The Reform of Administrative Division in Ukraine: Problems of Territorial Communities’ Formation in the Polish-Ukrainian Borderland

Journal of Geography, Politics and Society 2017, 7(2), 87–97 DOI 10.4467/24512249JG.17.019.6635 THE REFORM OF ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES’ FORMATION IN THE POLISh-UkrAINIAN BORDERLAND Aleksander Kuczabski (1), Lesia Zastavetska (2), Taras Zastavetskyy (3) (1) Institute of Geography and Regional Research, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Partyzantów 27, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland, e-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author) (2) Faculty of Geography, Ternopil V. Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Kryvonosa 2, 46027 Ternopil, Ukraine, e-mail: [email protected] (3) Faculty of Geography, Ternopil V. Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Kryvonosa 2, 46027 Ternopil, Ukraine, e-mail: e-mail: [email protected] Citation Kuczabski A., Zastavetska L., Zastavetskyy T., 2017, The reform of administrative division in Ukraine: Problems of territorial communities’ formation in the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, Journal of Geography, Politics and Society, 7(2), 87–97. Abstract Issues of the administrative division in the broader context of political and administrative reforms connected with democratization and decentralization are considered. Some historical aspects of the administrative division modeling in Ukrainian borderlands are analyzed. Goals, mechanisms and the course of the current reform of administrative division at the local level in the Volyn and Lviv provinces are presented. The specifics of wealthy communities – new administrative units at the local level are outlined. Features of budget decentralization based on the example of comparing the structure of local government revenue are characterized. The problems and threats faced by the organizers at the present stage of reform are revealed, and some solutions to problematic situations in implementation of the new administrative division are proposed. Key words administrative division, administrative reform, Ukrainian borderlands. 1. Introduction only mean a spatial form of the functioning of public administration institutions. A. Miszczuk (2003) draws One of the conditions for successful political and attention to a trend changing the essence of the economic transformation of a country is rebuild- administrative division, which ceases to be merely ing its public administration both in the functional “administrative power” and takes on the character- and in the spatial aspect (Izdebski, Kulesza, 2004). istics of “infrastructural power”. The territorial divi- At the core of any reform of the administrative division is a structure by means of which specific spatial sion there is always a fundamental reconstruction of governance in the implementation of public tasks the system of public administration. Also important is obtained. It is not only the administration that is the fact that the administrative division does not uses such a division. It has the organizational and 88 Aleksander Kuczabski, Lesia Zastavetska, Taras Zastavetskyy ordering significance on a much wider political, eco- respective territorial structures of public administra- nomic and social scale (Kaczmarek, 2005). tion. Maintaining a certain level of such competence Since gaining its independence by Ukraine in correlation is an important condition for entering 1991, a rebuilding of the system of the organization into, maintaining and developing direct cross-bor- of public authority has been taking place there. Simi- der cooperation. The second element characterizes larly to other post-Communist countries of Central the parity of the size of territorial units on both sides and Eastern Europe, Ukraine pursues a strategy to of the border, which is extremely important in en- transform old, heavily centralized public administra- suring adequate resources necessary for cooperation structures towards democratization and decen- tion. This element can be quite widely presented: tralization. Unlike Poland and other countries in the from the number of the population and the size of region, Ukraine’s transition from totalitarianism to the area of the respective administrative units to the democracy is a much longer process. In addition, this amount of their budgets or the costs of the invest- process has not yet been completed. The process of ment made (Kuczabski, 2017). democratization of Ukraine is not linear either, and it The question of the compatibility of administra- is characterized by a frequent change in the transfor- tive divisions in the Ukrainian-Polish borderland was mation phases (Michalski, Kuczabski, 2014). analyzed by in detail A. Kuczabski and A. Miszczuk Reconstruction of the administrative division in (2005). The analysis showed a relatively high de- border areas has a particular specificity, due to its gree of compatibility of these divisions, especially impact on the social and economic development of at the regional level (voivodeships and oblasts) the respective territories. Socio-economic develop- and the sub-regional one (poviats and regions). On ment of the Ukrainian-Polish borderland is deter- the Ukrainian side there have been more or less mined by many factors. The border, cutting through significant changes in this regard. So far they have a certain area and dividing it into parts different in mainly concerned the shape of the administrative terms of law, nature and shape of the administration units at the lowest level. A reform of regional units or the intensity of economic activities, is a key ele- in Ukraine (oblasts and regions) was announced, ment of this development. The current course of the but for various reasons, suspended. It aims to lead Polish-Ukrainian border was formed in 1945–1951 as to a further increase in the compatibility of division a result of geopolitical aspirations of the totalitarian units in both countries, especially at the local level regime of the USSR. The historical factor in the case (municipalities). of the Ukrainian-Polish borderland is extremely con- ducive to both individual contacts and institutional forms of cross-border cooperation. Disintegration 2. Historical premises of the reform of the USSR and the emergence of independent Ukraine in 1991 did not affect the course of the bor- Still in the period of being part of the USSR, the der, but it changed its nature. Since that time reacti- administrative division of Ukraine at the local level vation of the pre-war social, economic and cultural was critically evaluated in scientific circles. While in ties has begun. most European countries after World War II, a trend The issue of the administrative division of the to reduce the number of municipalities dominated, Ukrainian-Polish borderland should be viewed from in the Soviet Union, after quite an unsuccessful at- different perspectives. Firstly, the administrative di- tempt to conduct similar reforms in the late 1950s vision creates a territorial basis for the functioning of and 1960s, preservation of the existing administra- bodies and institutions of the public administration. tive division at the local level took place. B. Choriew Secondly, it determines the emergence and devel- (Хорев, 1981) was a supporter of a broad reduction opment of territorial social systems with a specific in local administrative units in the USSR and propa- territorial identity. Thirdly, it is the spatial form of gated the necessity to consolidate rural councils and distribution of funds and designates the territorial give them some of the administrative functions from nature of public investment. All these aspects more the level of regions. or less significantly influence the nature and the in- The characteristic of Ukraine excessive number tensity of cross-border cooperation. of administrative units at the local level significantly One must also realize that in the case of border- weakens the local government, which in small towns lands one of the key factors shaping cross-border is unable to fulfil its basic tasks due to a lack of ad- cooperation is the compatibility of the administra- equate financial resources and sufficient assets. -Fur tive division. The compatibility of the administrative thermore, the maintenance of the old administrative division is based on two fundamental elements. The division only resulted in the escalation of imbalance first one reflects the correlation of competence of between units of this division (Kuchabsky, 2006). The reform of administrative division in Ukraine: Problems of territorial communities’ formation… 89 For a long time, fierce political debate on the ne- territory is the first stage of the decentralization pro- cessity and principles of reconstruction of the sys- cess in the country. Due to the absence of law on the tem of public administration in Ukraine did not allow administrative-territorial system of Ukraine, there is moving on to the relevant changes of the territorial no single approach to the definition of the concept structure of the country. Until 2014, all the chang- of “territorial community”. es mainly regarded maintaining a certain balance The amendment to the law (Про місцеве between the central and the local governments, самоврядування…, 1997) contains the following achieved during the constitutional agreement in the definition: territorial community – residents, united mid-1990s. The basic principles and key elements by permanent residence within the limits of a village, of the administrative regime based on the ideas of settlement, city as independent administrative-terri- self-government of territorial units of Ukraine were torial units, or a voluntary

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