АУТОР / AUTHOR(S): Marija Drobnjaković 
, Milena Panić , Vlasta Kokotović Kanazir
DOI: 10.46793/CSGE5.58MD
САЖЕТАК / ABSTRACT:
The important academic issue could be recognized in investigating relations between decentralization, through the sub-municipal government, and the hierarchical structure of the settlements network as a tool for spatial planning and strengthening local communities. The research introduces two questions that have been observed: How does the spatial organization of the settlements network support the decentralization process in Serbia? How does it relate to sub-municipal government? In many countries, decentralization and administrative reforms have shown a tight connection, where it has become an efficient tool for their implementation.
Looking into decentralization as a phenomenon in Serbia, a certain discontinuity is recognized. This has been reflected through the “waves” of appearance, usually presenting how decentralization at the sub-municipal level involves vertical and horizontal relations within the planning sector. Four waves have been recognized:
- The first wave implied the building of a socialist self-government system in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), during the 1950s. In the beginning, small municipalities prevailed, which had been consolidated to support local capacities for effective self-governing. This underpins the local governments’ straightening and shifting of functions and responsibilities toward the local level.
- A prominent role of the Yugoslav self-government system has been reached in the second wave. The 1963 Constitution introduced a form of mesna zajednica, which became the formative units of self-government according to the 1974 Constitution. Their number in Yugoslavia reached a peak in 1982 (13,724, that is, 26 per municipality). They got financial and administrative autonomy. Their greatest contribution was reflected in the direct citizens’ participation in decision-making at the municipal level. The concept of mesna zajednica was successfully implemented in the planning system, which expressed growing activities in this period predominantly focusing on sub-national units and local potentials.
The third wave brought intentional destruction of this phenomenon. The introduction of the multi-party democracy model in the 1990 Constitution decreased the local self-government importance and abolished its property. The administrative and political system became highly centralized and spatial and development policies supported the
- Spatial planning of the local territories relied on secondary municipal centers that address established sub-municipal governing systems; however, due to the continuing decline of the potential of sub-municipal (secondary) centers, the effectiveness of local planning has decreased.
- The fourth wave represents recent aspirations toward decentralization, which could be seen as reviving the sub-municipal level. Decentralization became a vivid topic and it was set as one of the key priorities of the Serbian public administration reform. The changes were introduced by the Law on Local Self-Government (2007), where certain competencies were returned to local self-government and foresee their other forms (2021), which leave room for creating sub-municipal units. In the early 2000s, the impact of local planning grew. The Spatial plan of the Republic of Serbia (2021–2035) introduced a supplemented hierarchical model for the spatial organization of the settlements network with a particular focus on local and sub-municipal centers.
КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS:
decentralization; mesna zajednica; self-government; settlement network; spatial planning
ПРОЈЕКАТ / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
This research is funded by Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade and the Open Society Foundation, through the call “Serbia and Global Challenges: Towards Just and Democratic Public Policies II”.