Expanding urban governance theories? A comparison of the administrative structures of Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Warsaw

Abstract

Over the past few decades, research on new aspects of urban governance has intensified significantly. The principal aim of these studies is to investigate the interconnectedness of public and private actors, as well as the cooperation between the central city and its agglomeration. However, they focus less on the cities’ broader legal-administrative embeddedness into state space or on their internal governance structure (i.e. the relationship between cities and their districts). Moreover, urban governance theories are largely based on the experiences of ‘Western’ – especially Anglo-American – cities, while few studies focus on other regions of the world. Four Central European capital cities – Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Warsaw – are therefore examined in this paper.

The main objective of the study is to provide an overview of various factors that can influence urban governance. These are (1) the integration of capitals into the governmental structure of their respective states and the comparison of their legal status with other administrative units of the state; (2) the internal administrative structure of the cities, i.e. the relationship between the capitals and their districts; and (3) the temporal change of these two factors since 1990.

Despite the similarities between the four cities (in terms of population or historical background), the paper shows that their governance characteristics are very different. Since the public administration of states and their capitals is rooted in different historical periods, their current systems of governance are also different.

Budapest has the most distinct administrative system with its two-tier structure, which is exceptional for all factors studied. The municipalities of Vienna, Prague and Warsaw are generally similar, but they are also very different in other aspects.

By and large, the legal structure of the cities has remained unchanged since 1990, with the exception of Warsaw where it was fundamentally changed from a two-tier to a one-tier structure similar to that of Vienna and Prague over the last ten years. This may also prove remarkable for the Hungarian capital. The comparison of the four cities showed not only that urban governance studies ought to take into account the broader (external and internal) legal-administrative environment of the cities, but also the need to carry out further analyses of the governance of Budapest.