Czechoslovakia, Czech and Slovak Republic

State Formation and Administrative-Territorial Organization

Forthc. in Handbook of European Regions 1870-2010, ed. by J. M. Henneberg, Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature

My contribution to a fascinating new handbook explores how administrative-territorial divisions in the Czech and Slovak Republics are rooted in historical processes of state formation.

Author: J. Pieper

Compared to most West European nation states, Czechoslovakia was established lately. It emerged from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after the First World War and existed until 1992, interrupted by the German annexation and the creation of an independent Slovak state between 1938 and 1945. The Czechoslovak state was composed of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, two territories with distinct historical identities. read more

Advising Regional and Federal Studies

In June 2018, I was invited to join the Editorial Advisory Board of Regional and Federal Studies, one of the leading journals exploring territorial politics, federalism and regionalism. The journal carefully reviews, selects and publishes high-quality articles dealing with various aspects of regionalism and federalism crossing substantive, thematic, geographical, theoretical, and methodological boundaries.

The journal’s content spans federalism and multi-level government, decentralization in the developing world, post-conflict federal power-sharing arrangements, minority nationalist movements, and many other topics dealing with divided political authority and territorial diversity. Although the journal’s roots are in the study of Western European multi-level government, RFS has expanded its profile to incorporate regionalism, federalism and decentralization in the developing world and in the Americas. 

I have always appreciated this journal and look forward to strengthening the expertise available to RFS editors, providing strategic guidance and promoting the journal further.

Ethno-Regional Diversity and Political Integration in Eastern Europe

A seminar  for PhD students at Kazakh National University Al’-Farabi, Almaty

Eastern Europe has been shaped by historically late state and nation building. Due to this trajectory, questions of state identity and cohesion have acquired persisting political relevance. Ethnopolitical conflicts have led to the disintegration of all three state socialist federations. Ethnopolitical cleavages structure party systems in the new nation states of Eastern Europe, particularly where they are related to persisting ethnoregional diversity.

NationalityMap
Author: László Sebők, Teleki László Foundation and Südost-Institut

The course discussed the political integration of ethnoregional diversity in connection with the territorial restructuring of states which occured in the context of public administration reform, the consolidation of peace agreements and the preparation for accession to the European Union. Drivers, paths and outcomes of regionalization processses were compared.

Paths and Constraints of Subnational Government Mobilization in East-Central Europe

Article in: Regional and Federal Studies 24 3 2014, 301-319.

Abstract

The article studies the impact of enlargement on subnational governments in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It compares the resources and political constellations of subnational governments and analyzes how these variables interact with Europeanization to influence domestic intergovernmental relations, the management of Structural Funds and the EU relations of subnational governments. The article argues that stronger regional governments (in Poland and the Czech Republic) have been able to resist attempts to centralize intergovernmental relations. Decentralizing reforms occurred where incumbent governing parties dominated subnational government (Poland). Under ‘vertically divided’ government (Czech Republic), subnational governments sought unmediated access to EU institutions.

Federalism and Governance Winter School

A lecture series on ethno-regional diversity and political integration in Central and Eastern Europe, European Academy Bozen/Bolzano, Winter School Federalism and Governance, 12 February 2014

(c) Martin Brusis
(c) Martin Brusis

Outline

• Does ethno-regional diversity still matter in Central and Eastern Europe
(CEE)?
• How have CEE regions emerged?
• Why have the state socialist federations collapsed?
• What approaches exist to integrate ethno-regional diversity?
• Why have CEE states reformed their territorial organization?
• How does European integration affect regionalization in CEE?

Party Strategies and Administrative-Territorial Reforms in Poland

Article in: West European Politics 36 2 2013, 405-425

Abstract

How well do electoral competition, ideological divides and territory-based cleavages explain the strategies of administrative-territorial reform chosen by political parties in Poland? The role of these logics is explored in the creation of regions and regional self-governments (1999), local electoral reform (2002), rules of adopting regional development projects (2006) and the creation of metropolitan regions (2008). The paper provides evidence supporting the salience of vote- and office-seeking strategies, the rise of a national-conservative opposition to decentralisation associated with the weakening of the post-communist divide, and parties representing distinct eastern and western constituencies. Since its creation, subnational government has become more dominated by state-wide parties and has stabilised the emerging bloc party system on the central level.

Regionalisierung in Mittel- und Osteuropa: Ursachen, Formen und Effekte

in: Kommunale Aufgabenwahrnehmung im Wandel: Kommunalisierung, Regionalisierung und Territorialreform in Deutschland und Europa, Hrsg.: J. Bogumil / S. Kuhlmann, Wiesbaden: VS 2010, 323-346.

Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich zunächst mit den Ursachen und Formen der Regionalisierungsprozesse in den zehn mittel- und osteuropäischen EU-Mitgliedstaaten. Unter Regionalisierung werden hier Reformen verstanden, die eine regionale Verwaltungsebene errichten und/oder ihre Kompetenzen und Ressourcen stärken. Dann werden die Effekte dieser Prozesse für die kommunalen Selbstverwaltungskörperschaften analysiert. Die kommunale Ebene war nicht nur Adressatin dieser Reformprozesse, sondern auch Akteurin, insofern als kommunale Verbände und Politiker in den Debatten über die Regionalisierung ihre eigenen Interessen vertraten. Aus der kommunalen Perspektive konnte eine Regionalisierung eine Dezentralisierung ermöglichen, aber barg auch das Risiko einer Rezentralisierung von Kompetenzen.

