Local Government Roles in Filling the Sustainability Policy Vacuum: Insights from Local Government Managers

Abstract

This paper investigates four roles that local governments play in sustainability within the contemporary intergovernmental system—minimalist, implementing agent, entrepreneur, and regional champion. A conceptual framework is advanced to explain these roles based on the time horizons and capacities within which local governments operate. Interviews with local government managers offer insights into how these two dimensions shape the roles that local governments play in sustainability. Although the interviews offer support for the utility of the sustainability role framework, they also suggest additional factors influencing the roles that local governments play in sustainability.