Toward A Strong Council and An Accountable Hokim: Institutional Conditions for Effective Local Representation in Uzbekistan

The 2023 Constitution of Uzbekistan separated the representative and executive branches of local state power: councils of people’s deputies (Kengashes) are now headed by elected chairpersons, while hokims head the executive. This article examines the institutional conditions under which the councils’ expanded powers can be exercised effectively in regional socio-economic development. Using doctrinal analysis of constitutional, statutory and sub-statutory law, a documentary case study from Namangan region and a functional comparison with France, Poland, the Republic of Korea and Kazakhstan, it distinguishes formal authority, understood as powers vested in law, from effective authority, understood as the procedural, fiscal, informational and organisational capacity to exercise them. The results identify five areas for institutional development: the systematisation and vertical allocation of competences, the alignment of responsibilities with financial resources, the procedural form and consequences of oversight, the coherence of legality review, and structured citizen participation. The article conceptualises the authority–resource asymmetry and the dual accountability of the hokim as two mechanisms shaping the exercise of council powers in a unitary state. Its originality lies in offering the first systematic legal assessment of the post-2023 Uzbek model and a transferable framework for analysing local representative bodies in reforming systems. Six institutional propositions supporting the 2030 Concept for the development of local representative bodies are formulated.

Local councils, local autonomy, decentralisation

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