TY  - JOUR
A1  - Heinelt, Hubert
A1  - Hlepas, Nikos
A1  - Kuhlmann, Sabine
A1  - Swianiewicz, Pawel
T1  - Local Government Systems
BT  - Grasping the Institutional Environment of Mayors
JF  - Political Leaders and Changing Local Democracy
N2  - This chapter looks for main differences among local government systems as well as similarities among them. This has been done by the authors with the aim to grasp the institutional setting in which mayors have to act. The authors did it by updating and extending existing typologies and indices of local government systems. Nevertheless, an extension was first of all necessary with respect to vertical power relations because previous typologies considering them took neither the local government systems in Eastern and Central Europe nor the changes in the Western part of the continent into account. Furthermore, reflections about typologies are extended to the present one on public administration at the municipal level. All this have been underpinned by statistical data, the recent work on a ‘Local Autonomy Index’ (LAI; see Ladner et al. Measuring Autonomy in 39 Countries (1990–2014), Regional and Federal Studies, 26, 321–357, 2016) and information collected by the partners involved in the survey.
KW  - Typologies of local government systems
KW  - types of municipal administration
KW  - Local Autonomy Index
Y1  - 2017
SN  - 978-3-319-67410-0
SN  - 978-3-319-67409-4
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67410-0_2
SP  - 19
EP  - 78
PB  - Palgrave
CY  - Basingstoke
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Franzke, Jochen
A1  - Schapp, Linze
T1  - Beyond Charter and Index
BT  - Reassessing Local Autonomy
JF  - The Future of Local Self-Government : European Trends in Autonomy, Innovations and Central-Local Relations
N2  - The Chapter examines the concept of local autonomy in modern European states by analysing theoretical approaches. The classical, deductive approach defines local autonomy mostly through legal, economic and financial conditions, especially by formal structures. This proves to be too weak to define the internal strength of local authorities and their real political-administrative power. A more multidimensional definition of autonomy, including indicators as importance, capacity, as well as discretion and democracy at local level is needed. The authors utilise the indicators, used by the Local Autonomy Index (LAI) developed by Ladner et al. and the European Charter of Local Self-Government to find out what is still missing. The contribution redounds to stimulate the scientific debate on local autonomy in Europe. Until the concept of local autonomy will fit for all European states with extremely differentiated local authorities, the research in this field remains a conceptual and heuristic endeavour. Especially, because local government and democracy are until now territory-based, whereas the reality is one of multilevel and cross-border governance.
KW  - European Charter of Local Self-Government
KW  - Local Autonomy Index
KW  - Capacity
KW  - Discretion
KW  - Democracy
Y1  - 2021
SN  - 978-3-030-56058-4
SN  - 978-3-030-56059-1
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56059-1_3
SP  - 31
EP  - 42
PB  - Springer
CY  - Cham
ER  -