During the past twenty years all over Europe the proliferation of networked governance
forms can be experienced, which do not harmonise with statutory state spaces. Parallel
with this, in the planning theory, there is a discussion about the modernisation of
planning and the birth of new spatial categories. ‘Soft spaces’, make state boundaries
fuzzy and allow the space construction for public–private networks. The precondition
of this process has been the rescaling of the state territories and the decentralisation
or devolution of state power to new, multi-scalar spatial entities. This also means
that sub-national governments, city-regions have been mobilised and were given new
fields of action for the assertion of their interests, while national governments
have kept their control over them.
The paper will reveal the different characteristics of territorial governance efforts
in CEE, especially in Hungary compared to highly developed countries. Significant
hindrances in adaptation of governance structures can be recognised horizontally on
the one hand, and weak vertical connections between the different political levels,
owing to the rejection of decentralisation by the state, on the other hand. The analysis
based on the institutional and regulatory environment proves the lack of desired authorisation
of the local and subnational levels for network-building and taking part in the national
planning scheme.
