THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: YUGOSLAVIA'S EXPERIENCE
| Published date | 01 July 1954 |
| Author | Derek J. R. Scott |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1954.tb00060.x |
| Date | 01 July 1954 |
THE
DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: YUGOSLAVIA'S EXPERIENCE 129
This
question of local taxation is a long story, and all that can be said here is
that a scheme has been worked out in very general terms; that it seems feasible:
but
that aseparate financial settlement will have to be made for each county, and
a great deal will depend on the precedents set by the financial authorities in
negotiating these settlements.
It
is hard to go further than this in detailing the content of the new scheme,
because the ordinance gives such wide powers of variation. Indeed, what has
been said above interprets the ordinance in terms of previous reports and debates
about policy, and goes beyond the formal content of the law. Policy is likely to
be governed by experience and by precedents, and these precedents will be set
as new local authorities come into existence. Precedents will not be made
solely by the administration. Under the Municipalities Ordinance no munici-
pality can be set up except by Order of the Governor in Council published in the
gazette.
The
present ordinances require the prior approval of the legislative
council for the establishment of a county council, a town council, or a local
council, and for the definition of their areas.
This
must be done by instrument,
and the initiative will thus lie with the administration, especially as the instrument
will obtain a great many administrative provisions, varying according to local
circumstances. But there is likely to be real interest among unofficial members
of the legislative council; and it can be taken for granted that they will be
particularly interested in the scrupulous fulfilment of Section 3 of the Local
Government Ordinance, which was added in committee at the request of unofficial
members of all three races:
"Before any authority is established under this ordinance the member shall
have satisfied himself from such enquiries as he has made or has caused to
be made that there is among the inhabitants of and residents in the area
concerned a general wish
that
the authority should be established".
The
powers given by the ordinance are wide,
but
there is little danger of the
system developing without careful consultation at every stage.
THE
DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
YUGOSLAVIA'S EXPERIENCE
By Derek
].
R. Scott.
THE democratisation of local administration in the British African territories
has everywhere drawn heavily on English practice.
This
is in the circumstances
inevitable,
but
naturally doubts are sometimes expressed whether a system deve-
loped in a densely populated, industrialised northern island is the best model for
materially backward peasant communities.
There
is not enough experience of
comparable developments elsewhere to set these doubts at rest,
but
it is interesting
to observe that in at least one case of the development of local government which
owes nothing to the British example similar problems arise and that there is even
Some similarity in the form of the institutions evolved.
The
writer, who left the Gold Coast at the end of 1952 after some two years'
service in a very junior grade of the administration, spent four months of 1953 in
Yugoslavia, during which by the great courtesy of the authorities he was able to
visit organs of local government in many parts of the country.
The
comparisons
suggested by this experience are persuasive, if not perhaps capable of being
followed very far.
Marshal
Tito's
regime in Yugoslavia was repudiated by Moscow in June,
1948,
but
it was not till about the end of 1949
thatthe
Yugoslav Communists abandoned
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