The main purpose of my thesis on the subject "The needs of the public administration sector using association of municipalities and its registry" is a survey of marketing needs of voluntary associations of municipalities in the South Moravia. I focus mainly on reasons of creation this form of cooperation. In the theoretical part I deal with the basic concepts and context of this problematics. In practical parts are then given hypothesis, which I are based on questionnaires and leading conversation confirmed or refuted. At the conclusion are recommended for use in the construction engineering.

This diploma thesis aims to provide insight into the municipal system in small municipalities. The work consists of two parts, a literature search and a research analytical part. The subject of the research is a discussion of Czech and later also German authors who deal with communal politics. The subject of this work is the role of associations as political actors in small municipalities with less than 300 inhabitants. The results of the research demonstrate the identical and different features of the Czech and German debate regarding small municipalities and the involvement of associations in political life. As a result, several variables were identified that are repeated for the authors. The sample is 10 municipalities from the Brandýs nad Orlicí micro-region, which are compared with each other in several areas. Municipalities are very similar, especially in terms of population, and thus the sample is relevant for mutual comparison between municipalities. The subject of the research is the identification of federal candidates and representatives, the support of associations from the municipality and the motivation of federal candidates for candidacy. The key source is interviews with council members and federal candidates, which are processed in the form of graphs and tables. In conclusion,...

This thesis researched whether or not Sweden’s Economic Equalisation for Local Government evens out differences in regions’ healthcare quality that are due to structural differences, such as differences in demographic and geography. To be able to analyse healthcare quality amongst Sweden’s regions six healthcare quality indicators were created. By performing regression analysis it was researched whether or not they correlate with the healthcare aspect of the cost equalisation system. If the correlation is high then it is assumed that there are systematic differences in healthcare quality, but if the correlation is low to non-existent it is assumed that there are few to no systematic differences amongst regions. But even if regions’s healthcare quality does not systematically differ this does not necessarily mean that it is due to the equalisation system. Some regions may simply be spending more per capita on healthcare than other regions to be able to provide a comparable healthcare quality. This thesis therefore also analysed whether regions’ healthcare expenditure rates systematically differed or not.  How regional decision makers decide to spend the money received from the equalisation system is also of importance. Even if the equalisation is sufficient (ie. if the money from the system is actually enough to be able to even out structural differences in healthcare quality) does not mean it will actually be spent on healthcare. Therefore it is of interest to determine how regional decision makers spend the money. Because there is a distinct lack of theories on this specific subject, I myself created two models which were based on the wider schools of thought sociological institutionalism and rational choice theory and these were used to help model the different possible outcomes of the study and to thereby help explain on what basis regional decision makers make their decisions when it comes to healthcare. From these models I created four hypotheses that were then tested.  The results of my study gave some modest support for the fact that the economic equalisation system fulfills its aim ie. it evens out structural differences in healthcare quality. It also supported the hypothesis that regional decision makers act in accordance with sociological institutionalism. But three outliers were found when it comes to healthcare expenditure, which if examined further may change the results of this study. More research is therefore needed on this topic.

Transformation of Czech society after 1989 caused changes in spatial migration patterns. After strong socialist urbanization and during post-socialist suburbanization, people also began to move from towns to more remote rural areas. The subject of the thesis is the evaluation of the rural area of South Bohemia in terms of changes in its population and migration development in 1992-2017. Firstly, the thesis briefly analyzes the long-term population development of individual municipalities with extended power of South Bohemia in the context of the whole Czechia and then analyzes the types (positional and size) of rural municipalities of South Bohemia when solving their population growth, stagnation or depopulation and reveals the role of natural currency and migration balance in this population development. The main part of the thesis is an analysis of the internal migration of municipalities of South Bohemia in 1992-2017, namely migration flows between rural municipalities (semi-peripheral and peripheral) on the one hand and urban regions, including core towns (important and less important) and surrounding suburban municipalities, on the second hand. The main aim of the thesis is research the counterurbanization of South Bohemia based on the above mentioned migration flows. Especially after 1997,...

Currently there are about 3 700 contaminated sites that used to host commercial- and nursery gardens.  Mainly due to the extensive use of pesticides at these sites a great part of them now pose a significant environmental- and health risk. This study aimed to compare how Swedish municipalities has worked with the clean-up of contaminated soil at these kinds of sites. This has been done by sending out a questionnaire to the municipality’s environmental management office. This study’s results have indicated that the most used remediation technology was excavation. The methods relative speed and simplicity was the usual motivation behind this choice. The results also showed that mostly Swedish guideline values where used in the remediation process. Furthermore, the most common remediation goal at these sites was that the remediated soil would live up to the Swedish environmental protection agency’s guideline values for sensitive land usage. The most common answer regarding why their remediation goal was set was because of the planned or present land usage at the site. The most common method for initial risk assessment was the comparison of contamination levels from soil samples to relevant guideline values or based on previous risk classification. Finally, the results showed that in most cases where remedial action had been taken, contaminants had been left in the soil. The most common reason for this was because the remaining pollution levels did not exceed the guideline values. For the most part, Swedish municipalities have a coherent way of working with these problems.

