Topic 5.

Public administration at regional level

Points:
1. Regional government and its essence, purposes, areas.
2. Mechanisms of Regional government realization.

1. Regional government and its essence, purposes, principles, areas.

Regional policy is extremely necessary for every Government in order to

avoid significant imbalances in regional economic structure of the state and social
problems.
Among the reasons of regional disparities imbalances we can single out:
imperfect regional sectoral structure;
differences in social and economic development;
inefficient use of natural and human resources;
environmental pollution.
Main purpose of Regional government is balancing of existing differences of
Regions’ social and economic development according to their historical,
demographic, natural resources’ and economic features.
Subject matter of Regional government is division of power between centre
and regions and practical activity of state government in regions.
Regional government and internal regions’ policy should not contradict each
other.
Regional government is organizational, legal and economic measures,
provided by state government in regional development according to current and
strategic goals.
These measures are aimed at promoting the effective development of the
productive forces of regions, rational use of resources, creation of normal living
conditions of the population, environmental security.
Objects of control of Regional government are territorial entities, in the
borders of which state government and local self-government are realized.
Composition of these objects of control is determined by administrative-territorial
system and economic zoning of certain country.
Region itself is a territorial entity which territory is smaller than the State and
larger than the territory of a city or a settlement. Regions are consolidated by
national legislation, occupy a level below the level of the state and have political
Self-government.
Agencies of Regional government are state government bodies and local
self-government bodies, which solve problems of regional social and economic
development.
Let’s consider the important fields, areas of Regional government.
Areas of regional government are: economic policy, social policy,
environmental policy, scientific and technical policy, demographic policy, national
policy etc.
1. Economic policy consists of fiscal policy; planning, forecasting and
programming of the regional development; natural resources use; distribution of
productive forces; control activities and information services. The essence of
Economic policy lies in providing regions with possibilities of independent
development in terms of self-financing and self-sufficiency (самофинансирование
и самообеспеченность).
2. Social policy is associated with providing citizens of regions with the
following: a living wage прожиткового мінімуму, living standards’ increase
зростання рівня добробуту; Social Security of different social groups, equal
rights and opportunities. Social security includes financial support, employment,
sale of goods at reduced prices, free food and medical care. The effectiveness of
social policies depends on the economic potential of the state.
3. Science and technology policy is aimed at prioritizing the improvement of
investment and innovation development in the region and is based on previous
analysis of scientific and technological sector in the region.
4. Environmental policy has critical importance due to unacceptable
industrial pollution of Environment. In Ukraine this problem is Especially urgent
in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
The main goal of environmental policy is to make environmental conditions better.
5. Population policy is aimed at braking depopulation processes. The
demographic situation of the country and its regions is an important factor in social
and economic development.
6. The main goal of Humanitarian policy is a spiritual development of
society and its moral and physical condition. It includes government support of
schools, hospitals, clinics, theaters, cinemas, clubs, ie development of community
property. The main feature of humanitarian policy is its exact regional focus.
7. National policy is aimed at ensuring the constitutional, political, economic
and social rights of citizens regardless of nationality and religion.
8. Foreign economic policy is aimed at attracting foreign investment,
increasing export potential of certain regions, formation of market infrastructure,
creation of special economic zones to activate entrepreneurship.
9. The main goal of Management Policy is to create a unified system of
regional government, which corresponds to the regional development tasks.

2. Mechanisms of Regional government realization.

An important principle of Regional government implementing is a clear

division of authorities, responsibilities and financial and economic basis between
different levels of government: national, regional and local.
Main constituent elements of Regional government Mechanisms are the
following:
1. Legislation creates a legal framework for implementation and
strengthening center - regions relations;
2. fiscal regulation of regional development and selective support of certain
regions. Government directs its policy to strengthen the financial autonomy of
regions, fostering the growth of state budget revenues due to regions’ revenues.
 3. implementation of regional programs of Government and indicative
forecasts and local programs of socio-economic development;
4. development of interregional and cross-border cooperation.
Practical tools of Government influence on the economy of the regions are:
1. use of direct public investment,
2. subsidies,
3. creation of special funds to finance programs,
4. attracting investment from foreign and domestic private capital,
5. loans and tax preferences
6. use of extrabudgetary funds.
National programs for solving regional problems are funded from
centralized sources and include the following areas:
1. reconstruction of basic industries’ enterprises, agriculture enterprises
2. building of important environmental facilities
3. financing the building and operation of culture, education, science, health
nationwide facilities
4. providing targeted financial assistance to certain regions to speed up
economic reforms.
A particular focus of Government assistance is financing economic
restructuring of depressed areas. Depressed areas are certain regions, where the
indicators of socio-economic development fall behind the national standards or
average figures. Also assistance is provided to regions with relatively low levels of
industrial capacity and excess labor, to regions with difficult natural geographical
and ecological conditions.

Financial basis of regions’ socio-economic development are the local

budgets.
Local authorities get certain property and fiscal rights to fulfill their own
functions and to implement regional Government. These powers give them the
opportunity to develop and approve their budgets, manage subordinate enterprises
and receive income from them.
The main functions of local budgets are:
1. formation of funds to ensure the local authorities’ activity;
2. distribution and use of funds across economic sectors;
3. control of financial and economic activity of subordinate enterprises,
organizations, institutions.
Local budgets’ Revenues are derived from the share of fixed revenues in the
budgets of all levels, local taxes, assessments to local budgets from state taxes,
subsidies, and grants provided to local governments.