Theoretical and Practical Aspects Regarding the Limits of Decentralization Based on the Experience in the Republic of Moldova

Administrative decentralization, as a constitutional principle and the means to achieve local autonomy, is a complex process for which it requires extensive research and a broad public debate as effective as possible for its application in practice. Decentralization is not a new phenomenon of government, except for the states that have passed through a period of excessive centralization, with an authoritarian regime, where the realization of this principle encounters more difficulties. In our opinion one of the problems that arises is related to the limits of decentralization and keeping a balance between "centralization" and "decentralization". From the experience of the Republic of Moldova one can see that the process of transition from a centralized to a decentralized system of administration was accomplished more under the influence of political slogans of democracy and less on a well calculated socio-economic program. Thus, all public economically inefficient services were decentralized and transmitted to local government, without the central government to transmit the adequate financial and material resources for the transferred powers. Later, after more than ten years we adopted specific legal provisions on Administrative Decentralization Law (No. 435-XVI from 28.12.2006) which established the principles and rules that govern this process.