Hungary Unitary state
| HUNGARY | / HISTORY |
History and trends
Hungary is a parliamentary Republic. Its constitution entered into force on 1 January 2012.
Hungary’s history is marked by a series of invasions and occupations by foreign powers – the Mongols in the 13th century, the Turks for 150 years in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Austrians up until World War I, and the Soviets between 1945 and 1990.
Local level :
Act LXV of 1990 on local government (helyi önkormányzat) is considered one of the most important pieces of legislation in Hungary’s post-communist transition, because it overhauled the country’s administrative landscape in an effort to create a local democratic system that signalled a clean break with the communist regime.
Members of parliament carved up Hungary’s territory with a resolutely local focus, giving local governments legislative, asset management and economic development powers.
There are 3,201 local governments in Hungary, which has a population of almost 10 million people. Its local governments correspond to level LAU 2 of the European NUTS system.
Local governments have local tax-levying powers. They manage drinking water supply, nursery and primary schools, basic health and social services, street lighting and local road maintenance, and their remit includes protecting the rights of national and ethnic minorities.
Local governments can also deliver other services, either independently or in conjunction with other authorities.
Act XVIII of 1871 on community organisation established the community (község) as the basic unit of local government, and the entire country was subdivided according to this new model. Communities were categorised by population size, as follows:
- small community
- large community
- city with governed council
- city with municipal status
In 1950, local administration reforms introduced two categories: the community (község) (rural) and the city (város) (urban).
The current system was introduced by Act LXIII of 1990, which replaced the term community (község) with municipality (település).
Intermediary level :
Act LXV of 1990 on local government overhauled the division of administrative powers, removing substantial powers from the counties, which were viewed as a legacy of the former socialist nomenclature. Instead, Hungary opted to align with the Council of Europe’s European Charter of Local Self-Government.
The counties (megyék) were stripped of their local tax-levying and redistribution powers, and their role was reduced to little more than coordinating policy at the county level and providing county-wide public services.
This weakening of the intermediary level of local government has resulted in a greater concentration of powers at the national level, since local governments are too fragmented to take responsibility for land-use planning and economic investment policy.
The county (megye) is the intermediary subdivision between the state and the local governments. There are 19 counties in total, plus Budapest, which has a special status.
The counties cover the entire territory of Hungary. Because the country has a highly centralised system of government, the county councils (megyei önkormányzat) have only limited powers, covering county-wide services, secondary schools and specialist health care facilities, as well as responsibility for coordinating land-use planning.
In addition, these powers do not apply to cities with county rank, which have their own county council (megyei közgyûlés) in addition to the local council.
The county corresponds to level NUTS 3 of the European NUTS system.
Each county administrative centre is a city with county rank. This status also applies to a further five cities that either have more than 50,000 inhabitants, or previously met this criterion and have retained their rank: Érd (Pest), Dunaújváros (Fejér), Hódmezővásárhely (Csongrád), Nagykanizsa (Zala) and Sopron (Győr-Moson-Sopron).
Hungarian law officially recognises 13 national, ethnic and religious minorities: Bulgarian, Roma, Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serb, Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian.
Under the act of 1993, they have the right to vote for their own representatives in national and local (county and local government) elections. These representatives form minority governing bodies (kisebbségi önkormányzat), which have special powers to determine the dates of festivities and celebrations, preserve their traditions and educate the public. These special governing bodies can, for example, manage public theatres, libraries, and scientific and artistic institutions, award bursaries and provide services to members of their community (including legal assistance).
In order to form a minority governing body, there must be at least 50 minority community members living in towns or cities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, and 100 members in more populous cities. In practice, it is easier to form these governing bodies in big cities than in smaller settlements. The rules governing their creation also depend on how different minorities are concentrated across Hungary.
Budapest is divided into 23 districts (kerület), each a fully-fledged local government. The metropolitan authority (fővárosi önkormányzat) has the same powers at city-wide level and exercises them in the interest of all Budapest residents. This situation creates overlap between the remits of the districts and the metropolitan authority.
The metropolitan authority has the power to scrutinise district town planning and land-use planning initiatives. The capital city is part of a cooperation structure involving neighbouring authorities across the conurbation, known as the Budapest metropolitan area.
Act XXI of 1996 on land-use planning and regional government was the first piece of legislation to mention the European NUTS system and made an initial attempt to create regions.
The two regions that were created, around Budapest and Lake Balaton, did not meet NUTS 2 criteria. In 1999, the government created seven NUTS 2-compliant entities across Hungary, each encompassing three counties (Budapest was included in Pest County).
These statistical and planning regions (tervezési-statisztikai régió) are not local governments, and their council members are elected representatives of their constituent authorities.
This division is often touted as the starting point for sweeping reforms of the local government system, which will eventually see the county authorities abolished and replaced with regional authorities.
To date, no concrete decisions have been made about how to proceed towards regionalisation in Hungary. The statistical super-regions (statisztikai nagyrégió) (NUTS 1) serve no political, administrative or economic purpose.
The statistical micro-regions (statisztikai kistérség) (LAU 1) are an intermediary level between the counties and the local governments. Totalling 174, they are also viewed as a starting point towards sweeping reforms of the local government landscape in Hungary, culminating in the creation of regional authorities and the amalgamation of local governments into micro-regions.
In principle, this level of local government aligns with the former districts (járás), which were abolished in 1983. They were reinstated on 1 January 2013.