In Hungary, the law provides for a three-tiered territorial system of development councils: at the municipality group, county and county group level. The latter were created to handle the larger decentralised development issues. While the system seemed a logical approach to development at different levels, it has been criticised for inadequate local (particularly: private sector and civil society) representation, lack of coordination among tiers, limited decentralisation of financial resources and a lack of identification of actors with the county groups, which many consider arbitrary. In the People’s Republic of China, local authorities have considerable financial powers and a high degree of freedom to engage in.
