Decentralization takes place on two main planes: economic and political.
Firstly, it is important to check whether the administrative territorial division of the continent (we continue to leave out the autonomous regions) is adequate to today’s reality. Seeking to summarize my long-standing position, I believe that we have one more level of territorial organization and another one less.
The level that I consider superfluous is constituted by the parishes, this Portuguese specificity without parallel in Europe. It corresponds to an administrative district that, as a rule, does not have the human dimension to be able to perform relevant functions.
Despite this evidence, the reform of a few years ago, which intended – and rightly so – to reduce the number of parishes, has already been largely reversed, giving in to pressure from local politicians.
In my understanding, the elimination of parishes as local authorities should be simultaneous with the transformation of around fifty parishes, very populous, into municipalities. Algueirão-Mem Martins, Amora, São Domingos de Rana, Rio Tinto, Carnaxide and Queijas, Rio de Mouro, Paranhos, Corroios and Alcabideche, all with more than 40 thousand inhabitants, are some of the examples.
The missing level is the regional one. As we know, at this territorial level, under the authority of the Government, the five Regional Coordination and Development Commissions operate: North, Center, Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Alentejo and Algarve.
The average human and territorial size of these areas is comparable to that of the Spanish autonomous communities, French regions and Italian regions. This coincidence suggests that that size is acceptable, particularly in terms of public investment.
For various reasons, including an unfavorable referendum, it was never possible to establish regional authorities.
Trying to compensate for this lack, 20 years later Law No. 50/2018, of August 16th was approved – Framework Law for the Transfer of Competences to Local Authorities and Intermunicipal Entities. This transfer was carried out in several sectors: Justice, housing, Health, Education, communication routes and others.
As I have written elsewhere, the skills transferred were, as a rule, not of great relevance. Probably not so much because of the centralist tradition, but because of the great differences between municipalities, an aspect that I highlighted in the first text dedicated to decentralization.
However, it is necessary to take into account that the installation of regions comprises two steps: the first, dictated mainly by demands of economic rationality, is the establishment of a territorial entity between the municipality and the State, resulting from the personification of the CCDR; the second, political, is the designation, through electoral means, of the bodies of the established entity, adding the representativeness required by democracy. The first step, accompanied by an increase in skills, would already be a significant advance.
Use: the writing mentioned is “Notes on decentralization and its mistakes”, included in the work Studies in homage to professor Maria da Glória FP D Garcia, Lisbon, UCP Editora, 2023, Volume II, pp. 1199 to 1222.
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