Autonomy Of Local Authorities Research Articles

Restitution of local government in Poland in the 1990s. Social perception of administrative reforms

One of the most important steps in the transition from the so-called “real socialism” to democracy was the process of administrative decentralization. In less than ten years, after the “round table” agreements, Polish parliament was able to introduce reforms that changed the structure of local governments. It created three tiers of self-governments and provided redistribution of authority, responsibility, tasks and competences between the government (and their institutions) and local governments. The first aim of the article is to present this process and indicate crucial decisions and actions made by Polish parliament. The second part of the article is mainly based on the results of a research made by CBOS and non-governmental organizations. The data shows how the local government has been perceived during the last two decades by Poles, it brings the information about a sense of influence on local affairs, the importance of local elections, trust in local authorities, belief in the influence of local authorities on local development, perception of the role and autonomy of local authorities. The second part of the article also contains secondary analysis of data on voting turnout in Polish local elections.

Taxes in the formation of financial resources territorial communities: Ukraine and the EU

The issues of fiscal decentralization and the search for ways to increase the level of financial independence of territorial communities are extremely important for the socio-economic development of Ukraine. The main instrument by which territorial communities carry out their functions is the budget. Therefore, issues and problems that relate to the formation of the revenue side of local government budgets, the search and implementation of reserves for their filling, the expansion of the tax base is given a lot of attention in the scientific works of scientists from both foreign and domestic scientific schools. At the same time, the novelty of the problems associated with fiscal decentralization requires further research, in particular, substantiation of directions for increasing the role of taxes in the formation of financial resources of territorial communities. The objective of the study is to analyze the formation of local budget revenues in Ukraine at the expense of tax revenues and a comparative analysis of tax sources for the formation of financial resources of territorial communities in Ukraine and in individual EU countries. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the directions for increasing the role of taxes in ensuring the financial autonomy of territorial communities. During the research, general scientific and special methods were used: analysis and synthesis, the method of comparison, generalization, statistical, etc. The article analyzes the formation of incomes of local budgets in Ukraine at the expense of tax revenues. It has been proven that financial decentralization, tax and budget reforms have positive trends and contribute to the growth of revenues of local budgets and increasing their fiscal potential. However, local taxes have not become a regulatory instrument, but are secondary to government taxation. Therefore, the local taxation system in Ukraine requires further reform. The current system of local taxes and fees in the country requires further development, since it must provide sufficient volumes of own revenues of local budgets, as well as be an instrument of local socio-economic policy. The way to increase the volume of local taxes and fees should be the establishment of taxes that provide a sufficient volume of revenues, which in turn will create a reliable source of revenue for local budgets. Expanding the autonomy of local authorities will enable them to play an important role in the socio-economic development of communities and the country as a whole. Since local taxes and fees should form the basis of local budget revenues, it is necessary to expand the rights of local territorial communities to approve tax rates and fees, grant tax benefits, and also, taking into account the positive experience of EU countries, on diversifying tax revenues, in particular, through taxation of real estate. The results of this study can be applied in the process of reforming the local taxation system in order to ensure the financial independence of territorial communities.

The Public Power System in the Russian Federation: New Approaches to Legal Regulation under the Constitutional Reform

The paper is devoted to the examination of the Russian system of public power in the context of the constitutional reform. The aim of the study is to carry out a comprehensive theoretical and legal analysis of the current state of consolidation of the public power system in Russia under constitutional law. The author has examined the regulatory legal acts that mediate the implementation of the constitutional reform in Russia; doctrinal sources and significant foreign experience relevant to the subject matter of the study. Methodologically, the study is based on general philosophical, general scientific, private scientific, special scientific methods. The paper defines the fundamental properties of the system of public power enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation with due regard to such parameters as the peculiarities of the construction of federal relations as the fundamental functions and powers of public authorities allocated vertically, the state of the system of separation of powers in the context of checks and balances, the level of legal protection and autonomy of local authorities. The author has determined that the constitutional reform regarding the consolidation of the system of public power has encouraged development and strengthening of the principle of subsidiarity when differentiating jurisdictions and powers in relations between the state authorities of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities; clarification of the spatial limit of the governmental rule of the Federation by means of constitutional legitimation of Federal Territories; creation of the basis for overcoming the “conflict of competences (jurisdictions)” between state and municipal levels of power in order to ensure the constitutional law balance between the branches of state power at the federal level to prevent the development of non-systemic conflicts in the system of checks and balances and the emergence of constitutional crises of power. A suggested system of public power retains the necessary discretionary mechanisms to adjust the mechanism of its individual elements in order to achieve a balance between public functions, powers and tasks to be solved.

