Decentralisation of City Administration and Competences of Decentralised City Units Dejan Vučetić* UDK 351.071.55/.6(4) Review scientific paper / pregledni znanstveni rad Received / primljeno: 29. 6. 2015. Accepted / prihvaćeno: 1. 4. 2016. A balanced city system, coordination, and cooperation be- tween city units are necessary preconditions for effective governance, as well as for avoiding internal imbalances and underdevelopment. The first part the paper focuses on the legal position of inner city units in European cities (primar- ily those in Central Europe), with specific reference to the effectiveness of administration and democratic processes. The second part analyses city administration and compe- tences of city units in Serbian cities, internally divided into city municipalities. Neither Serbian local government reg- ulations nor legal theory have sufficiently defined the legal nature and position of city municipalities. The analysis fo- cuses on the statutes regulating the internal organisation of six cities for the purpose of examining the administrative bodies and competences of city municipalities. These stat- utes do not regulate all the issues necessary for the suc- cessful operation of city municipalities; moreover, some municipalities exist only in statutes and not in reality. Keywords: decentralisation, local government, cities, city municipalities, public administration * Dejan Vučetić, PhD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Niš, Serbia (docent na Pravnom fakultetu Sveučilišta u Nišu, Srbija, e-mail:
[email protected]) PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND COMPARATIVE CROATIAN Vučetić, D. (2016). Decentralisation of City Administration and Competences... HKJU-CCPA, 16(1), 107–136 108 1. Introduction The classic organisation of city administration dates back to the period featuring the dominance of agricultural areas over urban areas.