​​​​​Introduction

Czechia is a parliamentary representative democracy, which is the successor state of Czechoslovakia after the latter's peaceful splitting in 1993. The Parliament is bicameral and comprises an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. The Head of State is the President of the Republic and the Government is led by the Prime Minister.

Czechia is a unitary State which comprises three levels of governance: central, regional, and municipal. The decentralisation process started in 1990, immediately after the fall of communism, with the adoption of the Municipal Act 367/1990. It was furthered in 2000 with the establishment of a new tier at the regional level. The District – deconcentrated authority – was eliminated in 2002, and its competences were redistributed to the other levels of governance. However, districts still formally exist. They are used for statistical purposes and for the needs of territorial division of the specialised state administration.

Czechia is composed of 14 Regions (kraje) including the City of Prague, which has the status of both a Region and a Municipality, and 6,258 Municipalities (obce).

The Constitution provides for regional and local self-government.[1] Local and regional authorities (LRAs) have both independent and delegated competences. Independent competencies are set by the Act on Regions and Act on Municipalities, while delegated competencies are set by sectoral law. The government is obliged to provide funding for the conduct of delegated competencies.  LRAs do not hold legislative powers. They can issue generally binding regulation in the area of independent competencies and ordinances in the area of delegated competencies.  There is no formal hierarchy between the Regions and the Municipalities, however regional authorities serves as appeal bodies to the municipal authorities in administrative procedures.

Besides the Constitution, various laws set out the distribution of powers between the different levels of governance:

• The Act No. 128/2000 on Municipalities,
• The Act No. 131/2000 on Capital City Prague, and
• The Act No. 129/2000 on Regions. 

Sub-national governments' revenues are derived from taxation (own-source), transfers and other sources, mainly fees resulting from the provision of services. In 2018 sub-national expenditure represented 11.7% of the GDP in comparison with the central government expenditure that represented  29.2% of the GDP[2]. The Municipalities' revenue is composed of 67.60% of taxation, 20.14% of transfers and 12.26% of others. The Regions' revenue is composed of 33.51% of taxation, 63.68% of transfers and 2.81% of other sources. [3]

 

Central level

The central government has national legislative responsibilities in all areas.

Regional level

• Education (secondary education and funding);
• Transport (road network, regional public transport);
• Social services;
• Environment (protection of fauna and flora);
• Regional economic development;
• Planning (approval of planning and zoning documents at the regional level);
• Health care, including drug prevention;
• Youth (funding);
• Sport (funding);
• Fire safety;
• Cohesion (regional boards on cohesion);
• Tourism (development plans in the field of tourism, implementation and monitoring of their performance);
• Prevention of criminality;
• Inter-regional and international cooperation with foreign territorial authorities;
• Other matters of regional interest; and
• Other matters delegated by the State.
  
   

Local level

• Local development;
• Environment (water management and treatment, urban heating, waste processing, environmental protection);
• Health services;
• Social welfare (social assistance and youth policy);
• Transport (public transport, management of local roads);
• Local planning (management and maintenance of open spaces, cemeteries);
• Sport;
• Culture;
• Fire-fighting and prevention;
• Municipal police;
• Primary education, and
• Housing.

[1] Art. 8 and Chapter VII.

[2] Source: Eurostat

[3]​ State Final Account of Territorial Budgets for 2018, https://www.mfcr.cz/assets/cs/media/Statni-zaverecny-ucet_2018_uzemni-rozpocty.pdf