Fundamental Principles of Administrative Organization and Competence

C. Principles of Centralization and Decentralization

The Principle of Centralization as opposed to Decentralization.

The Principle of Devolution as opposed to Concentration.

The merger means that powers are concentrated in higher administrative bodies.

D. The Principle of Coordination

This principle refers to a series of techniques designed to coordinate the actions of multiple government administrations to achieve unity, ensuring consistency within their respective territories. Coordination usually seeks the voluntariness of the various administrations (not imposed) and integrates different techniques into two main groups:

• Functions: These relate to the development of joint plans, instructions, or guidelines that one management body issues to another, or participation by one administration through reports on procedures concerning the other.
• Organic: These relate to the existence of specific organs conferred with coordination powers (e.g., the President coordinates the other members of the Government).

A. The Principle of Hierarchy (Jerarquía)

This principle determines that not all administrative organs are equal. There is an administrative hierarchy of organization, which can be represented pyramidally. This means that as one moves up the hierarchy, the power is greater, and the level of competence is more important, and vice versa.

For hierarchy to exist, two conditions must be met:

1. There must be a plurality of organs with the same concurrent material competence, structured in levels (escalonados).
2. This structure must be guaranteed through a set of powers attributed to superior organs over inferior organs, which include:
   • Power of momentum and direction, to guide their actions.
   • Power of inspection, monitoring, and control.
   • Power to void the acts of inferior organs through the appeal (recurso de alzada).
   • Power to delegate or revoke competencies.
   • Disciplinary power, including the possibility of imposing disciplinary sanctions.
   • Power to resolve conflicts of competence between inferior organs.

The inferior organ has duties towards the superiors:

• Respect, obedience, and compliance with their orders. Failure to comply may result in disciplinary sanctions.

This principle of hierarchy leads to a relationship of direction when we speak of organs that are not strictly hierarchically dependent.

B. The Principle of Competence

This principle relates to the distribution of competencies among administrative bodies. Competence can be defined as the measure of capacity or the set of powers and functions that the legal system attributes to each organ. These competencies are distributed based on several criteria:

• Hierarchical Criterion: Distributes competence based on the hierarchy of the organ, representing a vertical distribution between superior and inferior organs.
• Territorial Criterion: Represents a horizontal distribution, assigning competencies across different territories. This involves organization within the same hierarchical level.
• Material Criterion (Subject Matter): Distribution based on subject matter, purposes, or objectives. Competencies are grouped homogeneously by matter, meaning that within the same Ministry, we can find material, territorial, and hierarchical distributions.