When we talk about a local community, we are talking about a social community in a specific territory, which may include several parts of that community or settlements. It is a community that has arisen naturally as a result of human settlement in a specific territory and whose inhabitants are united by common interests and needs. To achieve these, they organise themselves into a structure based on norms and rules, leading to local self-government. The basic form of local self-government in Slovenia is the municipality, which may be divided into several smaller parts. In this thesis, we examine the relationship between a municipality and its smaller part. We take as an example the Municipality of Koper and its smaller part, Sub-local community of Bertoki. It was found that the Municipality of Koper cooperates very well with the Sub-local community of Bertoki, which is very important for the performance of all tasks. The Municipality of Koper has a significant role, because the Sub-local community of Bertoki, which has its own financial resources, also depends to a large extent on the municipal budget, and all final decisions are left to the municipal authorities. As a smaller part of the Municipality of Koper, Bertoki has a so-called consultative role, where its inhabitants participate and, through participation, co-shape local policy and the entire self-governing local community.
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