The co-operation of rural municipalities - chance or condition of achievement

Abstract

Czech settlement structure as well as the structure of public administration on municipal level is extremely disintegrated. Besides a great number of very small villages – small settlement units – there exists a big share of very small municipalities with self-government. Those municipalities can and often do cooperate in voluntary associations, which can transfer some of their competencies by a specific municipal treaty. This paper is focused on the discussion of possibilities and limits of cooperation among rural municipalities. Different forms of existing collaboration are discussed and possibilities of new forms of municipal collaboration are drafted, including the possible presumed and real dangers of such collaboration.