Swedish context of the COVID-19 pandemic approach and problems of social services

The article presents the approach of the Swedish authorities and the community to the problem of coronavirus threat. It shows the specific nature of the activities of government and local institutions, different from that adopted in other EU countries, and resulting from the political system of Sweden, the government's prerogatives, and the high autonomy of local authorities.

Financial decentralization as a precondition of increasing the local governance capacity in Ukraine

Modern period of Ukrainian development is characterized by extended process of local governance and administrative-financial decentralization reforms, as well as a set of sectoral reforms that started in 2014. The process, which can generally be characterized as the decentralization process, has become the driving force directed at improving the level of territories’ socio-economic development and strengthening the local governance capacity in Ukraine. It is grounded on growing financial autonomy of local authorities, expansion of the list and improving quality of public services granted to residents, and meeting the needs of territorial communities in all activity domains. The paper aims to examine the process of financial decentralization as a precondition of increasing the capacity of local governance in Ukraine. The paper determines that local finances are the process of making financial and investment decisions according to the planned tasks and sources of maintenance. It reveals that the sources of financial provision of territorial communities stipulate the forming of local budgets’ revenues in time based on real processes. The approach contributes to avoiding the excessive expenses and more distinct but rather short-term predicting of budgets composition, as well as optimal defining of funding priorities for corresponding activities. The structure of funding sources in Ukraine is analyzed. The weight of local budgets’ revenues in the structure of Ukraine’s consolidated budget in 2014-2018 is determined. The fact that financial decentralization as one of the key reforms is directed at strengthening of financial-economic capacity of territorial units based on the principles of autonomy, self-sufficiency, and efficiency is emphasized.

Реформа децентралізації в Україні: поточний стан та перспективи розвитку

Досліджено особливості бюджетної децентралізації як складової частини реформи, що нині триває в Україні. Розкрито теоретичні основи бюджетної децентралізації, її сутнісні характеристики, функції, принципи та вплив на соціально-економічний розвиток регіонів. З'ясовано цільову спрямованість децентралізації задля створення економічно стабільного та збалансованого розвитку України. Виявлено ключові переваги та недоліки бюджетної децентралізації в Україні за останні роки. Проаналізовано динаміку створення об'єднаних територіальних громад. Виявлено вплив кількісних змін бази нарахування податків, зборів та обов'язкових платежів на динаміку зміни номінальних доходів місцевих бюджетів. Встановлено залежність місцевих бюджетів від Державного бюджету та недостатність обсягу власних і закріплених доходів для виконання самоврядних та делегованих повноважень. Виділено основні проблемні питання, котрі потребують вирішення для реалізації наймасштабнішої реформи в Україні.

