Somlyódyné Pfeil

Abstract

Hungary is struggling with its fragmented local governmental system. The so called “publicservice reform” aimed to offer equal access to all as regards local public services, as well as to encourageeffi ciency of activity at local administrative level. The government transferred to local actors the responsibilityfor the implementation of reform commissioned centrally. The organisational and geographicalframeworks for the rationalisation of local public administration were in turn devised at micro-regionallevel.This paper mainly aims to analyse urban-rural connections, as co-operative networks of local authoritieshave already been created. The issue is the extent to which the horizontal cooperations created toorganise public services can be effective if their vertical connections are very weak, and, further, if thereis no mechanism to counterbalance regional differences.

Keywords: public administration reform, social cohesion, territorial cohesion, inter-municipal cooperation, network, public services, effi ciency.

Somlyódyné Pfeil, Centre for Regional Studies of Hungarian Academy of Sciences H-7601 Pécs, P.O. Box 199, Hungary