El nivel supramunicipal de Gobierno Local en Alemania

This study analyzes the local government structure in Germany from a Public Law perspective. Specifically, it focuses on the local government level composed by the public entities that exert powers above the territorial limits of a municipality (Gemeinde) and below those of a Federated State (Bundesland). The analysis of the constitutional and legal position, the administrative organization and the powers of each of those entities, which is carried out in this article, reveals a plural and heterogeneous system of local corporations, which can be best described as an asymmetrical multilevel system. This system articulates itself in the first place around Kreis’ central position, whose constitutional protection situates it as a second compulsory level of local government nationwide. Notwithstanding the diversity of Länder’s legislations, it is possible to identify a double tendency. While the legal regulation of the entities acting in the level below the Kreis (Gesamtgemeinden) appears to be quite stable, those above the Kreis (höhere Kommunalverbände, Regionalplanungskörperschaften and Stadt-Umland-Verbände) undergo important processes of reform. Inasmuch these reforms tend to build “regional” levels of local government, they challenge the territorial and functional status of the Kreise themselves.