ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the systems of local self-government in operation in the immediate post-communist period of 1991-1992. The political reform of local government in 1990 consolidated and developed the earlier economic changes. A common feature in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia has been the territorial fragmentation of local government. In Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland local government is limited to municipalities, and only the state administration operates on a district level. The role of local government in public spending was largest in Hungary where almost 23 percent of public expenditure was accounted for at the local level in 1991. Proportional systems of election have been adopted in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland; a simple majority system is chosen in Slovakia. Poland elects its councilors from single-member constituencies in municipalities with less than 40,000 inhabitants; larger municipalities are divided in multi-member wards where proportional elections are held.
