ABSTRACT
Traditional local government in Europe has generally included a three-tier territorial structure and line-of-command: first-tier government defining municipal place-bound policy, second-tier government overseeing and assisting the latter and central government acting as supervisory authority. An ongoing evolution in recent decades has affected this traditional triple structure, multiplying and transforming the territorial outlook of local politics. At the first tier, this evolution mainly comes down to a reform of local boundaries with municipal amalgamations, decentralisation and inter-municipal cooperation as the most visible examples. That evolution seems to go hand in hand with second-tier government being challenged by the continuing search for the most efficient and effective way of coordinating supra-local issues. Lastly, the ongoing Europeanisation process impacts upon the central-local relations in Europe, such as via the EU providing a new arena to promote local interests or complementing national (or regional) governments as ultimate authorities. This chapter discusses this range of interrelated changes and tries to assess their implications for contemporary local government and current academic perspectives.
