Record Details

Regional Development and Decentralization – two Options to Overcome Lack of Funding

Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Regional Development and Decentralization – two Options to Overcome Lack of Funding
 
Creator JURLINA ALIBEGOVIC, Dubravka; Senior research associate, Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
SLIJEPČEVIC, Sunčana; Research associate, Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
KORDEJ-DE VILLA, Željka; (corresponding author)
Senior research associate, Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
 
Subject decentralization, fiscal capacity, regional development, local units, Croatia
 
Description Decentralization can be generally described as a process in which selected functions are assigned to sub-national units. The literature identifies a number of positive consequences of decentralization which all lead to a better satisfaction of citizens’ needs for public services. Although the decentralization process in Croatia started more than ten years ago, it has not yet been completed. While leading to a new allocation of authorities and responsibilities to local government units, the level of fiscal decentralization remained lower than in the EU countries.In this paper we analyze the fiscal capacity of local government units to provide an insight into the main problems of decentralization in Croatia. We show that most local government units have very low fiscal capacity, which is insufficient for financing basic public functions with their own resources. The paper presents the results of a survey relating to the decentralization process conducted among local councilors at the regional level in Croatia. We explore how local councilors at the regional level evaluate different goals of decentralization. With the lack of fiscal capacity in mind, we identify two possible solutions for an optimal provision of public functions. The first one is the level of political will for a joint provision of public functions by different local units, and the second one is a change in the territorial organization of the country. We measure the difference in the attitudes toward these questions across counties.
 
Publisher Babes Bolyai University
 
Contributor —
 
Date 2014-11-04
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://rtsa.ro/tras/index.php/tras/article/view/10
 
Source Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences; 2014: Issue No. 43 E/October; 146-167
18422845
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://rtsa.ro/tras/index.php/tras/article/view/10/8
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2014 Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences