This book presents new research results on the challenges of local politics in different European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and Switzerland, together with theoretical considerations on the further development and strengthening of local self-government. It focuses on analyses of the most recent developments in local democracy and administration.

Despite decades of talk about globalization, democracy still depends on local self-government. In Local Self-Government and the Right to the City, Warren Magnusson argues that it is the principle behind claims to personal autonomy, community control, and national self-determination, and holds the promise of more peaceful politics. Unfortunately, state-centred thinking has obscured understanding of what local self-government can mean and hindered efforts to make good on what activists have called the "right to the city." In this collection of essays, Magnusson reflects on his own efforts to make sense of what local self-government can actually mean, using the old ideal of the town meeting as a touchstone. Why cannot communities govern themselves? Why fear direct democracy? As he suggests, putting more trust in the proliferating practices of government and self-government will actually make cities work better, and enable us to see how to localize democracy appropriately. He shows that doing so will require citizens and governments to come to terms with the multiplicity, indeterminacy, and uncertainty implicit in politics and steer clear of sovereign solutions. The culmination of a life’s work by Canada’s leading political theorist in the field, Local Self-Government and the Right to the City ranges across topics such as local government, social movements, constitutional law, urban political economy, and democratic theory.

This book presents new research results on the challenges of local politics in different European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and Switzerland, together with theoretical considerations on the further development and strengthening of local self-government. It focuses on analyses of the most recent developments in local democracy and administration.

This open access book presents a topical, comprehensive and differentiated analysis of Germany’s public administration and reforms. It provides an overview on key elements of German public administration at the federal, Länder and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector. It examines the key institutional features of German public administration; the changing relationships between public administration, society and the private sector; the administrative reforms at different levels of the federal system and numerous sectors; and new challenges and modernization approaches like digitalization, Open Government and Better Regulation. Each chapter offers a combination of descriptive information and problem-oriented analysis, presenting key topical issues in Germany which are relevant to an international readership.

"Public Perception of Local Governments" concentrates on changes in public attitudes towards local governments, and on differences in approaches towards various components of the respective municipal systems. As local governments become increasingly important in citizens' everyday lives, political institutions and public actors who can demonstrate greater sensitivity towards public opinion are vital for the success of future reforms. The hidden message of this work is that without regular and systematic analysis of public opinion, viable local government policies will become even more difficult to design and implement in the future. The book comprises research on this issue in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. "Public Perception of Local Governments" seeks to answer three basic questions: (1) What is the public's opinion on the newly created local governments? (2) How did general public opinion influenced the various decentralization reforms of the past decade? (3) What are the typical forms of communication with the general public at the local level?

Nearly all Western and Central European local government systems have been reformed since the 1990's. Taking into account variations in historical and national context, the book looks for different ways of local government reform, their emphases and their divergent trajectories.