Comparison of the Role of Local Governments in Europe: Autonomy, Self-Government, Local Democracy

Abstract

AbstractIn many European countries, the administration of legally regulated tasks and services is mainly organised locally and in a decentralised manner. The decentralisation reforms since the 1980s and 1990s (e.g. in France, Italy and Eastern Europe) have, in part, intensified this trend. However, in some countries, financial crises (e.g. Greece, Italy, and the UK) and political shifts (Hungary) are stimulating emerging recentralisation tendencies, which are limiting the previously established scope of local action. The following chapter first presents the position of local self-government in different European administrative models (Sect. 2.1) as well as essential comparison-related dimensions of local government systems (Sect. 2.2) based on relevant concepts of comparative public administration. This is followed by an analysis of the local government systems of typical country representatives of the five most important European administrative profiles, based on five central analytical dimensions: local autonomy (Sect. 2.3), local government task models and self-governance of common goods (Sect. 2.4), the position of local governments in the multilevel system and the relationship between state and local governments (Sect. 2.5), territorial profiles (Sect. 2.6), and local policy profiles/democracy models (Sect. 2.7). The country cases selected represent variants of local government and administrative systems across Europe, each of which has had a significant impact on administrative development and on reform policy as a whole. Against this background, a more detailed analysis of their local government systems is useful for assessing the future capacity of local actors in Europe.KeywordsLocal governmentComparative public administrationEuropeLocal autonomy