On the importance of the traditional legal structure of local self-government in contemporary times

Abstract

Until recently, the institution of local self-government has been studied in the legal sciences as a legal structure (a separate local community autonomously performing public administration functions). The fact that local government has embraced other functions applicable in contemporary times has resulted in a shift in research focus. New functions of self-government, going beyond public administration (acting for the common good and civil society), have come to the fore. These functions sometimes tend to become the main element in the definition of local self-government, weakening the existing main function of self-government in the legal sense (the exercise of public administration). This, in turn, creates the danger of self-government being treated as a purely political phenomenon, thus seeking to weaken the position of local self-government, in particular in authoritarian states ruled by populist parties.