EN
Method of measuring local autonomy has been applied to 39 European countries, with a special focus on 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Changes of the index in the Eastern part of the continent are more dynamic than in more stable Western democracies. Variation of local autonomy index are related to the process of European integration – values of the index were growing earlier in countries which joined the EU in 2004. At the same time, level of an index is not correlated with territorial organization – empirical data suggest that large municipal units are not a condition of deep decentralization.