Question

What is Intergovernmental Relations and what is its link to the Cosntitution?

Answer 1

Intergovernmental relations (IGR) are an integral and pervasive part of modern politicalsystems, of growing importance as complexities of modern governance increase.They have become a notable feature of federal political systems; however, they are an important component of any political system with more than

one level of government.

There is no necessary correlation between

the system of government and the degree of

centralisation of IGR or the relative power between the various levels of government. Indeed,a number of federations such as Australia and the USA have steadily

become more centralised while many unitary countries have recently decentralised. This is true both for developed countries such as the UK and Spain, which have devolved substantial policy and politicalauthority to regional governments, and for developing countries such as China,Vietnam and Indonesia, where regional governments haveincreased their autonomous decision makingpower and financial independence.

However, federations are distinctive in that

their constituent units states, provinces), at least in principle, have their existence and minimal competencies protected

by a foundational law (the constitution or ‘basic law)that cannot be readily overturned National governments in unitary systems, by contrast,can (again, at least in principle), abolish, restructure or neuter their constituent units.

This essential characteristic means that IGR

in federations have some distinctive features

absent from IGR in non-federal countries. In

particular, the constitutional underpinning of

constituent units with the full array of executive, legislative and judicial institutions provide them with hard protections and their own political constituency.Therefore, political motivations and considerations of policy autonomy shape the conduct of IGR in a way that may not be so evident or even possible forsubnational levels of government in a unitarystate.This is likely to be particularly true for countries such as China and Vietnam where centralised political control through their respective Communist Parties are likely to permeate and overshadow formal decentralisation

measures taken in financial and administrative governance.

Intergovernmental Relations are conventionally defined ‘as important interactions between governmental units of all types and levels.’ In this Audit, Intergovernmental Relations are defined as an interacting network of institutions at national, provincial and local levels, created and refined to enable the various parts of government to cohere in a manner more or less appropriate to our institutional arrangements. It is an evolving system of institutional co-operation that seeks to address the relations of equality and interdependence as defined by the Constitution.Meanwhile the Department of Constitutional Development (now Department of Provincial and Local Government) conducted a Functional Audit of the main instruments of intergovernmental relations and issued a Status Report on the IGF and the MINMECs for Local Government and Traditional Affairs. This was followed by a Discussion Document (March 1999) announcing the present Audit [in collaboration with the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Western Cape] for an enquiry into the existing intergovernmental structures throughout the country. A Conference on IGR in the same month served to provide the vision of intergovernmental relations as expressed by the President and also the framework for the Audit, especially the view:that the intergovernmental relations system be seen in the context of social, political and economic realities.Theoretically, the concept provides for a structure in which all three spheres co-ordinate their actions in such a way as not to infringe on the integrity of any of the other spheres. In practice the relationship is far more sensitive. For example, at one level there is the duty of the national and provincial spheres to empower, and at another level, to intervene, as shown in the section on the supervision of Local Government and the complexities of Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations. Co-operation is thus central to the system . The instruments of IGR facilitate this and reflect the concept of co-operative government whose principles underline the predominance of the national interest and require from each sphere that it respect the constitutional status, powers and functions of the other spheres.