"This book provides data on 92.500 local, regional and federated EU government entities to facilitate a comparative analysis. Its purpose is also to highlight shared preoccupations: the quest for the perfect size, the optimal conditions for political representation and expression of citizens, the scope of control for supervisory authorities, the ongoing search for management efficiency for local public services, the development of inter-municipal cooperation and partnerships with the private sector, compensation for transfers of responsibilities, financial and fiscal autonomy, etc."--back p.

This comprehensive Handbook analyses the political, financial, administrative, and managerial dimensions of subnational governments. It examines the profound differences between forms of subnational governance across the world, as well as the common challenges faced by governments below the national level.

This book highlights the importance of the subnational level of governance in relation to sustainable development, exploring how subnational governments have taken up the challenge to design sustainable development policies and their involvement in international decision-making on sustainable development.

A fresh alternative to traditional state-centred analyses of the process of European integration is presented in this book. World-renowned scholars analyze the state in terms of its component parts and clearly show the interaction of subnational, national and supranational actors in the emerging European polity. This `multi-level politics′ approach offers a powerful lens through which to view the future course of European integration. The contributors′ empirical exploration of areas such as regional governance, social policy and social movements underpins their broad conceptual and theoretical framework providing significant new insight into European politics.

This publication has been produced as part of a capacity building programme to strengthen the ability of national statistical systems to collect subnational demographic, socio economic and fiscal data. This is important in the design of public policy options, particularly as subnational governments in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe become responsible for the delivery of local services. This publication contains case studies from five countries in Central and Eastern Europe that are at different stages of fiscal decentralisation (covering Bulgaria, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Ukraine).

European politics has been reshaped in recent decades by a dual process of centralization and decentralization. This dual process is known as "multi-level governance". This text argues that its emergence in the second half of the 20th century is a watershed in the political development of Europe.

The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe analyses the state of play of democracy at the subnational level in the 27 member states of the EU plus Norway and Switzerland. It places subnational democracy in the context of the distinctive Anglo, the French, the German and Scandinavian state traditions in Europe asking to what extent these are still relevant today. The Handbook adapts Lijphart's theory of democracy and applies it to the subnational levels in all the country chapters. A key theoretical issue is whether subnational (regional and local) democracy is derived from national democracy or whether it is legitimate in its own right. Besides these theoretical concerns it focuses on the practice of democracy: the roles of political parties and interest groups and also how subnational political institutions relate to the ordinary citizen. This can take the form of local referendums or other mechanisms of participation. The Handbook reveals a wide variety of practices across Europe in this regard. Local financial systems also reveal a great variety. Finally, each chapter examines the challenges facing subnational democracy but also the opportunities available to them to enhance their democratic systems. Among the challenges identified are: Europeanization, globalization, but also citizens disaffection and switch-off from politics. Some countries have confronted these challenges more successfully than others but all countries face them. An important aspect of the Handbook is the inclusion of all the countries of East and Central Europe plus Cyprus and Malta, who joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. This is the first time they have been examined alongside the countries of Western Europe from the angle of subnational democracy.