The issue of local governance is high on the institutional agenda of many local and regional authorities throughout the OECD countries. This book explores the relationship between two key issues of urban governance - leadership and community involvement - and how making these two elements more complementary can lead to more effective as well as legitimate policy outcomes. The authors examine the dilemmas involved in ensuring effective governance, focusing on issues such as legitimacy, citizen participation, economic performance and social inclusion.
The issue of local governance is high on the institutional agenda of many local and regional authorities throughout the OECD countries. This book expl...
Is the 'golden age' of democracy really over due to the pressures of globalisation and the erosion of the nation state?
Within this book, Heinelt seeks to address the democratic deficit in political systems linked to limited Citizen Participation reflecting on the notion of democracy and participatory governance and how they relate to each other. Exploring democracy beyond the governmental structures and focusing on participatory governance in particular this book demonstrates that common notions of democracy have to be re-conceptualised without neglecting its key ideas. By arguing...
Is the 'golden age' of democracy really over due to the pressures of globalisation and the erosion of the nation state?
This book reflects on the role and task perception as well as the behaviour of councillors in the changing context of local democracy. Political leadership at the local level has attracted growing attention in recent years in parallel with reforms of local government and of the municipal administration as well as the debate on a shift from government to governance. But this debate is mainly focused on single leaders, i.e. mayors or executive officers. Considering the power triangle of (i) the mayor, (ii) the municipal administration (executive officers) and (iii) the council, it is surprising...
This book reflects on the role and task perception as well as the behaviour of councillors in the changing context of local democracy. Political leade...
This text takes a comparative approach to local government across 14 European countries, looking at processes of decentralisation, regionalisation and reforms of local government.
This text takes a comparative approach to local government across 14 European countries, looking at processes of decentralisation, regionalisation and...
Debates about multi-level governance have led to a profound restructuring of regional and local government. The second level of local government is under review in most European countries, with the aim to strengthen the institutional capacity of municipalities or to develop appropriate institutional structures for governing fragmented urban areas.
This book provides a thematic and cross-national analysis of the key actors in local government that form the crucial components of effective and democratic policy making. Focussing on the second tier of local government, it examines new...
Debates about multi-level governance have led to a profound restructuring of regional and local government. The second level of local government is...
Since the 1990s beliefs, ideas or knowledge as well as processes of communicative interactions such as persuasion, argumentation and learning have received increasing attention in social science for the understanding of political changes. This book makes a significant contribution to this scholarly debate and will be of interest to practitioners, showing on one side how climate change has received more and more attention in policy making at the local level and changed the urban agenda and on the other how different the responses of cities to this global challenge are and how these...
Since the 1990s beliefs, ideas or knowledge as well as processes of communicative interactions such as persuasion, argumentation and learning have ...
Can participatory governance really improve the quality of democracy? Concentrating on democracy beyond governmental structures, this Handbook argues that it is a political task to engage individuals at all levels of governance. The Handbook on Participatory Governance reveals that transforming governance arrangements does in fact enhance democracy and that the democratic quality of participatory governance is crucial. The contributors reflect on the notion of democracy and participatory governance and how they relate to each other. Case studies are presented from regional, national and...
Can participatory governance really improve the quality of democracy? Concentrating on democracy beyond governmental structures, this Handbook argues ...
This definitive Handbook addresses the current lack of research into European policy-making and development using an interpretive perspective. Questioning areas that mainstream approaches tend to neglect, contributors target the ways in which ideas, arguments and discourses shape policies in the institutional context of the EU. The Handbook of European Policies provides an in-depth and comprehensive introduction for all significant policy areas in the EU, highlighting the theories of post-positivism and interpretivism. With rich explanations of different methodological and conceptual...
This definitive Handbook addresses the current lack of research into European policy-making and development using an interpretive perspective. Questio...
This title was first published in 2001. Outlining the results of a three-country study, this text examines the impact of EU policy on the domestic, political and institutional environment. It tests ideas about new forms of governance that reflect the values of participation and empowerment of local interests, particularly through a close scrutiny of the environmental impact process. The book also analyzes the responses of the business sector in three countries - Germany, Greece and Great Britain - to the introduction of a voluntary environmental management system, the eco-management and audit...
This title was first published in 2001. Outlining the results of a three-country study, this text examines the impact of EU policy on the domestic, po...
