila (eds.) (2010):
Environmental Policy and the Institutional System of Environment Protection in the
Carpathian Basin
No. 80
ERDėSI, Ferenc (2010): Closing up, Keeping up or Lagging Behind? The Fundamental
Problems and Spatial Differences of Air Navigation in East-Europe
No. 81
HORVÁTH, Gyula (2010): Territorial cohesion in the Carpathian basin: trends and tasks
No. 82
HARDI, Tamás (2010): Cities, Regions and Transborder Mobility Along and Across the
Border