Included into the basic differences between the despotic and authoritarian systems, on
one hand and democratic on the other, must also be the differences existing in the
relations of the parts and the whole, that is, narrower communities and their organs as
opposed to the organs of the wider communities. To estimate the character of the system,
volume of decentralization and the nature of the local self-government, the most
important factors are as follows: 1) the nature and the volume of affairs (whether the so-called competence is original or only transferred, that is, that well known question whose
competence is to determine the competence and what falls into the so-called original
competence); 2) whether and how much the competences sharing is based on the legal
grounds (today, under the constitution) or it is a fruit of the political (self)will, and then
on the latter depends if it is long-lasting or that its lasting is uncertain; and 3) how much
the self-government is implemented, that is, participation of the population and other
possible subjects9
in administration or in electing those who will govern as well as in
making decisions which concern their lives in the narrower community