Politics of power instead of coordination in public space management

The paper investigates mechanisms of intergovernmental coordination in the governance of public space in Hungary. The paper primarily relies on doctrinal legal and empirical analysis. It discusses horizontal and vertical intergovernmental cooperation by presenting both its legal background and some concrete examples. The results show how legislative changes relate to the reality of intergovernmental coordination and how political conflicts over public space use are transformed into legal conflicts. Using the example of the two-tier governance system of Budapest, the capital city and its districts, the paper shows the need for close cooperation between different actors in the face of legal fragmentation and explains how the government, in a position of legal and economic dominance, instead avoids intergovernmental coordination and uses genuinely innovative instruments to do so. The paper concludes that effective intergovernmental coordination depends on the autonomy of the actors who are involved.