In Sweden, there has been an increased discrepancy between increasing merit ratings and decreasing results in international surveys such as PISA. At the same time, since the 1990s, Sweden has had several reforms that resulted in increased competition, decentralization and trust-based evaluations. Several studies have shown that grade leniency depends on school provider as well as level of competition between schools. This study focuses on how grade inflation in municipality schools for 9th graders is affected when an independent school is established nearby, using a fixed-effects model at the municipality level but with control variables at the individual level. I study all Swedish 9th graders between 2003-2017. An alternative specification with school fixed effects is also presented. I find that grades are set more leniently in competitive municipalities and that grade deviance is highly correlated with socio-economic factors. It is also concluded that the effect size is small in comparison to the average provider difference and individual level characteristics. The study extends the literature by focusing on grade inflation amongst municipality schools, and by focusing on the change in grade inflation rather than the average effect over time in terms of provider differences.

Under 1990-talet infördes radikala, marknadsorienterade reformer i Sverige som gav upphov till utökade möjligheter att välja andra skolor än de kommunala. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida föräldrar värderar att bo i ett område med fler skolalternativ. Vi gör detta genom att studera effekten av andelen friskoleelever i en kommun på bostadspriser i kommunen. Studien använder paneldata på kommunnivå från 2010 till 2018 hämtad från Statistiska Centralbyrån (SCB) och Skolverket. Det empiriska sambandet analyseras med fixed effects modeller vilket möjliggör kontroll för års- och kommunfixa effekter. Resultatet visar att det finns ett positivt men statistiskt icke-signifikant samband mellan andelen friskoleelever och huspriser. Resultatet är robust mot en rad utförda känslighetstester. Studien finner således inte belägg för att föräldrar söker sig till områden med fler skolalternativ. Detta ger vare sig stöd för fortsatt implementering av liknande reformer som främjar alternativ till den kommunala skolan eller reformer som reducerar möjligheterna till skolval. / During the 1990s radical, market oriented reforms were implemented in Sweden which allowed for increased opportunities to choose other schools than the public. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether parents value living in an area with more school options. We do this by studying the effect of the share of pupils who are enrolled in a private school in a municipality on housing prices in that municipality. The study uses paneldata on the municipality level from 2010 to 2018 gathered from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish National Agency for Education. The empirical relationship is analyzed using fixed effects models which makes it possible to control for year and municipality fixed effects. The results show that a positive but statistically insignificant relationship exists between the share of private school students and housing prices. The result remains robust for different sensitivity tests. Therefore, the study does not find support for the assumption that parents value living in an area with more school options, which neither provides basis for further implementation of similar reforms that promote alternatives to public school nor reforms that reduce school choice.

The presented thesis focuses on the phenomenon of the cooperation of rural municipalities. The cooperative mechanism is one of possible ways for small municipalities to solve problems resulting from their limited financial, material and human resources. The cooperation with neighbouring municipalities or other actors of spatial development allows them to realize projects and activities, that they otherwise could not realize themselves because of the costs or spatial extent of the project or activity beyond their territory. The main objective of the thesis is to classify several types of the cooperation in rural region and to apply these classifications to the model region. First the fundamental theoretical background and external and internal factors affecting the cooperation of municipalities are discussed. Further several classifications of the cooperation were compiled based on theoretical findings and recent research results. As research method, applied in model region, guided interviews with representatives of the selected rural municipalities were chosen. The first two initial hypotheses of the thesis were confirmed within the selected rural municipalities in the region of the Bohemian Paradise: The formality of the cooperation is growing, respectively its intensity is decreasing according to growing...

Settlement system of the Czech Republic is typical by a big number of small municipalities. Those municipalities has the same status as bigger municipalities. However those small municipalities manage with limited resources for their development. Some authors discuss about possibility of their integration. This thesis is about the problematics of small municipalities and it focuses on the smallest ones and it shows their activity and capability of existence. key words: development of the municipality, very small municipalities, rural

This essay examines if the centralized model for municipalities has potential so be a solution for local democracy when it comes to streamlining the organization without reducing the democratic legitimization. To do so, the essay examines documents from five Swedish municipalities which have transformed their organization according to the centralized model: Arvika; Sunne, Bengtsfors, Leksand and Tierp. The material is analyzed through a qualitative text analysis with the help of theories on democratic legitimization and ideals for organizing municipal management.The results show that the centralized model has the potential to be a solution for streamlining the organization while preserving democratic legitimization. The analysis concludes that it takes thorough preparatory analysis and distinct purposes for the reform to give good results, and that a wide perspective as well as political consensus on the organizational issue makes the implementation easier. Further the study concludes that a reform into the centralized model is not a ‘quick fix’ for a troubled municipality. On the contrary, to succeed with the reform it takes a lot of work and commitment from the whole organization as well as a carefully analyzed foundation and directives for the implementation.