Changing Patterns and General Dilemmas in Hungarian Territorial Governance

Abstract

The chapter deals seemingly with the Hungarian territorial governance, but the aim is more ambitious. What happened in Hungary with the local governance system in the last three decades is embedded into the global processes of territorial governance. The challenges of the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda (NUA) cannot be answered without deeper understanding of paradigm shift from the decentralised neoliberal towards the centralised neo-Weberian governance patterns, and also without the territorial shift from regional (rural) to urban scale. The chapter introduces the Hungarian territorial governance reforms providing explanation about the theoretical and political background. Thinking about the prospects of the future, the chapter concludes that Hungary needs more time and professional and political efforts to adapt to the new governance challenges taking into consideration the national economic, social, and cultural conditions besides the external, global patterns, and especially the New Urban Agenda.