Local Self-Government in Central and Eastern Europe: Decentralization or Deconcentration?

The development of autonomous local self-governments is a critical, albeit often over-looked, element of the long-term transition to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. All countries in the region have taken clear steps to pass legislation creating new local government institutions. Such institutional reform is necessary, but not sufficient, for the development of autonomous local self-government. In this paper we present several fundamental criteria which must be satisfied in order to establish and nurture autonomous local self-government. We test these criteria against institutional reforms in Central and Eastern Europe and the newly independent states to gauge the extent to which there has been actual devolution of governmental responsibility from central to local governments. We conclude that, although some individual strands of these fundamental reforms may have received some attention in the current transition process, such attention is more ad hoc than strategic. As a result, the goal of creating autonomous local self-governments has not been achieved. Donor nations and reform elements in each country must think strategically about all dimensions of this local government transition if these changes are to be institutionalized and the transition is to be successful in the long term.