Greece

Prefectures were created in the nineteenth century by central governments as the backbone of state centralism at supra-local level. The prefectures were transformed into a second tier of local government in 1994, but did not prove able to take on the roles of local self-government and to develop their own policies and local development strategies. Deficits in efficiency and recentralisation put the reform of the second tier of local government on the agenda again by the late 1990s. Finally, a recent major reform of public administration includes a restructuring of this level of local government. This rescaling is expected to radically change the character and dynamics of the second tier of local government in the near future.