Decentralizácia v samospráve veľkých miest na Slovensku po r. 1990
Decentralisation in the Slovak Big Cities’ Self-Government After 1990

Summary/Abstract: Decentralisation in the Slovak Big Cities’ Self-Government After 1990. Sub-local decentralisation is one of the latest main institutional changes in big cities' self-government. General trends and opportunities, experiences, are mentioned in the first part of the paper. Managerial and political forms of decentralisation are defined as key issues of interest. I discuss the functioning of decentralised units within the local self-government system, particularly their organisational position, functions, borders, size, financing etc. Many Slovak big cities experienced disadvantages of centralised self-government structures. Problems with proportionate representation of localities, sensitive responding their problems, conflicts over placing the urban facilities (e.g. waste disposal), have engendered attempts to improve the organisation of an urban self-government. Cities started more extensively to use the legal possibility of forming “Councils in City Quarters” for promoting local self-government flexibility and democratisation. Evaluation of this development is the main issue of the paper. The outline of main features of sub-local decentralisation in Slovak big cities, is based on the research done in the nine Slovak cities (with the size from 30.000 to 90.000 inhabitants). The research findings suggest positive outcomes of this development: improvement of local democracy and effectiveness of management. Although the situation varies among the cities and even among the city quarters, the running decentralisation process apparently facilitates better functioning of self-government Councils in the big cities of Slovakia.

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