Government - Local Local minority self-government? A bad cynical joke. Return to the Local Government list Delivering governance Minority-self governance One of the means whereby both national governments and governments has escaped responsibility for Roma affairs has been the organization of an inefective system of so-called minority self government. This is a failed and non-functional and used by local and national govenments to purposefully delegate "responsibility" for matters which are clearly the responsibilty of either national governments or local authorities. The system is completley under-funded. Local authorities are supposed to consult with these groups and they seldom do. When they do consult it is reasonably rare for local authorities to take notice of what the Roma want. By far the biggest problem with minority-self government is that it has no legitimacy in terms of vote. It is estimated that, for example, the percentage of those voting in such elections in Hungary is somewhere around 20% and such assemblies exist in around 30% of communities. Broadly speaking the national minority self-government boasts of something likje 6% of the total Roma vote; such an assembly has no legitimacy and no power. One of the ongoing shams of the Hungarian government, and an associated shameful level of gullibleness of the European Commission, is the government's constant reference to this system as a "model" for other countries and the naive Commission going along with this hoax.