Unitary Countries Research Articles

Administrative reform in Ukraine: from its origins to the future

In general, this article reveals the political meaning of administrative reforms and administrative divisions in some countries of Europe and Asia. A special subject of research is administrative reform and the reform of regionalization in the unitary countries, their path to regionalism and greater democratization at the level of regional governance. Administrative reform and the reform of decentralization of power have ripened in Ukraine for a long time, and even at the present stage, these reforms are inherent in some problems. This work reveals all the functional and historical-ethnographic content of administrative reform in Ukraine. The study offers a pilot map of the administrative division of regions and subregional entities in Ukraine, according to Western trends in administrative division. The historical, national foundations of administrative reform and decentralization reforms in Ukraine are interesting, as well as external factors such as European integration, which may affect the formation of the concept of administrative division in Ukraine, both from a historical retrospective and futurism in this matter, as well as from a functional point of view. In general, the Ukrainian space is inherent in some uncertainty and differences in conceptual issues of reforming the administrative-territorial structure of the state. The study analyzes promising developments in the field of reforming of the administrative-territorial divisions and suggests some new trends in possible areas of reform. First of all, the author is trying to restore order about how European trends and ideas can be expressed in the domestic environment. Some legislative initiatives are analyzed and it is proposed to highlight the historical and functional meaning of the concept of a region in legislation. It also analyzes the possible impact of administrative reform on the reforms of various branches of government. In general, the study proposes a qualitative modernization of the system of administrative-territorial construction in Ukraine. In fact, reforming the administrative-territorial structure on the basis of universally recognized world trends can significantly streamline national, regional, subregional and local governance in Ukraine, and bring it to a new level. Also, these reforms carry some modernization of regional economic policy, which the domestic space needs in the face of modern problems.

ETIKA MASYARAKAT PANDHALUNGAN DALAM MERAJUT KEBHINEKAAN (AGAMA)

Indonesia is a unitary country whose people evolve and live in different tribes, races, religions, cultures and languages. This condition occurs as there is one principle known as Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. This principle, hoever, seems to confront or experience “turbulance” along with teh encreases of regional sentiments and majority and minority disparities. Fot instance, the emergance of intolerant groups has threatened the unity of nation. This problem that should be solved sice the proclamation of Indonesian independence in 1945 emerged due to the fact that the goverment has not touched the local wisdom of the community on how to maintain unity. Therefore, this papes aims at presenting the results or research (a case) with qualitiative methods. The data collection is carried out through field observation and indepth interview (unstructure interview). The results of this study indicate that the “pandhalungan community” in Sumberpakem Village Jember District has a strong social integrity about how to maintain unity. They have a cultural grip called a sangkolan, which is a concept of the ancetral heritage of the community on how to respect and appreciate people of difference religions. Morover, there is also the concept of “ taretan dhibik”, which is a glue or tie among residens. Although they have different religions, they consider others as “taretan dhibik” or they brothers. They also say “ataretan saterrosah” (forever brothers)DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17977/um021v4i12019p047

Measuring fiscal descentralization in Argentina and Denmark

Fiscal decentralization has been a worldwide trend in the last decades, especially in Europe and in Latin America. This process, however, have not been uniform in all countries, acquiring different forms in different countries and within a same country over the years; those processes even involved not only federal states, but also traditionally unitary states. Decentralization, then, is a concept that has broken the theoretical boundaries between unitary states and federal states, transcending them. Therefore, a comparative study not only between federal countries but also between unitary countries is required. The aim of this paper is to compare the process of decentralization in two countries with completely different institutional settings (Argentina and Denmark) in order to measure the degree of fiscal decentralization reached, to understand how this process has operated throughout the last decade and which outcomes has been achieved in these two countries.

Constitutional recognition: French perspective

The Constitution of France is based on principles from the 1789 revolution, stating in its first article that it is an “indivisible republic” and that it “ensures the equality before the law of all citizens without distinction of origin, race or religion.” Growing up in such a unitary country (as opposed to multicultural), it was hard for me to completely grasp the idea of recognition of indigenous groups, of ethnic or cultural minorities. Yet, France recently recognised the existence of such local groups in territories outside the mainland – for instance, New-Caledonia. It mostly refers to memorial issues, reflecting on “the shadows of colonial times”, and further affirmative action. This draws on the concept of the ‘right to recognition’ theorised by Le Pourhiet (2014), with objective principles of cultural diversity and the grant of collective rights to more vulnerable groups.

Regionalization, decentralization and administrative reform in Europe: theoretical and methodological aspect

Basically this article is divided into three parts – theoretical points of the decentralization of powers, methodological points of territorial and political regionalization and the basis and principals of administrative systems, especially concerning the historical borders of the territories and regions, in different countries of Europe. We found out that all that kinds of abovementioned processes principally are counted as a theoretical part of the decentralization process. We opened in this paper such definitions as decentralized unitary country and regionalized unitary country. We strongly think that decentralized unitary country precedes the regionalized unitary country, because as we found, process of decentralization and regionalization basically are the parts of one united historical process, where the decentralization is first, and regionalization is a second part. Abovementioned processes are actual for Ukraine, because now our country is on the way of reforms, especially into the reform of decentralization. So, we could try to analyse how deep decentralization and administrative reform could go and supposed that except of decentralization, regionalization of powers could not be actual in close perspective, but is actual from the theoretical and methodological points of view.

FINANCIAL DECENTRALIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON LOCAL BUDGET INCOME FORMATION: INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

The public governance decentralization requires the redistribution of financial resources for the powers imple-mentation delegated to local authorities. The purpose of the article is to determine the essence of financial decen-tralization and the peculiarities of its implementation in Ukraine and some other countries. The article reveals the essence of financial decentralization and related concepts defining the financial autonomy of local authorities. The features of the revenue part of local budgets formation in different countries of the world in the conditions of financial decentralization are revealed. A comparison of the main elements of the intergovernmental tax distribu-tion in some unitary countries of Europe has been made. The dynamics of tax revenues to budgets of different lev-els in Ukraine is determined. The distribution of tax revenues between budgets of different levels is presented in the context of financial decentralization in Ukraine. The obtained results of the analysis made it possible to deter-mine that for a successful decentralization reform, local authorities should be given sufficient financial resources to fulfill their responsibilities for solving local problems and ensuring regional development.

A Review of Foreign Experiences in Implementing Budget Policy in Inter-Budgetary Relations

The article investigates the theoretical and methodological framework of foreign experiences in implementing budget policy in inter-budgetary relations. It is demonstrated that the model of inter-budgetary relations, existing in Ukraine, does not contribute in creating necessary incentives for local governments to ensure appropriate management of budgets. The situation can be improved only by harmonizing the reform of inter-budgetary relations with the general logic of change in regional relations. It is demonstrated that the use of income differentiation method depends on the structural basis of the budget system, which is determined by the organization of the State. While in unitary countries taxes are most often split with fixed rates and allowances to national taxes, in federal countries distribution of income between budgets is used. As foreign experiences show, while in federal countries optimal mobilization and socially oriented spending of budget funds requires a long time, in unitary countries it can be possibly done in a relatively short time, but it needs clearly defined social goals and ways to achieve them.
 In the budgetary practice of Ukraine two methods of budget regulation are used: (i) deductions from national taxes and incomes collected on local budget territories; (ii) fixed financial assistance to local budgets in form of budget transfers. The advantages of the first method are balancing of local budgets by use of flexible revenue sources, local governments’ concern with full mobilization of not only local revenue sources, but also national taxes, the responsibility of local financial authorities for timely and complete receipt of national taxes. Budget regulation does not exclude the possibility of using budget transfers. The review of foreign experiences in local budgeting shows that the budget regulation instruments practiced in unitary countries would be useful for Ukraine.

Introduction to subnational policy: from warnings to approval

Today a comprehensive analysis of political processes is impossible without use of a subnational comparative method. Subnational issue in political science passes three stages of development and now appears to be as an independent subject of scientific analysis. During a long period of time researchers analyze political processes in state exclusively at national level. There is idea that any manifestation of political life in a diminished spatial scale is only a projection of a national political life. It symbolizes phenomenon of the main in theory of politi- cal science. The main array of works in second half of XX century, which relating to democratization, are from a national point of view. Subnational issues have obliquely arisen in studies, which characterized by fragmentary comprehension, remarks or mentioning. This conceptual content characterizes devel- opment of subnational issue at first stage in 70's and 80's of XX century, a representation stage, that symbolizes first meeting of paradigm of that time and phenomenon that did not adapt, but existentially is always alongside with it. This whole-national in comparative political science changes in last decade of XX cen- tury, when it begins to explore various aspects of subnational politics, namely: territorial extension of processes of democratization. The first decade of XXI century is characterized by presence of research that representes an increased scientific and theoretical interest in subnational politics, supported by its own methods for measuring and classifying cases within subnational units of analysis. In 90's of XX century by middle of second decade of XXI century, which is chronologically second interval, stage of contact, is outlined in developing a subnational issue in comparative political science. It is a moment of communication between political practice and conceptual embryo (subna- tional comparative method), which is trying to understand it. In addition to approval of methodological issues and a large number of studies on subnational politics, transformation of paradigm bias from whole-national to monism becomes an important change. The monism is embodied in thesis that only unit of subnational analysis is subject of federative states that have a certain legally defined political independence, as opposed to administrative-territorial parts of unitary countries. The research trend of last four years (2014-2018) reflectes new practical implications for using comparative methodology in subnational politics. Studies show that monism overcomes today because work concerns unitary states in one or another way. The assertion of a subnational issue crystallizes in comparative science today and enteres into a stage, stage of collaboration, which, firstly, is based on dynamism of methodological principles of a problem, and, secondly, on autonomy of studying one's own subject.

