The Sphere of the State in Local Administration
| Published date | 01 October 1930 |
| Author | G. Montagu Harris |
| Date | 01 October 1930 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1930.tb01998.x |
The Sphere
of
the State
in
Local
..
Administration
.By
G.
MOXTAGU
HARRIS,
O.B.E.,
M.A.
[Being the
Second
Warburton Lecture
for
1930
at the Victoria
University
of
Manchester]
N
dealing
with
the subject
of
this
lecture
I
do
not propose-for
it
I
would
be
obviously improper for a Civil Servant to do so40
discuss what ought to
be
the sphere of the State
in
local administration,
but
to
give, so far
as
I
can,
in
a brief survey,
a
description of the
actual facts relating to the subject in several countries.
Few sovereign states are
small
enough to
carry
on all govern-
mental functions from a single centre. Local administration
of
one
kind or another is, therefore, almost always essential, but it must
of
course
be
understood that local administration does not necessarily
mean
local
self-government.
Local administration may, indeed, consist merely
in
the establish-
ment,
in
various parts of the country,
of
State officials, responsible
for
carrying
out,
within
the particular
district
to which they are
allocated, the instructions
of
the central government.
This
is the
extreme
form
of
centralisation and,
so
far as
this
is
departed from,
we find varying degrees
of
decentralisation,
until
we
reach the opposite
end
of
the scale, where the autonomy
of
the
local authorities
is
of
so
extensive
a
nature that the State has little control over them and
oidy
a
certain restricted category
of
powers are assigned to the central
government.
At the present time, the countries which possess the most com-
pletely centralised
forms
of
government are Italy and Russia.
The Fascist system
of
local administration was established by
a
decree
of
the 3rd September,
1926,
which was based upon
an
Act of
the previous February. By
this
decree the whole system
of
represen-
tative government throughout Italy was swept away and, in each
of
the 9,137 communes. a single person
known
as a
“
PodestA,”
appointed by the
central
government
for
a
period
of
five
years,
was
substituted for the mayor and municipal council. The law provides
that he
shall
be unpaid.
It
is
true that
a
body
is
provided for
in
each
commune,
known
as
the Consulta Municipale, consisting
of
not
less
than
six
citizens who
437
Public
A
dm
in is
frat
ion
possess certain definite educational qualifications and are not subject
to any
of
the specified grounds for disqualification. These members
are appointed by the Prefect-who, as official governor
of
the
Province,
is
the superior authority to the Podestti-as regards one-
third directly and as regards
two-thirds
on the nomination
of
local
syndicates and recognised economic organisations.
The Consulta is summoned by the PodestA at
his
discretion and
gives advice on
all
matters which he submits to it. Its opinion must
be
taken with regard to
all
decisions of the PodestA
which
concern
the-budget estimates and certain other financial matters, but the
PodestA is not bound to comply
with
it.
This
official, indeed-who
is
by
no
means necessarily
a
local man,
but may be, and often
is,
a retired Army or Navy Officer-is not
in
practice hampered by any obligation to defer to local public
opinion.
His responsibility
is
solely to
his
administrative superiors, the Prefect
and the central Government. He is bound to carry out
his
functions
in
accordance with general principles laid
down
by the State. The
question
of
the legality
of
his acts
is
under the control of the Prefect,
to whom he must send every decision which
is
o~er than a mere
execution of measures which have already received approval.
There is, further, an administrative control over the Podesti
exercised by
a
provincial body known as the
"
Giunta Provinciale
Amministrativa," consisting
of
the Prefect,
two
prefectoral coun-
cillors and four elected members.
This
body judges of the expediency
of proceedings from the administrative point of view and
allows
or
disallows
them according as they are,
in
their opinion, in accordance
with the interests of the community as a whole.
The Prefect stands to the province
in
much the
same
relation
as
the Podesta to the commune. He
is
equally a State official, obliged
to take orders from headquarters. Consequently, the sphere
of
the
State
in
local
administration in Italy
is
an all-embracing one. Every
detail of government, central or local, is
in
the
hands
of a representa-
tive of the central government,
to
which, and
to
which alone, he is
responsible.
I
do
not propose to dwell upon existing conditions in
Russia-
partly for the good reason
that
I
know very little about them.
It
does seem clear that, whatever be the forms of
local
organisation-
elected village and
town
soviets, appointing representatives to the
provincial soviets and so on to the general congress-it is undoubtedly
the
case that the central oligarchy completely controls
all
that
is
done
in
any part
of
the
country.
It
is,
I
think,
unnecessary to say anything about the Spanish
Dictatorship,
as
that has now come to
an
end, and,
as
Spain has,
in
her existing legislation,
a
very elaborate local government system,
it
438
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