Local Administration and Local Governance in the Draft Constitution

Local administration represents a method of administrative organization based on dividing the state into administrative units aimed at distributing the administrative function between the central authority in the state and the local administration units on a regional basis; to carry out what is entrusted to it under the supervision of this authority. Typically, administrative divisions consist of two parts: the first at the regional level represented by the governorate/state, and the second at the level of population groups represented by local bodies (municipalities and village councils).

In accordance with the approved divisions in the state, this enhances the cohesion of governance and ensures functional inclusivity between all geographical entities and the central government. 

The committee drafting the constitution has avoided discussing the administrative division at the level of governorates in the draft constitution, limiting its discussion to local bodies, which left an important aspect of administrative divisions without constitutional reference. The eighth chapter included only one article (Article 144), which is nearly the same as Article 85 of the amended Palestinian Basic Law, with the implicit reference to governorates removed, which solidifies the status quo of governors being subordinate to the president without legislation. This also disregards the massive developments that have occurred in this aspect of local governance on a global and regional level, as if it were going against the current of global governance evolution. 

In recent decades, there has been a growing global interest in the subject of decentralization in its three dimensions: political, administrative, and financial, and in its various forms from federalism, autonomy, local governance, and local administration. This interest has come as part of a trend to expand the scope of citizen participation and their collaboration in local administration and development issues affecting their lives and regions, their role in the governance process, and granting local administration at the level of regional divisions a larger role in the development process. The emphasis has crystallized on electing local council members and governors, transferring more competencies and authorities to local units, adopting values of accountability, transparency, participation, and the rule of law, and increasing the ratio of local spending to total public expenditure. It also focuses on enhancing the role of local units in providing social services such as health, education, housing, culture, security, and economic development, meaning that the central government oversees development rather than administration. 

This trend also grants more citizen participation in managing local affairs for two main objectives; the first relates to developing political development as building young leaders through the various experiences they undergo in managing local governance, including training citizens and educating them to adhere to democratic and popular concepts and modern governance and management methods, cooperating to solve their problems themselves, activating political accountability in it, and bringing authority closer to citizens. The second is deepening the ownership among residents of different areas in achieving local development, as many experiences have shown that the development achieved through local councils and local citizens is sustainable. 

Experiences in Arab countries have shown that the developments they have undergone in terms of administrative divisions are based on five main issues as follows: The first issue concerns the election of the governorate council entirely or partially, as is the case in Jordan, as a body that manages the affairs of the governorate "the governorate council" or electing a council for the governorate "parliament" that supervises and holds local administration accountable, including local state administrations, as is the case in Egypt.  The second issue: the volume of powers and tasks entrusted to the elected council, where reforms in Morocco granted extensive powers to the elected council in local development plans and their approval. The third issue is based on the size of participation or adopting methods of participatory democracy and its tools, which grants extensive and organized cooperation for the participation of civil society organizations. The fourth issue: maintaining the pattern of appointing the governor by the central executive authority in the capital, but the Iraqi experience indicates that the elected governorate council is the one that chooses the governor, whether he is a member of the elected council or from outside it, and the government ratifies his appointment. The fifth issue: the reference of governors to the government and its head, even if the appointment comes from the head of state, and setting some criteria for appointment mechanisms based on partnership between the parties in the president and government executive authority.