ABSTRACT
In recent years, most of the territorial and/or functional reforms in European countries have impacted on the institutional setting of the second tier of local government. Furthermore, the democratic quality as well as the effectiveness of this level of local government has been increasingly contested in the ongoing re-scaling of statehood. Whereas in some countries covered by this book, like the Netherlands, Poland or Spain, the second tier of local government shows a high capacity to resist any attempt to impose far-reaching reforms, in others it is in a state of flux. However, in the growing literature on sub-national governments a comparative analysis of the provinces, the counties, the départements, the Landkreise, the landsting, the nomarchies, the powiaty, the judete or the megyék is missing. As outlined in the introduction, this book tries to address this gap. Therefore, drawing on the previous country chapters we have organised this concluding chapter into three sections. In the first, we analyse the second tier of local government within the multi-level government system of the countries covered by this book by drawing on the model developed by Sellers and Lidström (2007). In the second, we develop a comparative analysis of the horizontal power relations at the second level of local government following Mouritzen and Svara’s (2002) typology. Finally, in the third, we reflect on the changes in and the reform debates on the institutional setting of the second tier of local government, using the model outlined in the introduction.
