Abstract
In the chapter on the Czech Republic the following networks of local state-society relations are considered and classified: the municipal board commissions as communicative networks, the municipal council committees as communicative networks, the Local Action Groups (LAGs) as consociational networks, the local partnership(s) for social inclusion as self-reflective networks, the community action plan(s) for social services as self-reflective networks, and the Local Action Plan(s) in Education (MAPs) as collaborative networks. Generally, the character, the scope, and the intensity of the relationship between the local state and society differ between rural and metropolitan areas. The Czech system of local state-society relations resembles the ‘local elitist infrastructure’ type.
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Notes
- 1.
The Czech Statistical Office, https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/population
- 2.
There are 205 municipalities (ORPs) that are endowed with state delegated powers. They are responsible for conducting state delegated power within their district. These municipalities serve virtually as an intermediary tier between the region and the smallest municipalities.
- 3.
By regions we mean the second tier of local government in the Czech Republic (Heinelt and Bertrana 2011). As at the municipal level, there is a mixture of delegated state administrative and self-government.
- 4.
These observations and the following information presented in this paragraph are based on data on municipal board commissions and its members collected by the authors since the 2010 elections (other electoral periods are delimited by the years 2014 and 2018) for the largest and most populous municipalities (so-called statutory cities).
- 5.
The secretary of a municipal office and mayor and deputy mayor are not eligible to be members of the control and financial committees.
- 6.
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Acknowledgement
This chapter was supported by Czech Science Agency [grant number 16-01331S; European Mayor II].
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Lysek, J., Ryšavý, D. (2021). Local State-Society Relations in the Czech Republic. In: Teles, F., Gendźwiłł, A., Stănuș, C., Heinelt, H. (eds) Close Ties in European Local Governance. Palgrave Studies in Sub-National Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44794-6_7
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