THE PROCESS OF DECENTRALIZATION IN BULGARIA AND THE NECESSITY OF INTRODUCING REGIONAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Abstract

In the recent years many Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) are re-arranging their regional levels of administration. After the political transition, the newly established democratic governments and parliaments focused on the establishment of local self-governments and local political elites with democratic legitimacy. This led to formation of accountable and relatively autonomous local self-governments in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia. It has been only since the mid-nineties that the regional level of government has received more attention in the CEE. To date, Bulgaria and Estonia are the only countries which have not established legal prerequisites for self-governments at the regional level. Regions are an integral part of the state administration in both countries, although county assemblies in Estonia facilitate a participation of the delegates of local self-governments at the regional level. In the process of the decentralization in Bulgaria the role of the regions (regional administrations) and the role of the state functions with regional meaning were undervalued. The concept for decentralization is based basically on the traditional understanding of the process as a transfer of power and resources from the national to the local level.Decentralization; Self-government; Regions; Municipalities; Sub-national levels.