ABSTRACT
The degree of decentralization and autonomy of local self-government is thus an important element in any system of urban governance, reflected in the capacity of local self-government to plan and to govern cities, and a key factor in the effectiveness of the spatial planning system in developed and developing countries. Urban planning is in most countries a competence of sub-national government. The level of local autonomy affects the planning process, its efficiency, effectiveness, and outcomes, as well as the accountability and the quality of the entire planning process. The inherited highly centralized local administration culture was somehow reinforced in the transition period for an independence and in the first decade and half in the post-colonial period, with the aim to guarantee the integrity of the national territory, enhancing the leading role of the ruling political party as referred in Silva.
