The second tier of local government in Europe. Provinces, counties, départements and landkreise in comparison.

This book takes a comparative approach to local government across 14 European countries, looking at processes of decentralisation, regionalisation and reforms of local government.

Examining second levels of government, such as UK Counties, French Départements, Italian and Spanish Provinces, and German Landkreise, this book reveals both the specific characteristics of particular countries, and also similarities across Europe. As the first book focussing on the second level of local governments, this monograph combines comparative analysis of institutional trends and reforms of local government with examination of country-specific features to provide an original and insightful evaluation of European governance.

Organised along common thematic lines, leading experts in their field outline the historical development of local government, and analyse recent or current reform debates. The book argues democratic quality and effectiveness of this territorial level of government is in the focus of on-going debates about the rescaling of statehood and a shift from ‘government to governance’.

The Second Tier of Local Government in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars studying local government, public administration and multi-level governance.

Contents:

1. Introduction Hubert Heinelt and Xavier Bertrana
2. Belgium Tony Valcke, Herwig Reynaert and Kristof Steyvers
3. Denmark Poul Erik Mouritzen
4. France Emmanuel Négrier and Fabien Nicolas
5. The United Kingdom Steve Martin
6. Germany Hubert Heinelt and Björn Egner
7. Greece Nikos Hlepas and Panagoitis Getimis
8. Hungary Gabor Soos
9. Italy Carlo Bachetti
10. Poland Pawel Swianiewicz
11. Romania Cristina Stănuş and Daniel Pop
12. Spain Xavier Bertrana, Marina Espinosa, Jaume Magre
13. Sweden Henry Bäck
14. The Netherlands Ger Arendsen
15. Turkey Korel Göymen
16. Conclusions Xavier Bertrana and Hubert Heinelt