Equalization transfers and convergence between federal and unitary systems: A contribution to their historical analysis

Equalization transfers, or grants, are a crucial component of modern federal and unitary countries. They also shape the evolution of different political systems promoting convergence in their effective working. The literature does not provide studies with a long-term and comparative perspective despite the relevance of this approach to the study of intergovernmental relations. The paper provides a contribution aimed at filling this void. It considers a small set of countries, including two unitary systems, Italy and the UK with a focus on English local government and three federal countries, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Federal systems are now paying more attention than initially to uniformity of policies and equality of access to the benefits of public policies, while unitary systems show much more attention than in the past to reaching equality of access and benefits from policies through local autonomy and use of transparent intergovernmental grants, rather than with hierarchical command. Another way of illustrating this process is stressing the growing recognition of common citizenship in both federal and unitary states.

FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN SELECTED EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The paper analyses the fiscal decentralization effects on economic growth in unitary countries of European Union for the period 2005–2014. The empirical analysis was based on the multiple regression method. The fixed effect panel model was used as framework for the analysis. In order to examine the different impact of fiscal decentralization, the same analysis was applied to subsets of countries categorized into two groups according to countries’ level of economic development. This further analysis found that there is positive relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth in low level of economically developing countries and no relationship in high level of economically developed countries. These results suggested that fiscal decentralization is not always instrument for promotion of economic growth, which means that country’s economic development level is an important factor when introducing reform of fiscal decentralization. The originality of this article – new fiscal decentralization index and evaluated fiscal decentralization level influence for countries economic growth.

The Budget System and Inter-budget Transfers in Ukraine

The budget system is the leading element of public fi- nances and the structure of state is a determining factor in the formation of the budget system. In the unitary countries, which include Ukraine, the budget system unites two links: budget of central government and local budgets, otherwise in the federal states there is the third link: members of fed- eration’s budgets. Local governments are the largest element of the budget system in Ukraine (totally there were 12,052 independent local budgets to 01.12.2010), but now their number is reduced in the connection with the financial de- centralization and the creation of integrated communities. local governments are independent, and the main sources of revenues are own, fixed revenues and іnter-budget transfers. The main forms of іnter-budget transfers contain the basic subsidy, subvention, reversible subsidy, additional subsidies. Transfers are the most common tools of financial support to local budgets; that the volume of local budget revenues was sufficient to delegated and own powers, and to provide pub- lic services is not below the minimum of social guarantees.

A COMPARATIVE VIEW REGARDING THE TERRITORIAL-ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN POLAND AND CZECH REPUBLIC

The purpose of this article is to file the administrative-territorial reforms, conducted by Poland and Czech Republic, in a comparative point of view. This study has been done conducted on unitary former communist countries such as Poland, Czech Republic and Croatia, which resemble Albania as a result of their past. Looking at the historical evolution of reforms in these countries with different local governance systems, and analysis of the latest developments will give us a deeper knowledge about the topic.This comparison would address reforms of the political bodies of local government (such as those relating to political accountability and decision-making in local government), with regard to administrative structures, because only by looking at both sides of the currency of the local government can we get a complete picture of the changes and improvements to be made.Comparison aims at providing knowledge about the terminology and concepts used in the comparison of countries and characteristics of each country in connection with the territorial administrative reforms carried out, followed by a reformation of the local government.

