Přehled o publikaci

The principle of decentralization in the territorial administrative organization of the Czech Republic, with special attention to the territory of Moravia and Silesia Prof. RNDr. René Wokoun, CSc. University of Finance and Administration a.s. Department of Regional Development and Public Administration 1. Decentralization. 2. Historical context: In 1949, a fundamental restructuring of territorial management was carried out. There has been a shift from counties, large political and small judicial districts to a model of small counties and small districts. 13 regions were created on the territory of the Czech Republic. In 1960, the so-called large regions were established by law. This arrangement resulted from the needs of central, administrative and directive management of the economy in the conditions of a one-party political-power system. Artificially created and excessively large units arose especially in Moravia. The territorial administrative reform of 1960 brought a significant discontinuity to territorial development, which brought about a substantial reduction in the number of districts from 178 to 75. The name district was therefore preserved, but territorial continuity cannot be spoken of. The reduction in the number of districts was mainly caused by the effort to create space for a larger scale of territorial management of the economy, which ultimately did not happen. It is paradoxical that although the main purpose of the establishment of new districts was not fulfilled even at the very beginning, these districts remained key for state administration until 2002 and formally continue to this day. However, it should be noted that when the regional organization was created in 1960, meso-regional deformation occurred precisely on the basis of newly and artificially defined districts, which had consequences for the practical performance of state administration. After the abolition of regional national committees in 1990, a problem arose with the direct management of districts by the government. Various detached and deconcentrated bodies of individual ministries were created, which increased the administrative and financial demands of the entire system. 2. Geographical prerequisites. 3. Criteria and reality of the definition of territorial administrative units When defining territorial administrative units, certain criteria are often used, e.g. the minimum and maximum size of the territorial administrative unit, at least approximate comparability of the units in terms of area size, number of inhabitants, possibly degree of economic, social and cultural development, etc. Transport accessibility is also taken into account. Psychological-sociological arguments (e.g. identification) and economic aspects are also significant. At the same time, it is necessary to respect the fact that territorial self-government is a set of legal, regional, economic, political and cultural relations. In the Czech Republic, certain criteria were taken into account when defining the regions (important population centers, geographical characteristics, etc.). However, subjective factors, including lobbying, entered to a large extent into the determination of regional cities and the delimitation of regions. The fundamental problem of the territorial delimitation of today's regions is their link to the original districts established in 1960. This delimitation of territorial administrative units, districts, was already criticized several decades ago. These are territorial units that do not respect the micro-regional structure of the Czech Republic. 4. Proposals and discussions on the possibilities of changes in the territorial administrative division of the state.