Inter-Municipal Cooperation in Europe

ISBN-13: 9781402053788 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 238 str.

Rudie Hulst; Andre Van Montfort; Andri Van Montfort

Opis

This book presents an overview of inter-municipal cooperation in eight European countries. Each country study sketches its attendant forms, their institutional design, the tasks and competencies attributed to joint authorities of municipalities and the way inter-municipal cooperation operates in practice. Both performance and democratic aspects of cooperation are recurring topics.

Spis treści

Preface.- About the authors.- Inter municipal cooperation: a wide spread phenomenon, Rudie Hulst & André van Montfort.- Belgium: Flemish inter municipal cooperation under reform, Bart de Peuter & Ellen Wayenberg.- Inter municipal cooperation in Finland: old traditions and new promises, Arto Haveri & Jenni Airaksinen.- Inter municipal cooperation in France: Incentives, instrumentality and empty shells, Karen West.- Inter local cooperation in Germany: the mismatch between existing necessities and suboptimal solutions, Werner Heinz.- Italy: the changing boundaries of inter municipal cooperation, Marcello Fedele & Giulio Moini.- The Netherlands: cooperation as the only viable strategy, Rudie Hulst & André van Montfort.- Inter municipal cooperation in Spain: dealing with microscopic local government, Eva Nieto Garrido.- The Missing Ingredient: Inter-municipal cooperation and Central-Local Relations in the UK, Josephine Kelly.- Comparative analysis and conclusions, Rudie Hulst & André van Montfort.

O autorze

Dr. Rudie Hulst (1953) and Dr. André van Montfort (1959) teach public administration at the Department of Public Administration and Organisation Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Their main topic of research is intergovernmental relations.

Blurb

Over the past fifty years, local government in Europe has been confronted with escalating scales of production, population migration and market pressures. These developments have complicated its performance, challenged its domain and even threatened its existence. A popular coping strategy is inter-municipal cooperation, a phenomenon that, despite its ubiquity, has not been subject to systematic comparative research.

This book presents an overview of inter-municipal cooperation in eight European countries. Each country study sketches its attendant forms, their institutional design, the tasks and competencies attributed to joint authorities of municipalities and the way inter-municipal cooperation operates in practice. Both performance and democratic aspects of cooperation are recurring topics. The last chapter of the book presents a comparative analysis and reflects on the future of inter-municipal cooperation.