Challenges of the Implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in the Hungarian Legislation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4335/16.4.929-938(2018)Keywords:
European Charter of Local Self-Government, centralisation, municipal system, local government, paradigm-shift, HungaryAbstract
The article reviews the changing approach on the nature of local governance in Hungary. During the Democratic Transition the evolvement of the Hungarian municipal system was based on the paradigm and approach of the European Charter of Local Government. Thus one of the most autonomous local government system of Europe evolved in Hungary. Although the municipal reforms were basically successful, several dysfunctional phenomena could be observed and the request for the municipal reforms was strong from the late 1990s in Hungary. The new constitution of Hungary, the Fundamental Law introduced a new model. The approach of the local governance has been transformed: the autonomy of the municipalities have been limited. Thus the autonomous nature of the Hungarian model changed and new challenges have appeared in the field of the implementation of the regulation of the Charter.
References
Balázs, I. (2014) L’intercommunalité en Hongrie, In Steckel-Assouère, M.C. (ed.), Regards croisés sur les mutations de l’intercommunalité. (Paris: L’Harmattan), pp. 425-435.
Bodnár, E. & Dezső, M. (2010) Decentralized Authorities, In: Dezső, M. (ed.) Constitutional Law in Hungary (Alphen an Rijn: Kluwer Law International), pp. 219-240.
Bowman, A. O-M' & Kearney, R. C. (2014) State and Local Government. The Essentials (Boston: Cengage Learning).
Fábián, A. (2017) Local Self-Government in Hungary: the Impact of Crisis, In: Nunes Silva, C. & Buček, J. (eds.) Local Government and Urban Governance in Europe (Cham: Springer), pp. 71-88.
Hoffman, I. (2009) Helyi közszolgáltatások szervezése és igazgatása (Budapest: ELTE Eötvös).
Hoffman, I. (2014) The Changes of the Roles of the Hungarian Counties: Towards a One and a Half-Tier System?, Lex localis – Journal of Local Self-Government, 12(3), pp. 393-416.
Hoffman, I., Fazekas, J. & Rozsnyai, K. (2016) Concentrating or Centralising Public Services? The Changing Roles of the Hungarian Inter-municipal Associations in the Last Decades, Lex localis – Journal of Local Self-Government, 14(3), pp. 453-474.
Kjellberg, F. (1995) The Changing Values of Local Government, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 540(1), pp. 40-50.
Marcou, G. & Verebékyi, I. (eds.) (1993) New trends in local government in Western and Eastern Europe (Brussels: IIAS).
Nagy, M. (2017) A helyi-területi önkormányzatok és az Alaptörvény, Közjogi Szemle 10 (4), pp. 16-27.
Péteri, G. (1993) Market as Pressure or Market as Possibility? The Framework of Local Economic Development in Hungary, In: Goetz, E. G. & Clarke, S. E. (eds.) The New Localism. Comparative Urban Politics in a Global Era. (London: SAGE), pp. 102-116.
Rose-Ackermann, S. (2005) From Elections to Democracy. Building Accountable Government in Poland and Hungary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Soós, G. & Kákai, L. (2011) Hungary: Remarkable Success and Costly Failures: An Evaluation of Subnational Democracy, In: Loughlin, J., Hendriks, F. & Lidström, A. The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 528-551.
Szente, Z. (2013) Local government in Hungary: A creeping centralization? In: Panara, C. & Varney, M. (eds.) Local Government in Europe. The ‘fourth level’ in the EU multilayered system of governance (London & New York: Routledge), pp. 151-182.
Szilágyi, B. (2016) Önkormányzati humán közszolgáltatások ellátásához kapcsolódó vagyon, In: Hoffman, I (ed.) Kézikönyv az önkormányzati vagyongazdálkodáshoz (Budapest: HVG-Orac), pp. 250-264.
Verebélyi, I. (1987) A tanácsi önkormányzat (Budapest: Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó).
Verebélyi, I. (ed.) (1999) Az önkormányzati rendszer magyarázata (Budapest: KJK-Kerszöv).
