General Principles and Challenges of Public Administration Organization in the Czech Republic

This chapter provides an overview of the organization of public administration in the Czech Republic. It can be traced back to more than four decades of communist totalitarian rule, which prohibited self-governance and established a State based on central management. A territorial and interest- based self-government was re-established after 1989, with substantial changes introduced in the organization of public administration. At the outset, this paper presents the general theoretical and legal background of the organization of public administration and its principles. The key aspect here is that the organization of public administration in the Czech Republic is based on the co-existence of local self-government and State administration. Therefore, a mixed public administration model is applied, under which authorities of territorial self-government units, in addition to exercising their independent competence (self-government), are entrusted with performing State administration as part of their delegated competence. Possible considerations regarding the future organizational structure of public administration in the Czech Republic have also been included.

KEYWORDS administrative authority, delegated competence, municipalities, public administration, regions, self-government, State administration