This volume with contributions by internationally renowned authors provides a comparative survey of problems in local politics and administration in Europe, Australasia and North-America.

Autorentext
Janice Caulfield is a Research Fellow at the University of Glamorgan in the United Kingdom, previously in the School of Social Science and Policy at the University of New South Wales. Helge O. Larsen is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at Tromso University, Norway.

Inhalt
I.- New Labour and Local Governance in Britain.- Managing Democracy? Assessing Some of the Outcomes of Australian Local Government Reform.- Local Government Reforms in Germany: A Trajectory of Change and Persistence.- II.- New Zealand's Local Government: What of the Future?.- Directly Elected Mayors: Democratic Renewal or Constitutional Confusion?.- Democracy or Community? Australian Local Government Electoral Reform.- III.- Local Government Finance in OECD Countries.- A Paradigm Shift in Japan's Intergovernmental Relations: Reform of Government and Decentralization of Central Power.- IV.- Local Government in North America: Localism and Community Governance.- Subsidiarity at Work: Modes of Multi-Level Governance in European Countries.- Contributors.