Narratives on Complexity: Interpretations on Local Government Leadership Change

Abstract

This article, based on narratives of experienced (born between 1945 and 1950) municipal chief executive officers, investigates changes that challenge leadership inlocal government. Four factors emerge: the dissolution of municipal boundaries; cooled relations between the State and municipalities; municipal inhabitants’ changing role from participatory residents to exacting customers; and fragmentation oflocal politics. These four changes reveal the diversity of local leaders’ everyday environment, illustrating and exploring how day-to-day management takes place in the intersection of more and more complex governance relations.