On the social content of local self-government

The author argues that the social studies devoted to the Russian local self-government are dominated by uncritical borrowing of the basic vocabulary and the axiomatics of the municipal law. Such studies reproduce ideal concepts enshrined in the legislation and legal doctrine to substitute for the critical analysis of the social reality processes. To understand the true meaning of what is referred to as local self-government the author proposes to consider the correlation between the legal-dogmatic concept and the results of empirical research. For that purpose, three constitutive features of local self-government are singled out: inclusiveness, accessibility and autonomy of local authorities. Analyzing the data of the public opinion surveys, the author observes the lack of public confidence in the municipal authorities, their distancing from the local communities and proximity to the regional government. As an example, the author examines cancelation of direct elections of heads of municipalities which brings into sharp focus contradictions between actual processes and the local self-government theory. At the same time, public perceptions of local self-government as a value and a directly observed phenomenon remain uncertain. Based on the results of the analysis, the author concludes that there is a principal divergence between the reality and the normative conception of local self-government which raises the issue of its rethinking in social sciences. The basis of the study is the data of the nationwide representative surveys conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation.
 Acknowledgment. The paper is supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 14-28-00218-II “Dynamics of social transformation in modern Russia in socio-economic, political, socio-cultural and ethno-religious contexts”.

The main vector of development and implementation of educational policy in the context of the decentralization reform in Ukraine

The article deals with the peculiarities of the development and implementation of educational policy in the context of the decentralization reform in Ukraine. The main purpose of the article is to identify the main directions and difficulties of the development and implementation of educational policy in the context of the decentralization reform in Ukraine. The objectives of the article are to summarize the data of the problem under study and to distinguish the specifics of educational changes. The methodological basis for the study of educational policy includes general scientific methods of empirical and theoretical generalization, induction and synthesis, methods of comparative and legal analysis. Thus, the methods of empirical and theoretical generalization, in particular, are used to clarify the conditions, specifics and problems of the decentralization reform in Ukraine; deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis help to identify systemic problems in education. The result of the analysis is a theoretical understanding of the regulatory framework with the isolation of the problem points of the functioning of a decentralized educational system in Ukraine. It is determined that the main trend of modern educational policy is the commercialization of all aspects of education and training, which essentially delegitimizes the principle of equal access to quality education, which, in its turn, intensifies the search for adequate responses of the world and national educational spaces by the main stakeholders i.e. the state, commercial structures and civil society. Conclusion. It is concluded that the community and the state should jointly decide on the creation of strategic principles for reforming the educational process, monitoring its quality, strengthening the social protection of all participants, expanding the network of educational institutions, training and improving the skills of pedagogical and academic staff, and developing systems of labor motivation. The decentralized system of education functions through cooperation and coordination of the activities of many independent institutions, each of which has a legally defined scope of autonomy. Decentralization involves the creation of a governance system that, instead of vertical subordination, is based on the cooperation of independent institutions of different levels, governed by the provisions of the law. In Ukraine, this means that united communities, districts and regions will have autonomous, democratically elected bodies of local self-government, whose councils and executive bodies will act in accordance with the expectations of the local people who elected them. The autonomy of local authorities must be enshrined and guaranteed by law, and must be carefully defended by all stakeholders, including associations of local selfgovernment bodies. Particular attention is paid to the perspectives of implementing the concept of «New Ukrainian School» and the establishment of a network of reference schools. The components of the model of the «New Ukrainian School» should become a strategic basis for the development of a system of education in the united communities, which will cover not only the educational process but also the management of the entire educational network of the community as a whole (including the development and implementation of a plan for optimizing school networks)

Формування доходів об'єднаних територіальних громад в умовах удосконалення податкового законодавства

Досліджено вплив податків та відповідно податкової політики держави на формування доходів об'єднаних територіальних громад. В умовах бюджетної децентралізації зміни бюджетного та податкового законодавства призведуть до відповідних змін структури податкових надходжень та їх розмежування між бюджетами різних рівнів. Комплексна децентралізація передбачає широкомасштабний процес, у ході якого виділяють окремі елементи бюджетних і небюджетних джерел фінансових ресурсів та визначають особливості їх впливу на позитивний результат проведених реформ. Проаналізовано сучасну модель міжбюджетних відносин в Україні. Встановлено чинники формування доходів місцевих територіальних громад та оцінено вплив на їх соціально-економічний розвиток. Визначені можливості і загрози проведення децентралізаційної реформи не мають стати на заваді для її реалізації. Надано практичні рекомендації щодо підвищення ефективності податкової реформи в Україні, які мають за мету дати змогу територіальним громадам сформувати прогресивний та раціональний бюджет. Проведене дослідження окреслює проблеми та пропонує основні шляхи наповнення місцевих бюджетів. Це стане рушійною силою та стимулом для ефективного соціально-економічного розвитку територій.

