NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF MUNICIPALITIES IN EUROPE – DIFFERENT MODELS OF INSTITUTIONALIZED POLITICAL COOPERATION

Abstract

The article endeavours to identify and characterise selected national associations of municipalities across Europe, as well as to provide typical models of municipalities being associated into large groups representing their interests in relations with central government. A study that addressed 26 European countries has helped identify four principal organisational models of associations of local structures. These are as follows: (1) the consolidated model (existing in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden), (2) the bipolar model (in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland), (3) the federative model (in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain), and (4) the fragmented model (to be found in France, United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, and Romania).