Abstract
While in the past 25 years Romania has transformed itself into an upper-middle income democracy which successively joined NATO and the European Union, it maintains a rather centralized system of administration with a two-tier territorial structure in place since 1968. While small steps have been taken after the approval of the first post-communist Constitution, local autonomy remains limited in terms of responsibilities and, more importantly, resources. The current chapter aims to assess the latest decentralization developments from four different points of view. It starts by looking into the competences devolved or deconcentrated by the central government to the local governments in the past decades. It then provides a brief history of the territorial structure and its evolution since the creation of the Romanian modern state. It continues with an assessment of the current situation within the civil service both at the central and at the local level. Finally, it analyses the status of local finances focusing mostly on the sources of revenue available for drafting the local budgets. Based on this multi-lateral analysis, the chapter also provides a couple of recommendations for practitioners on how decentralization should be carried out in order to enhance good governance.
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Notes
- 1.
All data is available at http://www.recensamantromania.ro/
- 2.
Superior Council of Magistracy—Presentation of the Romanian judicial system available at http://www.csm1909.ro/csm/index.php?cmd=9401 [retrieved on 21 November 2015].
- 3.
Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices.
- 4.
The associative structures of local governments are The Association of Communes, The Association of Towns, The Association of Municipalities, The National Union of County Councils and other association of general interest, created according to the law.
- 5.
Before 2008 and as of 2016 the president of the county council is elected indirectly by the county councillors.
- 6.
The deconcentrated services are public health management, cultural heritage management, consumers’ protection, employment, social benefits management, educational management, fiscal management, rural development, environmental protection, forestry, food safety, statistics and others.
- 7.
According to the updated list posted on the Cluj Prefect’s Institution http://www.prefecturacluj.ro/institutii-publice/servicii-deconcentrate [retrieved 21 November 2015].
- 8.
In the beginning, the MMP were mandatory, but were not performed in a very thorough manner by the local organizations, which translated itself into the low quality of the MMPs. This is why, since 2007, the MMPs are no longer a requirement, but are performed on a voluntary basis. It was noted that this way, the quality of the performed MMPs increased, even though less local authorities engaged in this process.
- 9.
The results of the survey are available at http://www.ccscc.ro/images/sondaje/raport%20presa%20sondaj%20CCSCC%20descentralizare.pdf [retrieved 18 November 2015].
- 10.
The notion of county was also used in Wallachia prior to the 1859 Union. The term in Romania “județ” comes from the Latin judicum pointing to the fact that on that particular area there was a judicial system in place (Săgeată 2013).
- 11.
Some counties in Bessarabia or in Transylvania were in some cases ten times larger than the ones in Bukovina. Even in the same region, there were big discrepancies.
- 12.
Bihor county in Transylvania had a population of half a million citizens while Văşcăuţi had less than 25,000 (Săgeată 2013).
- 13.
The largest county was seven times larger than the smallest one.
- 14.
Bessarabia, Bukovina, Moldova, Walachia (including Northern and Southern Dobruja), Oltenia, Transylvania and Banat.
- 15.
The current Hertsa raion in Ukraine.
- 16.
The Cadrilater region now part of Bulgaria.
- 17.
Northern Transylvania including Maramureș and Crișana.
- 18.
According to a press release available at http://www.business24.ro/administratie/primaria/zona-metropolitana-bucuresti-scoasa-de-la-naftalina-de-primarul-oprescu-1536621 [retrieved on 21 November 2015].
- 19.
Available at http://www.ccscc.ro/images/sondaje/Sondaj%20CCSCC%20nov%202013.pdf [retrieved on 18 November 2015].
- 20.
Available at http://www.mfinante.ro/salariati.html?pagina=domenii [retrieved on 21 November 2015].
- 21.
Due to the fact that recruitment processes were frozen in 2009 by the government due to austerity.
- 22.
According to the latest forecast of the National Prognosis Commission available at http://www.cnp.ro/user/repository/prognoza_2015_2019_varianta_toamna_2015.pdf [retrieved on 21 November 2015].
- 23.
Senior civil servants are not allowed to be members of political parties.
- 24.
Specialized faculties have also emerged in the past 25 years in different cities around the country.
- 25.
In 2010, there were no graduates employed in the Romanian public administration according to a news article in Romania Liberă, http://www.romanialibera.ro/societate/educatie/niciunul-dintre-absolventii-bursei-guvernul-romaniei-nu-a-fost-angajat-de-stat-182660, retrieved 21 November 2015.
- 26.
According to the Public Administration Manual generated by the Ministry of Administration and Interior, available at http://www.aapro.ro/doc/asociatie/manualul-ap.pdf, retrieved 21 November 2015.
- 27.
A 16 % flat tax as of 2005 and a progressive income tax until 2004.
- 28.
Available at http://discutii.mfinante.ro/static/10/Mfp/buletin/executii/Rapdatpubsept2015ro30102015.pdf [retrieved 21 November 2015].
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Profiroiu, C.M., Profiroiu, A.G., Szabo, S.R. (2017). The Decentralization Process in Romania. 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_14
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