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF BUDGET DECENTRALIZATION IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORMS IN UKRAINE

Introduction.The urgency of studying theoretical foundations of budget decentralization for Ukraine is conditioned by the necessity of developing an effective scheme of macroeconomic regulation of social and economic processes in the context of decentralization. The process of social and economic development in Ukraine on a democratic and legal basis is impossible without increasing the role of the local self-government. Decentralization is one of the main motive forces in reforming self-government today. The purposeis deepening theoretical and methodological principles of budget decentralization and theoretical aspects of budget decentralization with the definition of its influence on processes of state regulation in Ukraine. Results.It is substantiated that in modern science theoretical aspects of decentralization are considered in relation to its types. The classification of decentralization types is carried out depending on their characteristics: financial (fiscal) one is the process of distribution of functions, financial resources and responsibility for their use between central and local levels of management; budget one, in the broadest sense, is the division of responsibility between authorities of different levels (including national governments, regional authorities and local self-government bodies) with the management of budgetary resources; in the narrow sense it is the presence of certain functions and powers at the local level, autonomy of local authorities in making independent decisions in the fiscal sphere. Conclusions.It is substantiated that budget and financial decentralization considerably influences the formation of local budgets. It is found that the decentralization course shows both prospects and problems of the Ukrainian development. Grouping the main benefits and positive effects of decentralization is carried out. The research analysis made it possible to establish that decentralization may have the risks and dangers grouped in the article.

La descentralización administrativa en Colombia: un reto inconcluso y un desafío para el posconflicto

Colombia es un país que cuenta con una férrea tradición centralista desde la Constitución de 1886, atemperada en buena medida con la expedición de la Carta Política de 1991, que consagró los conceptos de descentralización administrativa y autonomía de las entidades territoriales. Sin embargo, pese a ello, después de veinticinco años de su expedición, el anhelo de los constituyentes de hacer una Colombia más equilibrada, en cuanto a poder de decisión, y, a su vez, más cercana a las verdaderas necesidades de la población es aún un reto inconcluso. En ese sentido, esta reflexión pretende demostrar cómo la ausencia del Estado en los territorios más alejados del centro del poder político, económico y social ha sido una de las consecuencias directas del conflicto armado interno que vive nuestro país, situación que le plantea al Estado un importante desafío frente a una eventual situación de posconflicto.

Del federalismo al nacionalismo electoral

La reforma político electoral de 2013- 2014 generó un debate en torno a federalizar o centralizar las funciones del modelo electoral mexicano. La disputa entre ampliar las facultades del Instituto Federal Electoral o crear un nuevo paradigma centralizado para la administración de las elecciones, se trasformó en un modelo hibrido con atribuciones concurrentes entre el Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) y los Organismos Públicos Locales Electorales (OPLES), donde la soberanía estatal y el carácter autónomo de los poderes públicos locales se ven mermados. El objetivo del presente trabajo es señalar los ámbitos de competencia de cada uno y distinguir las injerencias de la esfera electoral federal en el ámbito estatal y nacional.

Central Policies and Local Autonomy: the Case of Wales

This paper assesses the impact of central policies on the autonomy of local authorities in Wales since 1979. Several problems in the measurement of central constraints are identified, including the distinction between aggregate and individual autonomy, the specification of central objectives and the need to take account of factors that reinforce or counteract central policies. The behaviour of Welsh local authorities is compared with six central goals: lower spending, less direct service provision, a greater emphasis on market mechanisms, compliance with central targets, less policy diversity and a weaker link between party politics and policy decisions. The empirical evidence provides only limited support for the centralisation thesis. General conclusions are drawn on the conceptualisation and measurement of central constraints on local autonomy.