Regional Policy and Local Governments...

In September 1990 Hungarian and Estonian researchers came together to a round-table talk in Pécs, the regional centre of Southern Hungary. Economists, jurists, political scientists and geographers of the Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and of the Institute of Economics of the Estonian Academy of Sciences expounded their research results and exchanged ideas on the subject of regional policy and the development and work of local self-government communities.

In both countries there have been requirements for fundamental changes accumulated in past decades: change to a post-industrial society, structural and technological change in economy and change of social paradigm. The democratic transformation has opened merely the doors to the socio-economic modernisation in both countries. The way there, however, is today for the most part unknown and there are several unknown political factors influencing the tendency of development. Regional and settlement development has come to a crucial cross-roads both in Hungary and Estonia. The period of fast town-growth and settlement concentration has come to an end as well. It is the turning point of the new settlement-forming process as well that gives ground to the beginning of a new era of regional policy. What should the regional policy of the new economic system be like, in what way should it help the restoration of Hungarian and Estonian national markets, how can it serve best the macro- and microeconomic reintegration into the growth centres of Europe, in what way should the the settlement function under market terms (conditions), what should the relationship between the local authority and the central state be like and what direction should the regional development policy take ? The participants of this round-table conference tried to give answers to all these questions and the answers given to the various issues are published in this volume.

CONTENTS

PREFACE / 7

REGIONS IN COMPETITION: INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR AND REGIONAL POLICY
GYULA HORVÁTH / 11

ON ECONOMIC AND GEOGRAPHICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ESTONIA IN 1945-1990
KALEV KUKK / 29

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM IN ESTONIA
SULEV MAELTSEMEES / 49

LOCAL POWER AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
ILONA PÁL KOVÁCS / 61

LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
LÁSZLÓ FARAGÓ / 71

PECULLARITIES AND PROBLEMS OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN ESTONIA
ELVI SEPP / 85

TERRITORIAL-ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS IN HUNGARY
ZOLTÁN HAJDÚ / 99

CRISIS REGIONS IN HUNGARY AND POSSIBLE WAYS OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT
LÁSZLÓ HRUBI / 115

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
DOROTTYA LODNER / 127

LEGAL ASPECTS OF TRANSITION TO MARKET ECONOMY UNDER THE CONDTTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM IN ESTONIA
ALBERT PALTSER / 141

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNAL PROPERTY IN HUNGARY
ISTVÁN KAJTÁR / 151

RURAL AND URBAN FORMS OF PRIVATE EN'TERPRISE IN HUNGARY
JÓZSEF NEMES NAGY AND ÉVA RUTTKAY / 163

TRANSTTION TO A SELF-GOVERNING SOCIETY
FERENC CSEFKÓ / 185

URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND SETTLEMENT STRUCTURE IN HUNGARY
GYÖRGY KOSZEGFALVY / 201

NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS / 215