City & Local Government

This research shows how a political system of consensus and accommodation relates to anti-establishment politics and vice versa. It demonstrates how adversarial politics can result in governing coalitions that are able to achieve results. In this way, this book offers insight not only for people with a general interest in the working of local politics, but also for municipalities facing similar dissensual political parties.

Cities become increasingly connected through formal international relations and networks. They partner up to transfer resources and to exchange municipal knowledge and expertise. Do these partnerships lead to better local government institutions and a more powerful position of citizens in these countries? How do city partnerships emerge, and what do cities need in order to maintain international relations?

Recent developments in some countries suggest that the era of the citizen as a mere voter and as a customer of local services slowly has come to an end. Is the dominance of traditional models of representation and of New Public Management decreasing? Can this trend be observed in all Western European democracies?

This book explores the reality of balancing central-local relations in the provision of basic services in Ghana. The author’s finding is that decentralization in practice in Ghana does not reflect the devolution objective specified by the country’s laws.

Urban management is a complex area including aspects from a wide variety of disciplines. This book on public management discusses many of these aspects in a clear and structured manner. But it offers more. The book links theory and practice with examples from countries in different stages of development. This approach makes the book a valuable tool for students and others who wish to learn more about how local governments work both from a theoretical as well as from a practical perspective.

Large cities in the world confront an interesting dilemma: more democracy and therefore fragmentation of their governments into small agencies, or better performance in an integrated world system of cities and therefore better coordination of government functions.

Since the beginning of the new millennium an interest in the culture of local government has grown. As the cliché goes, the Dutch way of governing is one of three C’s: consultation, compromise and consensus. Town Hall Tales offers an original analysis of the way culture operates in the context of Dutch municipalities. Looking at culture as a sense-making process in which actors engage daily shows how actors in municipalities constantly tell each other stories.