The Second Tier of Local Government in Europe Provinces, Counties, Départements and Landkreise in Comparison

This book takes a comparative approach to local government across 14 European countries, looking at processes of decentralisation, regionalisation and reforms of local government. Examining second levels of government, such as UK Counties, French Départements, Italian and Spanish Provinces, and German Landkreise, this book reveals both the specific characteristics of particular countries, and also similarities across Europe. As the first book focussing on the second level of local governments, this monograph combines comparative analysis of institutional trends and reforms of local government with examination of country-specific features to provide an original and insightful evaluation of European governance. Organised along common thematic lines, leading experts in their field outline the historical development of local government, and analyse recent or current reform debates. The book argues democratic quality and effectiveness of this territorial level of government is in the focus of on-going debates about the rescaling of statehood and a shift from ‘government to governance’. The Second Tier of Local Government in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars studying local government, public administration and multi-level governance.

1. Introduction Hubert Heinelt and Xavier Bertrana2. BelgiumTony Valcke, Herwig Reynaert and Kristof Steyvers 3. Denmark Poul Erik Mouritzen 4. FranceEmmanuel Négrier and Fabien Nicolas 5. The United Kingdom Steve Martin 6. Germany Hubert Heinelt and Björn Egner 7. Greece Nikos Hlepas and Panagoitis Getimis 8. Hungary Gabor Soos 9. Italy Carlo Bachetti 10. Poland Pawel Swianiewicz 11. Romania Cristina Stanus and Daniel Pop 12. Spain Xavier Bertrana, Marina Espinosa, Jaume Magre 13. Sweden Henry Bäck 14. The Netherlands Ger Arendsen 15.Turkey Korel Göymen 16.Conclusions Xavier Bertrana and Hubert Heinelt

Hubert Heinelt is Professor for Comparative Public Policy, Public Administration and Urban Studies at the Institute of Political Science, Darmstadt University of Technology. Xavier Bertranais the Head of the Centre for Local Innovation at the Diputació de Barcelona and Researcher at the University of Barcelona.