Regionalization, decentralization and administrative reform in Europe: theoretical and methodological aspect

Abstract

Basically this article is divided into three parts – theoretical points of the decentralization of powers, methodological points of territorial and political regionalization and the basis and principals of administrative systems, especially concerning the historical borders of the territories and regions, in different countries of Europe. We found out that all that kinds of abovementioned processes principally are counted as a theoretical part of the decentralization process. We opened in this paper such definitions as decentralized unitary country and regionalized unitary country. We strongly think that decentralized unitary country precedes the regionalized unitary country, because as we found, process of decentralization and regionalization basically are the parts of one united historical process, where the decentralization is first, and regionalization is a second part. Abovementioned processes are actual for Ukraine, because now our country is on the way of reforms, especially into the reform of decentralization. So, we could try to analyse how deep decentralization and administrative reform could go and supposed that except of decentralization, regionalization of powers could not be actual in close perspective, but is actual from the theoretical and methodological points of view.

Keywords

• decentralization of power
• decentralized unitary state
• regionalization of territories
• regionalized unitary state