The Language Power, Acculturation Model towards Urban Society of Transmigration Region: Wayang Ménak Sasak Art Studies in Lombok

The language (oral) was a tool for communicating with each other. Furthermore, through the language (both oral and written) a human was able to express their thoughts to be accepted environment. Therefore, the language as a tool, the human will keep their desire or their ideology unlike puppeteers in performing the Wayang Menak Sasak in Lombok. The language role was actualized by a puppeteer in term of briefing (the counter of Bourdieu theories (2004: 157) that stated the symbolic violence towards the culture, including the language), i.e. opened minded for the society in understanding a language beyond their mother tongue, especially, for the multi-cultural society, unlike Indonesia. In understanding, the local language out of mother tongue for Indonesian societies urged to be actualized as an effort to build a humanist society, i.e. the society who love their nation culture through the culture exchanging between Indonesian citizens forsaking the NKRI (The Unitary Country of Indonesia Republic). Other than language, the art understanding beyond an art that inherited by societies group (ethnic) in this archipelago was urgent to endorsed by the government. Understanding the language and the arts for a society citizen out of the mother tongue and ethnicity within the unitary state of Indonesia was expected that Indonesia citizen understood across culture to their own ethnic culture. Thus, a mutually understanding, mutual understanding to each other will be improved in a culture that was a peace togetherness unlike happened in Lombok.

The Constitutional Court’s Role in Consolidating Democracy and Reforming Local Election

Within the same group as the USA and India Indonesia is one of the largest democracies in the world. After experiencing authoritarian rule for a few decades since its independence the country finally at the beginning of the twenty first century managed to chart along its new direction along democratic course and values. More than a decade has passed since the democratic transition begun yet the country still faces various constitutional dilemmas and enigmas. One of organs of the government which has been entrusted to transform the country into a democratic nation is the Constitutional Court. The objective of this paper is to provide critical analyses of the role of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia in the process of consolidating local democracy. The scope of analysis is confined to a number of important cases heard by the court on local election disputes from the year 2008 to 2013. The rationale to focus on local election is because local government provides the second layer of government for this unitary country making the governance more democratic and more in touch with local population. The result of the study is the Constitutional Court through its decisions has created conducive political situation and has provided significant contributions in the process of consolidating local democracy. In spite of limited number of judges and short period of settlement to disputes brought before it the Court have settled all disputes regarding local elections without much delay and complaint. Nevertheless there are some areas that need to be addressed by the court to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness. A few factors have been identified to be the cause of the problems namely problem of design of structure of the Court, extension of the scope of authority, period of settlement, over-dosis of authority and the breach of code of ethics of the judges.Thus it is recommended that in order to perpetuate the excellent achievements of the court the institution need to be strengthened by addressing the problems.

When Are Federations More Unequal? The Political Economy of Interregional Redistribution in Developing Federations

Why do some countries redistribute more to poorer regions than others? This paper explores which factors explain variation in the degree of interregional redistribution among countries between 1983 and 2010. The main argument is that interregional redistribution increases with the need and capacity of strong presidents to build territorial coalitions with governors from poorer regions and, by implication, decreases with the ability of strong governors in rich districts to resist pressures to extract resources from their units. Using a multilevel structural equation model (the Generalized Linear Latent Multilevel Model, GLLAMM), the study analyzes these and competing claims on the determinants of interregional redistribution using original data from the subnational units of four types of cases, ranging from decentralized and federal to centralized, unitary countries. Empirical results indicate that the type of redistributive coalition between presidents and governors complement purely structural and institutional models to explain fiscal redistributive outcomes in the context of sharp regional inequality.

Reports of the Venice Commission on Federalism

Review. article provides an overview of little-known in the Russian science of Constitutional Law case studies and reports of the European Commission for democracy through law (Venice Commission) on federalism. author focuses on relevant studies and reports made by the Venice Commission prior to the entry of the Russian Federation into its structure (2001). article presents reports of 20-21 June 1997 on the and regional authorities; of 10-11 December 1999 on Self-determination and secession in constitutional law; of 10-11 December 1999 on Federal and regional entities and international treaties; of 13-14 October 2000 on The General legal framework facilitating the settlement of ethnopolitical conflicts in Europe and Final Report of March 21, 2014 on the Crimean referendum. overall conclusion was the provision that the Venice Commission has contributed to the study of issues of federalism, which in modern conditions are particularly relevant: the model of unitary State gradually loses its dominant role as expanding the powers of the regions, not only in federal but in unitary countries. This tendency is a characteristic of constitutional development in recent years. Venice Commission findings identified common features of federalism and outlined the variety and complexity of its constitutional forms.

