Décentralisation et collectivités territoriales en Lituanie

Abstract

Since its restored political independence, Lithuania has launched a set of reforms for changing the country's political, socioeconomic, institutional and territorial models. Reforms have not advanced at the same pace in all fields however. In particular, institutional and territorial reforms are lagging far behind. A lack of experience with autonomy for local authorities is linked to Lithuania's geopolitical position between central Europe (particulary Poland) and Russia, which used to impose their own institutions and division into territorial units. The slow pace of reforms since 1989 has an impact on regional development, especially in rural areas, and on socioeconomic differences between regions. Regional and local development is blocked owing to insufficient decentralization and an inadequate managerial autonomy for local authorities. Institutions at the regional and local levels are also wanting. Despite the change of system, new arrangements are implemented within territorial units inherited from the Soviet era. The institutional and territorial model conveyed by democratization and decentralization has not yet been put into practice.

The Leader Programme as a Model of Institutional Transfer: Learning from Its Local Implementation in France and Lithuania

“…The over-representation of these associations in the LAG network is partly explained by local companies' lack of involvement in rural development (in an important context of rural economic crisis). It is also linked to the low presence of local institutions in an incomplete decentralisation context (Mačiulytė, Daugirdas, 2004). …”