Der vorliegende Beitrag identifiziert die funktionalen Erfordernisse einer effizienten territorialen Verwaltungsorganisation und die Gelegenheitsstruktur des EU-Systems als wichtigste Antriebskräfte von Regionalisierungsprozessen. Regierungen, Verwaltungsexperten, an Dezentralisierung interessierte Parteien und kommunale Vertreter entwickelten in diesem Kontext Projekte zur Reform der mittleren Verwaltungsebene. In Abhängigkeit von den nationalen Rahmenbedingungen und Akteurskonstellationen entstanden daraus unterschiedlich weitreichende Reformen und spezifische institutionelle Arrangements.

Regionale Identitäten mobilisierten und artikulierten vor allem die Parteien der magyarischen Minderheiten in Rumänien und der Slowakei mit ihren ethnoregionalen Autonomiekonzepten. In den anderen Ländern blieben regionalistische Parteien eher Randerscheinungen, und Parteien mit einer regional geprägten Wählerschaft formulierten keine regionalspezifische Agenda. Diese politische Konstellation resultierte aus den staatlichen Zerfalls- und Neugründungsprozessen der 1990er Jahre, die die innerstaatliche ethnoregionale Diversität stark verringerten. Infolgedessen fielen regionalistische politische Akteure als Protagonisten dezentralisierender Reformen weitgehend aus oder wurden durch die securitization der Regionalisierung als Frage territorialer Integrität in ihrem Legitimitätsanspruch erschüttert. Aufgrund der Schwäche parteipolitischer Akteure prägten Verwaltungsexperten und kommunale Interessenvertreter in den meisten Ländern und über längere Zeiträume die Debatten über Regionalisierung und Dezentralisierung. Mit diesen Akteuren waren inkrementelle Reformprozesse und eine Dominanz funktionaler Effizienzargumente gegenüber demokratiepolitischen Argumenten vorgezeichnet.

PDF-Version:Regionalisierung_MOE

 

White Paper on Multi-Level Governance

In 2009, the EU Committee of Regions adopted a White Paper on Multi-Level Governance. During the public consultation of this document, I prepared the following opinion:

From a theoretical perspective, the most convincing strategy of institutional design would be to ensure a congruence between those affected by policies and those eligible to elect the political representatives who decide on these policies. Such a congruence of constituencies would create the best conditions for policymakers to be held accountable for their policies and thus strengthen the incentives for responsive policymaking. In contrast, an incongruence between those responsible for and those affected by a policy would provide incentives for unaccountable and unresponsive policymaking (e.g. negative external effects, moral hazard, freeriding).

The congruence principle would imply that public functions are assigned to the territorial level (jurisdiction) that can be expected to (a) perform these functions most effectively, (b) comprises all important stakeholders and addressees of a given policy. Most importantly, congruence would suggest avoiding the sharing of responsibilities for policies between different territorial levels, because power sharing arrangements may dilute responsibilities and thus public accountability.

I see the subsidiarity principle as detached from its communitarian and organicist connotations and merely as an evaluative instrument (a heuristic) to achieve a clear assignment of functions to territorial levels, starting from the smallest jurisdiction. In principle, one could of course also start from the largest jurisdiction and ask whether smaller jurisdictions have comparative advantages in performing functions.

Thus, if multilevel governance means joint or nested governance, democratic theory would expect accountability problems to emerge. However, there are policy issues that can be most effectively addressed if different tiers of government cooperate. To ensure a maximum degree of accountability and participation, cooperation on multi-level problems should take place on a voluntary basis, not within an institutional framework that makes actions taken by one tier of government dependent on the approval of other tiers. In my view, the essence of the “partnership” model of governance suggested by the White Paper (p. 11) is (a) an equal democratic status of local, regional, national and European tiers of government and (b) the voluntary cooperation among these different tiers. Voluntary cooperation presupposes a mutual recognition of the partner’s democratic legitimacy. As democratic legitimacy does not necessarily require a “thick” identitarian attachment of citizens to one tier of government but is ensured through participation and accountability mechanisms, the EU tier of government relies on independent sources of democratic legitimacy and qualifies as a partner of equal status.

I do not assume that the current allocation of public functions to tiers of government in the European system of multilevel governance maximizes congruence of constituencies and would thus be the most appropriate institutional arrangement with respect to accountability or participatory democracy. To improve and revise the design, the principles of congruence and voluntariness (partnership) would suggest the following sequence of guidelines:

  • All tiers of government should deliberate and decide whether a problem is best solved by one or several jurisdictions separately or whether it is a genuinely multi-level problem. Given the accountability and responsiveness advantages of separate-level policymaking, a separatory assignment of functions should be preferred if it is desired by one of the tiers. (This guideline would inter alia imply involving local and regional government in amendments of the Treaties.)
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