Децентралізація управління місцевими фінансами в розвинутих федеративних та унітарних країнах: досвід для України

У статті проаналізовано досвід децентралізації управління місцевими фінансами в сучасних умовах у таких країнах, як США, Канада, Німеччина, Франція, Велика Британія. На основі вивчення цього досвіду обґрунтовано потребу розширення фінансових повноважень як укрупнених територіальних громад, так і регіонів України.

¿Autoritarismo subnacional en países unitarios? Una reflexión sobre dos casos peruanos (2006-2014)

The paper’s objective is to understand the conceptual and explanatory scope of subnational authoritarianism literature - generated in federal cases - for unitary-system countries. In this way, we analyze the cases of Ancash and Loreto (2006-2014). In these cases, governors were involved on corruption and authoritarianism scandals before being removed from office without completing their term. We propose that the way this phenomenon appears in unitary countries demands greater attention on its systemic character rather than just observing the formation of differentiated regimes. In that way, we complement previous perspectives focusing our analysis in both electoral competition (access to power) and government dynamics (exercise of power). We argue that, in a context of weak political parties, the divergence between the subnational social fabric and the dominant types of actors in these scenarios constitute different political systems, conditioning government strategies and their relations with other actors.

Designing a revenue structure in local self-government entities in Poland: taxes versus grants

This paper discusses the problem of rational forming of the financing system for local self-government entities. The concept of fiscal federalism as well as the role and importance of own revenues and revenues from the state budget transfers, which are slightly different from other unitary countries, have been referred to in this context. The aim of this paper is to statistically analyze the selected categories of local self-government revenues in Poland with regard to the local self-government total revenue in 2013 and the total expenditure between 1999 and 2013. The study involved methods for the analysis of dynamics of mass phenomena such as, first of all, fixed base indexes, the average rate of change indicator and the correlation and regression coefficients from time series. The correlation and regression coefficients from time series were calculated with the first difference method. The results of study demonstrate a statistically significant role of transfer revenues in the expenditure (with the exception of voivodeships) and a statistically insignificant effect of sensu stricto own revenues in the case of cities with poviat status, poviats and voivodeships. The results reveal that the spending policy of local self-governments in Poland is highly dependent on a specific category of revenue, which is referred to as “other revenue” in the study, as a result of the inflow of EU funds. In the long term, once this specific, incidental source of revenue has been exhausted, the local self-government finance may face serious disruption. Such conclusions may serve as a practical contribution to the creation of an early warning mechanism in the shaping of present and future fiscal policies.

ICT Variables for Development in South America Through Federal Lenses

From the perspective of the information revolution and based on the methodology put forward by the Telecommunications Law Indicators for Comparative Studies (TLICS) Model published in 2011 and 2012, this paper builds on the federative indicator used by the literature on dependence of economic development on ICT to answer the following research question: What indicators better represent the institutional federative background in South America for the ICT comparative research? Six sets of federative indicators on revenue, fiscal transfer, regulatory power, judicial centralization, planning, and media content regulation are put together to compare South American federal environment as a groundwork for the ICT comparative research. The empirical universe of the paper encompassed eleven countries that formed a potpourri of eight officially unitary countries – Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Uruguay –, and three federal countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela –, that account all countries in South America apart from Guiana. The article is organized in three main parts. A brief description of the ICT federative indicators of the TLICS model is performed in the first part. The second part applies these variables to the aforementioned South American states. The third part delves into the comparison of the states analyzed by means of categorizing the differences and commonalities revealed by those indicators. To test the association between federalism as the explanatory variable and each of the outcomes proposed by the TLICS model, we used the following tests of significance: (i) Fisher exact test, to test the association between the federal status of a country and decentralized features in the given group of states; (ii) the relative risk of a country categorized as federal to have decentralized/interdependent ICT variables relative to the chance that a unitary country shows the same features; (iii) logistic regression, to predict the probability of a federal country to present decentralized/interdependent ICT variables. Using Fischer exact test, only ICT tax was significantly associated with a country being classified as federative in the telecommunications (p = 0.024) and e-commerce (p = 0.033) sectors. Calculating the logistic regression pinpointed tax as the only outcome with significant association to the institutional variable of federalism in telecom, broadcast, and e-commerce sectors. In terms of relative risk, the chance of a federal country having decentralized tax is 8 times greater than the chance of a non-federal country having decentralized tax in the telecommunications sector, and 7 times greater in the e-commerce sector. As a main outcome, based on data collected from the institutional background of those countries, we found clusters of commonalities between federal and unitary countries that support the assumption that the sole reference to a single federative category, as opposed to the use of atomized indicators, cannot provide a real picture of their institutional background for ICT and development comparative purposes.