Abstract
After 40 years of experience with central governance, decentralization of public administration was considered the only way to the more effective governance of public affairs. Decentralization has involved territorial reorganization, public administration and fiscal reforms.
The split of former Czechoslovakia resulted in new territorial organization of Slovak republic; however, different opinions on the territorial division have been discussed and new proposals for territorial reorganization are still relevant. There is the separate model of public administration in Slovakia consisting of the territorial self-government and state administration. While the central government authorities have their standard form since 1990, when the democratic political system was created, the regional state administration was reorganized several times. The most significant reform in the provision of public services took place in 2002–2004 when several competencies were transferred from the central to the regional and local level of public administration. Fiscal decentralization with the aim to advance a new financing system of local and regional self-government took place after the original and transferred competencies were defined. ESO programme currently implemented should reduce costs and optimize public administration in general. The government should be closer to the people and the intention is to simplify the whole process and make it more customer-friendly.
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Notes
- 1.
Slovak Republic is a state in Central Europe. It has a population of over 5.5 million and an area of 49,036 km2. The capital is Bratislava with a population of about 500,000. Bratislava is situated in south-western Slovakia and it borders with Hungary and Austria. The country’s second largest city is Košice with a population of about 250,000. The majority of the inhabitants of Slovakia are Slovaks (81 per cent), the largest ethnic minorities are Hungarian (9 per cent) and Roma (2 per cent).
- 2.
There are 13 ministries in Slovakia: Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health Care, Ministry of Environment.
- 3.
The central state administrative authorities include: Antimonopoly Office, Statistical Office, Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Authority, Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing, Office for Public Procurement, Industrial Property Office, Administration of State Material Reserves, and National Security Authority.
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Marasova, J., Horehajova, M. (2017). Decentralization as an Essential Element of Public Administration Reform in Slovakia. In: Ruano, J., Profiroiu, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Decentralisation in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32437-1_17
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