Report on the State of Local Democracy in Hungary

2021

The the changing approach on the nature of local governance in Hungary is reviewed by this chapter. 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

1992

The paper introduces the new established local government system in Hungary. The process, the values followed by the legislators showed which kinds of factors used to have an impact during the systemic changes and why the chosen local government model is fighting many malfunctions like fragmented, inefficient public services, financing problems, lack of integration, low performance in development policy etc. The paper tries to emphasise the path dependency in shaping territorial governance in a form of eliminating the almost always strong county governments and in the reluctance toward association of municipalities. Although the sand glass model of public power having strong bottom and top and lacking strong meso differs completely from the past as regards the power setting among levels but is similarly centralised. The original aim to strengthen the bottom is failed since the fragmented small municipalities were not able to fulfil the delegated tasks and what is the real paradox th...

In “Italian Journal of Public Law”, Milan, 2016, 2, 374-414, ISSN 2239-8279

Politics in Central Europe, 2023

More than thirty years after Hungary's transition to democracy and the change of territorial governance model, the time is now right to assess the outcome. This paper is primarily an assessment, concluding that the deadlock of the Hungarian local government system can be explained not only by the centralisation efforts of the governing and opposition political elites or the continuous decline of the budgetary position, but also by the indifference of local society. The fact is that the Hungarian local governments were not protected from being squeezed out of a significant part of public services, from a narrowing of their room to manoeuvre and from their authority position being weakened, by the general constitutional provisions introduced in 1990. An important proposition of this paper is that (local) society, although still more trusting of local governments than the central government according to various surveys, has not been able to become an 'ally' of local governments. The question rightly posed in the title of the paper is, whose interest is the local government system, who finds the values of self-governance important? The paper seeks (based mainly on academic literature and on its own and secondary analyses) the reasons/changes that have led to the stalemate of Hungarian local governments despite their initially strong mandate.

2012

Hungarian Journal of Legal Studies, 2021

Scientific discussions concerning local governments are pervaded by paradigms at all times, which are questioned from time to time (paradigm crisis). As a result, participants of these discussions either defend their points, or a new paradigm appears (change in paradigm). I examine the system of local governments from this aspect. What kind of and how many paradigms characterise the system of local governments? Are these explainable by the paradigm? If not, is there another explanation? In this study, I gather all the current and emerging (perhaps former) characteristics of the local government system. In that regard, I determined the principles that, in my opinion, either apply at the level of the local government system, or they are in crisis.

Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review

Following a change of government in 2010, the Hungarian local government system underwent a period of significant transformation. The question of how it is viewed and the effects it may have are currently being debated. The centralising effort of the government had already become clear beyond a shadow of a doubt before the adoption of the Cardinal Act or the Fundamental Law (2011) itself. This was followed by the steps of the local government reform, which transferred many local government powers to the state. Municipalities lost influence over local public education institutions, municipal hospitals and many other areas. In this situation, where there was a significant loss of influence by local elites, it became an interesting question to what extent this changed society’s relationship with local government. Our comprehensive research has conducted a number of quantitative and qualitative studies to answer this question. Between 2016 and 2018, our research group had the opportunit...

Verfassungsblog, 2019

On October 13, 2019 local elections were held in Hungary. Even though the opposition parties had to fight an uphill battle, they achieved significant success not only in Budapest, but also in other big cities. The aim of this article is to put the results in context in order to give a more accurate picture of the current Hungarian situation. The first part of this contribution briefly discusses the reform of the system of local government implemented after 2010. Secondly, it summarizes the most important changes of the electoral system put in place in the last few years. It also provides an overview of the most significant judicial decisions related to the electoral procedure and the political campaign. Finally, the article answers the question whether the strategy of the opposition parties to join forces in the campaign was successful in light of the results.

Białostockie Studia Prawnicze, 2018

Recently, there has been a constitutional change related to self-governments in Hungary. Th e article examines the status of Hungarian local governments in comparison with EU member states from a fi nancial perspective. Autonomy has several aspects, but one of the most important factors is fi nancial, which is the basis of an organisation's operation. Without an appropriate fi nancing system local decision-making cannot work. Th e research uses statistics of Eurostat, which are a good standpoint for comparative work. Th us, the remarks are of comparative nature. Th e study deals also with the changes in municipal tasks, because competence is the core of autonomy. Finance and municipal tasks are closely related, which largely determines the level of autonomy. Th e author examines the connections with the European Charter of Local Self-Government which is implemented by Hungary. Is the Hungarian regulation in compliance with the provisions of the Charter? What will be the future? What kind of trend is in progress in Hungary? Is it in accordance with the EU model? Th ese and other questions are discussed in the article. Th e aim of the article is to follow up the changes in autonomy of local governments in Hungary and try to predict the future of national selfgoverning authorities.

Institutiones Administrationis

The regulation of the relationship between central and local government in Hungary has undergone significant transformation in the last decade. The government has robust tools to control local activities, just these tools are rarely applied by the supervising authorities. The main transformation of this relationship can be observed in the field of public services. The formerly municipality-based public service system was transformed into a centrally organised and provided model, thus the role of local governments in Hungary has decreased. The centralisation process was strengthened by reforms during the COVID-19 pandemic.