U proteklih pedesetak godina Hrvatska je imala i politipski i monotipski organiziranu lokalnu samoupravu. Razlozi za primjenu oprečnih rješenja nisu bili uvijek konzistentni. Praksa je pokazala daje sadašnji politipski ustroj više posljedica loše utvrđenih kriterija prilikom određivanju statusa grada nego racionalnih odluka o biti primijenjenog rješenjaThe Republic ofC roatia, having become an independent state, has organized its local self-government according to the polytypic model (unlike the past 35 years when its Organization was monotypic). Although, in theory, polytypic Organization is associated with the countries o fa lower degree o f urbanization, it has not been confirmed in practice. The problem in Croatia has emerged while determining the criteria forwhat is considered to be a town. Besides the numerical, administrative and gravitational criterion, the criterion o f "special reasons” (historical, economic, geotraffic) has been applied as an exception from the mentioned possibilities which has been, however, very vaguely and broadly determined - out o f 123 towns 42% of them (51 towns) have obtained the status o f the town for "special reasons”. The tendency o f increase from 69 initial to 123 present towns in only ten years seems to continue further. Attention is drawn to more rigorous criteria in the European and world practice - which is very frequently a combination o f the number o f population and the portion o f non-agricultural population. It is pointed out that larger towns hold special status (not only in the polytypic but also in the monotypic model o f local self-government) because they are separated from the System o f regional units and have thè status o f the regional unit themselves. It is proposed to separate larger towns (11) or only large towns (four with over 100,000 inhabitants) from the System o f counties. This particularly refers to the largest Croatian town - Zagreb. In this respect, there are also corresponding suggestions for regional planning ofthe Republic o f Croatia