Swimming against the European current : small size as a threat to local development in Czechia

Hornek, Jakub (author), Maškarinec, Pavel (author)

Czechia represents an outlying case of a settlement structure where more than half of the municipalities have under 500 inhabitants but account for only eight percent of the country’s total population. This study analyses the factors behind variability in the amount of liabilities (as a possible indicator of development) in the balance sheets of the more than three thousand smallest Czech municipalities. The results show that the amount of liabilities is strongly positively associated with municipality size, which also explains a negative effect of voter turnout, which decreases with growing local population in the Czech context. Besides the effect of size, there are also constant (albeit much weaker) effects of geographical factors, with higher amounts of liabilities found in larger municipalities in closer vicinity to regional centres and outside structurally disadvantaged regions. This suggests the problem of an ineffective state of local governments in Czechia. Thus, the smallest municipalities with low levels of competitiveness (i.e. citizens’ low willingness to join their local governments) found in peripheral regions or in the peripheries of more developed regions are faced with major developmental problems. An increasing number of municipalities are stagnating due to insufficient funds for their development.

• Language: English
• Keywords: local governments, small municipalities, competitiveness, liabilities, sustainable development, municipal reform
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Češka
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 69-89
• Numbering: Vol. 18, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179338
• UDC: 352(437.3)
• ISSN on article: 1338-1385
• COBISS.SI-ID: 267945731
• Publication date in RUL: 11.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of comparative politics
• Publisher: Department of Political Science, Center for Analysis of Administrative-Political Processes and Institutions, Alma Mater Europea-European Centre Maribor (AMEU-ECM)
• ISSN: 1338-1385
• COBISS.SI-ID: 29224285

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Plavanje proti evropskemu toku

Abstract

Češka predstavlja poseben primer poselitvene strukture, saj ima več kot polovica njenih občin manj kot 500 prebivalcev, pri čemer te občine skupaj predstavljajo le okoli osem odstotkov celotnega prebivalstva države. Namen te študije je analizirati dejavnike, ki vplivajo na variabilnost zneskov obveznosti – razumljenih kot možni kazalnik razvojnega potenciala – v bilancah stanja več kot tri tisoč najmanjših čeških občin. Rezultati analize kažejo, da obstaja močna pozitivna povezanost med višino obveznosti in velikostjo občine. Ugotovitev pojasnjuje tudi negativni vpliv volilne udeležbe, ki praviloma upada z naraščajočim številom prebivalcev. Poleg vpliva velikosti občine imajo opazno, čeprav šibkejšo vlogo tudi geografski dejavniki: višje ravni obveznosti so značilne za večje občine v bližini regionalnih središč in zunaj območij, ki so strukturno zapostavljena. Ti vzorci razkrivajo širši problem neučinkovitosti lokalne samouprave na Češkem. Najmanjše občine, ki jih zaznamuje nizka raven politične konkurenčnosti – tj. nizka pripravljenost prebivalcev za vključevanje v lokalno upravljanje – in ki se nahajajo v perifernih regijah ali na robu razvitih območij, se soočajo z izrazitimi razvojnimi izzivi. Zaradi pomanjkanja dostopa do razvojnih sredstev vse več občin stagnira, kar dolgoročno poglablja regionalne razlike.

• Keywords: lokalna samouprava, občine, konkurenca (ekonomija), trajnostni razvoj, Češka

Projects

• Funder: Czech Science Foundation
• Project number: 24-10612S
• Name: Local-level democratic performance and quality of government in Central and Eastern Europe at time of multiple crises and democratic backsliding