TRAJECTORY OF INTERRELATION BETWEEN SPATIAL PLANNING AND DECENTRALIZATION IN SERBIA

The important academic issue could be recognized in investigating relations between decentralization, through the sub-municipal government, and the hierarchical structure of the settlements network as a tool for spatial planning and strengthening local communities. The research introduces two questions that have been observed: How does the spatial organization of the settlements network support the decentralization process in Serbia? How does it relate to sub-municipal government? In many countries, decentralization and administrative reforms have shown a tight connection, where it has become an efficient tool for their implementation. Looking into decentralization as a phenomenon in Serbia, a certain discontinuity is recognized. This has been reflected through the “waves” of appearance, usually presenting how decentralization at the sub-municipal level involves vertical and horizontal relations within the planning sector. Four waves have been recognized: The first wave implied the building of a socialist self-government system in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), during the 1950s. In the beginning, small municipalities prevailed, which had been consolidated to support local capacities for effective self-governing. This underpins the local governments’ straightening and shifting of functions and responsibilities toward the local level. A prominent role of the Yugoslav self-government system has been reached in the second wave. The 1963 Constitution introduced a form of mesna zajednica, which became the formative units of self-government according to the 1974 Constitution. Their number in Yugoslavia reached a peak in 1982 (13,724, that is, 26 per municipality). They got financial and administrative autonomy. Their greatest contribution was reflected in the direct citizens’ participation in decision-making at the municipal level. The concept of mesna zajednica was successfully implemented in the planning system, which expressed growing activities in this period predominantly focusing on sub-national units and local potentials. The third wave brought intentional destruction of this phenomenon. The introduction of the multi-party democracy model in the 1990 Constitution decreased the local self-government importance and abolished its property. The administrative and political system became highly centralized and spatial and development policies supported the Spatial planning of the local territories relied on secondary municipal centers that address established sub-municipal governing systems; however, due to the continuing decline of the potential of sub-municipal (secondary) centers, the effectiveness of local planning has decreased. The fourth wave represents recent aspirations toward decentralization, which could be seen as reviving the sub-municipal level. Decentralization became a vivid topic and it was set as one of the key priorities of the Serbian public administration reform. The changes were introduced by the Law on Local Self-Government (2007), where certain competencies were returned to local self-government and foresee their other forms (2021), which leave room for creating sub-municipal units. In the early 2000s, the impact of local planning grew. The Spatial plan of the Republic of Serbia (2021–2035) introduced a supplemented hierarchical model for the spatial organization of the settlements network with a particular focus on local and sub-municipal centers.