Abstract This paper addresses the issue of Czech small critically indebted municipalities, which has been neglected in the European discourse after successful European consolidation reforms. The Czech Republic is one of the Central European countries where there is no relevant debate on the mandatory amalgamation of small municipalities that are often faced with a combination of multiple risk factors. This paper aims to analyze a sample of the Czech municipalities that are threatened by a combination of their small size and critical indebtedness. A research of the sample focuses on a) the identification of the reasons for critical indebtedness, b) the impact of critical indebtedness on the delivery of services and local democracy and c) the options and strategies to overcome the issues related to critical indebtedness. Methodologically, the paper is a multiple-case study of three small critically indebted municipalities of the Karlovy Vary region, which was considered the worst region in 2012 in terms of the share of critically indebted municipalities, with several long-term critically indebted municipalities on its territory. Based on the media monitoring and economic criteria, the municipalities of Prameny, Bublava and Nebanice have been chosen. The main finding of our research is the identification of so-called endangered chains: 1) small municipalities with low revenues resulting in 2) limited administrative and expert capacity that contributes to 3) a mistake in a large investment project resulting in 4) the economic collapse of the municipality that endangers the provision of services, and in the case of 5) insufficient social capital this can lead to agony of local self-government and the collapse of the municipality. According to the findings, the examined municipalities of Nebanice and Bublava correspond to the chain link 4, and in the case of Prameny it is possible to speak about the chain link 5.

中文翻译：

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濒危的城市？三个捷克小额重债城市的案例研究

摘要本文讨论了捷克小额负债累累的直辖市的问题，在成功进行欧洲整合改革后，该问题在欧洲的论述中已被忽略。捷克共和国是中欧国家之一，对于小城镇的强制性合并，有关的辩论通常很少，而小城镇往往面临多种风险因素，因此这是中欧国家之一。本文旨在分析捷克城市的样本，这些城市由于规模小和债务严重而受到威胁。对样本的研究集中在：a）识别严重债务的原因，b）严重债务对服务提供和地方民主的影响，以及c）解决与严重债务有关的问题的选择和策略。从方法上讲 本文是对卡罗维发利州三个重债小市的多案例研究，就重债市的份额而言，该市被认为是2012年最糟糕的地区，其领土上有几个长期重债市。根据媒体监测和经济标准，选择了普拉梅尼，布布拉瓦和内巴尼采市。我们研究的主要发现是对所谓的濒危链的识别：1）收入较低的小城镇，导致2）行政和专家能力有限，这导致3）大型投资项目的错误，导致4）经济市政的崩溃，危及服务的提供，在5）社会资本不足的情况下，这可能导致当地自治的痛苦和市政当局的崩溃。根据调查结果，所考察的内瓦尼采和布布拉瓦的直辖市对应于链环4，在普拉梅尼的情况下，可以谈论链环5。