Cutting edge. The Hungarian city governance in a European context

Abstract

From the point of view of governance, especially economic-based networking is in the focus of this article. Public works emerged in direct or virtual networks in the world, external cooperation became crucial in some of the huge projects as in public transport and the development of techno-poles. Additionally, investments promoted cities overlapping administrative boundaries to be competitive at different, even international levels and giving them opportunities to influence the complex area of development and governance further on. In particular cases, functions are spread among a wide range of participants and territorial areas, stepping over geographical or administrative borders. This approach may mobilise many resources. Non-administrative instruments have become more widespread at any scale, neglecting spatial aspects. However, there is some risk of weakening democratic legitimacy, if the tradition of governance as such is not strong enough. New functional roles of the state may lead to centralism, threatening local democracy.

The paper is partly an analytical one on a comparative basis, supplemented with results of cross-country empirical surveys.

The basic survey is based on structured personal interviews made by a professional public opinion poll institute in 2013–2014. The questionnaire was prepared by the project team. The basic population of the sample were mayors in Hungarian towns and cities. The sample is representative. The first group of questions referred to existing forms of economic networking. The second group of questions is about democratic legitimation and civil participation, because this issue is linked indirectly to the economic networking. In fact, in the community context, also interactive networking is emerging. This latter group of answers could be compared with similar surveys among French and German mayors. According to our findings the phenomenon of network governance exists in Hungary, however, the effect of this development seems to be more aggressive against classic legitimation in Hungary than it is in traditional democracies.