Comparing local governance. Trends and developments

Abstract:

Local government has undergone some fundamental changes in the past decade or so in response to demands for increasing efficiency in the delivery of public services, and has given rise to a whole new glossary of terms in the literature of local politics and government. This book seeks to analyse the extent to which this period of reform has been one of international experience.

The work is comprised of fifteen contributions from leading experts in the field covering more than a dozen countries. The editors open with an introductory chapter providing background to the changes influencing local government. This is followed by twelve chapters giving country specific attention to France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and finally the United States of America. Chapter fourteen offers an overview of changes in intergovernmental relations, both horizontal and vertical, relating to urbanisation, globalisation and Europeanisation. Chapter fifteen provides a similar overview of the evidence relating to new substantive demand and new participatory demands.

The book will interest scholars, students, researchers and policy makers engaged in local governance, political sciences and urban politics.

Bas Denters is Professor of Urban Policy and Politics at the Department of Political Science, School for Business, Public Administration and Technology, University of Twente, the Netherlands.

Lawrence E. Rose is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway.