Chapter 14: Local Administration and Local Autonomy

Local autonomy is a system where residents of a certain area organize autonomous bodies to handle public affairs of that area. It is often called the ‘School of Democracy’.

1. Types of Local Autonomy

• Administrative Autonomy (Civil Law Tradition): Autonomy granted by the state (Emphasizes vertical relationship with the center).
• Political Autonomy (Common Law Tradition): Autonomy as an inherent right of residents (Emphasizes relationship with residents).

2. Types of Local Government Tasks

1. Autonomous Tasks: Tasks inherent to the local government (Operating libraries, park management, etc.).
2. Delegated Tasks (Entrusted): Tasks assigned by the state to the local body. Costs are shared.
3. Agency-Delegated Tasks: Tasks assigned by the state to the ‘head’ of the local body as an agent. Costs are fully covered by the state. High degree of state control.

3. Local Finance

For local governments to operate independently, stable funding is required.

(1) Composition of Local Finance

• Own-source Revenue: Local taxes, non-tax income (Money collected directly by the local body).
• Dependent Revenue: Local shared taxes, national subsidies (Money given by the central government).

(2) Fiscal Indicators

• Financial Independence: The ratio of own-source revenue to total revenue.
• Financial Autonomy: Calculated by adding ‘untied dependent revenue’ (Local shared taxes) to own-source revenue and dividing by total revenue. (Measures practical spending power).

4. Central-Local Relations

The recent trend is moving toward Intergovernmental Cooperation and a significant transfer of authority from the center to local governments to strengthen grass-roots democracy.

Key Checklist

• What task is fully funded by the state but performed by the head of a local government as an agent? (Answer: Agency-Delegated Task)
• Among fiscal indicators, which better reflects the practical degree of freedom in resource usage? (Answer: Financial Autonomy)
• Are local shared taxes (grants) typically tied to specific purposes? (Answer: No, they are general-purpose funds)