Through the research our aim was to contribute to the establishment of local administration districts, which are

• in harmony with the actual habits regarding the use of space and with local identity;
• based on careful consideration of the Hungarian historical traditions and the European practices;
• operating more efficiently, more proficiently, and on a higher quality compared to the present system;
• in compliance with the country’s economic development and the population’s income level, and providing easily and cheaply accessible, integrated office routine.

During our work the following aspects were examined:

• Hungarian historical traditions of the local government;
• results of current researches regarding the reorganization and European tendencies;
• habit of the population regarding the use of space and its local identity;
• expectations of stakeholders for the introduction of the new public administration districts;
• potential locations of district centres, and optimal density of districts, depending on their functions.

The analysis was conducted by a group of experts having scientific and public administration experiences, and including the acknowledged participators of domestic spatial researches, under the supervision of Miklós Oláh.

The main aim of our research was to present and analyse how local producers maintain collective reputation of their products, and how institutions of collective governance look like. The theoretical background of the research is based on the Institution Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (Ostrom 2005). A key concept of institutional analysis is governance. According to the IAD framework governance at multiple levels that are nested into each other: the institutions of local communities are defined by national rules as well as local norms, habits, or customs, the basis of collective decisions developed at community level. In our analysis we focus on the institutionalization of collective decisions. We analyse the reputation of products with geographical indicator (GI) as a common-pool resource, and the factors influencing the success or failure of GI initiatives. Two case studies were conducted in two different Hungarian micro-regions: the first case study is about an initiative of wine-producers to define special quality criteria for local wines, while the second case study was conducted among onion-producers, who aim at adopting GI criteria to their products.

Presentation on the research is available here.

Plans have to be harmonized with local needs, national perspectives and EU regulations. As regards the economy, improvement of competitiveness, exploitation of opportunities, and the establishment of local products’ market are of utmost importance. Additionally, actions are also necessitated regarding the amelioration of governmental activities at local level including the infrastructure of institutions, public relations and public services. Thirdly, the aspects of sustainability can hardly be ignored with a special view on the stability of social relations, natural environment, as well, as energy efficiency.

The whole article is available in Hungarian