Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/38976

The 1993 constitution of the Czech Republic determined that the local self-government system should be comprised of two tiers: municipalities and "lands (země) or regions (kraj)." However, since then, only the municipalities have enjoyed self-government. This situation changed in 1997-2000, when the Czech parliament passed a series of bills on local administrative and self-government reforms. According to the new laws, the first elections for the regional boards were held in November 2000 and the new regional self-government system began to function on January 1, 2001. This article focuses on the legislative process of the reform and the party politics behind it. In Czech party politics, the neo-liberal ODS, the group of relatively small right-center parties (KDU-ČSL, ODA, US), Social Democrats (ČSSD) and Communists (KSČM) have been the main actors since the 1992 elections. They form a line from right to left on the socio-economic policy axis and except apart from the KSČM, three of them are involved in coalition-making and policy-making. The ODS, KDU-ČSL and ODA, that do not differ very much in their socio-economic orientations, had formed a coalition government in 1992-1997. Ignoring their differences in socio-economic policy, the ODS has supported the ČSSD's minority government since the 1998 elections, in order to introduce a new election system which would be favorable to the two large parties. Parallel to this coalition-making game, the group of right-center parties and Social Democrats have cooperated together against the ODS on some issues despite the differences between the government parties and opposition parties over other issues. Through a series of legislations in 1997-2000, the Czech Republic was divided into fourteen self-governing regions. Each region has its legislative body (regional board), which has the authority to decide on the matters of self-government. The members of regional boards are elected by a proportional election. From its members, the board elects members of an executive organ (regional council), including the governor (hejtman). The district offices (state local administrative organs) will gradually transfer their powers to the new regions and municipalities and will be abolished at the end of 2002. On the basis of a governmental request, just after the Czech Republic gained its independence, a specialist group started preparatory work for the reform. Its final report was published in May 1993. The report presented four alternatives on the boundaries and number of future regions with some variation. It recommended twelve or thirteen regions as the optimal solution. This recommendation became a foundation of the last compromise in the parliament's negotiations. The ODS was negative about reform itself and supported the establishment of twentyseven regions if reform was unavoidable. On the other hand, the KDU-ČSL, ODA and ČSSD were all eager to support decentralization of the state and advocated the creation of 8-14 regions. Parliamentary negotiations on the reform between June 1994 and June 1995 failed to find an acceptable compromise for the majority of the parliament. After the 1996 elections, the ODS, KDU-ČSL and ODA formed the second Klaus' coalition government. After the election, the KDU-ČSL, ODA and ČSSD reached an acceptable compromise for almost two-third of the ODS parliamentary members. Eventually, in December 1997, the parliament passed a constitutional law on the framework of the new region system. After the 1998 elections the ČSSD formed a minority government based on an agreement with the ODS. These two large parties cooperated on a reform to election law that would exclude smaller parties from parliament. At the same time, the social-democratic government proposed a series of bills on local reform, including laws on regional self-government. These bills passed through parliament with the support of the KDU-ČSL and the US over the opposition of the ODS. The political struggle over local reform took place between the centralistic ODS and other parties that supported decentralization of the state. The ODS had created its own network connecting provinces with the capital by dominating politics in relatively large cities and district offices. The ODS opposed reform in order to retain its dominance of local politics. At the same time, this struggle was relevant to EU accession. Whilst the centralistic ODS is on the one hand "Euro-skeptical," political parties that displayed initiative in the local reforms are enthusiastic promoters of the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. The EU Commission repeatedly criticized the Czech Republic for the delays in local reforms and encouraged the swift passing of legislation in this field. Although the ODS lost the struggle for local reform in the parliament, it was successful in the regional elections. The ODS was able to form a coalition government in all the newly established regions and eight of the thirteen newly elected governors were from its members. Thus the ODS demonstrated its power which it had consolidated in the old system. This reform may be called "decentralization from above." It is still too early to evaluate the functioning of the new local system in Czech politics. However, it is clear that this reform has opened a new channel for the promotion of local politicians, such as mayors, deputy mayors and heads of district offices, to regional politics, because the majority of the new governors emerged from the local level.