Anders Lidström

The Oxford handbook of local and regional democracy in Europe

PART I THE BRITISH ISLES PART II THE RHINELANDIC STATES PART III THE NORDIC STATES PART IV THE SOUTHERN EUROPEAN STATES PART V THE NEW DEMOCRACIES PART VI CONCLUSIONS

Territorial Governance in Transition

Abstract In most European countries, there are debates and reform suggestions about how the territorial basis of governance should be reshaped. These changes include a redefinition of the role of the nation-state and a strengthening of lower levels of self-government. There is also an increasing acceptance of diversity, variation and asymmetry and a tendency that the public domain is influenced by the processes of marketization. A combination of structural, ideational and actor based drivers are behind these changes. Some of the patterns that emerge are similar across Europe, but there is also a strong tendency that territorial governance is differentiated to fit specific sub-national preconditions.

The comparative study of local government systems—a research agenda 1

Abstract The comparative study of local government systems has a long and flourishing tradition. In this article, three broad approaches are distinguished; inductive, deductive and ideal type based analyses. Inductive studies, which represent the mainstream, need to move from description to theory development. Deductive studies are few and could benefit from utilizing theories emphasizing the historical‐institutional and socio‐political contexts of local government. The ideal type approach is particularly promising for analyses of potential systems to show their advantages and disadvantages. Hence, despite the large number of studies in this field, there is still a challenging agenda for future research.

Commuting and Citizen Participation in Swedish City-Regions

Commuting has become an increasingly important feature of modern life. Theories of public participation, such as the civic voluntarism model, claim that commuting is likely to reduce the time available for political activism. Based on data from an American context, Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone has concluded that this is exactly what happens. However, empirical studies based on European data on how commuting may affect political participation are rare. This article aims to address this question with regard to Swedish city-regions. Is there also a negative relationship between commuting and citizen participation in Sweden? The analysis is based on survey data for 7, 200 citizens from seven Swedish city-regions belonging to three different size categories. The relationship between commuting and several different forms of public participation is investigated, controlling for the variables suggested by the civic voluntarism model. The analysis indicates that there are no signs of a negative relationship and some aspects of participation are actually positively linked to commuting. These findings suggest that the civic voluntarism model needs to be revised, at least in a European context. The article ends with a discussion about how differences between Sweden and the US can be accounted for and what the more general consequences for democracy may be.

Citizens in City-Regions : Political Orientations Across Municipal Borders

Establishing democratic governance in city-regions would be facilitated if citizens had a political orientation that exceeded the borders of their own municipalities. Using citizen surveys in two Swedish city-regions, the article analyzes the occurrence of different forms of intermunicipal activism and then evaluates explanations for the observed variation. While traditional theories of public participation are shown to have some explanatory power, the integration of citizens into the city-region and their place of residence also turn out to be important. Furthermore, different forms of activism are explained by different patterns of explanations, suggesting that the complexity of the intermunicipal dimension of political participation must be taken into account when developing forms of city-regional governance.Establishing democratic governance in city-regions would be facilitated if citizens had a political orientation that exceeded the borders of their own municipalities. Using citizen surveys in two Swedish city-regions, the article analyzes the occurrence of different forms of intermunicipal activism and then evaluates explanations for the observed variation. While traditional theories of public participation are shown to have some explanatory power, the integration of citizens into the city-region and their place of residence also turn out to be important. Furthermore, different forms of activism are explained by different patterns of explanations, suggesting that the complexity of the intermunicipal dimension of political participation must be taken into account when developing forms of city-regional governance.

Citizens’ Intermunicipal Political Orientations: Evidence from Swedish City-regions

Theories of public participation, such as the civic voluntarism model, typically assume that local participation takes place in the community where one resides. However, with an increasingly mobile population, this can no longer be taken for granted. Using survey data, this study analyses citizens’ intermunicipal political orientations in urban and suburban municipalities in seven Swedish city-regions. The civic voluntarism model turns out to be only partially applicable. In addition, it appears that having links across the urban—suburb divide—that is, working in a large urban region but dwelling in the suburbs rather than in the city—enhances one’s intermunicipal political orientation. The findings have practical implications that point to the need to reconsider how urban democracy is organised.

National School Policy Changes in Britain and Sweden

In both Britain and Sweden, responsibility for schools is shared between the central and local levels of government. Local policy-making is largely dependent on the decisions taken centrally, and these form a general context for local education policies. National education policies establish goals, set rules, provide resources and specify how outcomes should be evaluated. This context may be both constraining and enabling for local decision-makers, that is, it may limit some choices, but at the same time provide opportunities. The national policy context undergoes constant change, and it varies between countries, even if there may be similarities. Further, even if it forms a common context for all the local education authorities within a country, the national policy context must always be interpreted and applied in particular local situations.

The Politics of Local Income Tax in Sweden: Reform and Continuity

Local authorities have played an important role in the Swedish model of the Welfare State. This state is characterised by high levels of welfare provision paid for through general taxation, the rates of which are very high and the application of uniform standards across the entire country based on the principles of equity and fairness. The main form of income for local authorities is a Local Income Tax which is paid by 85% of the population. In the 1980s and 1990s, Sweden went through an economic crisis which resulted in significant changes to the tax system, although the Local Income Tax was retained. Subsequent changes have followed a pendulum process, with deregulation of local government finances in the 1990s being followed by greater regulation in the following years. Today, Sweden is conducting a major debate about the role and functions of different levels of government in the light of social, economic and political changes in the international scene.

TERRITORIAL POLITICAL ORIENTATIONS IN SWEDISH CITY-REGIONS

ABSTRACT This article is concerned with local political orientations of citizens living in city-regions. Initially, a typology is developed in which three orientations are identified—metropolitan, intermunicipal, and municipal. This is followed by an empirical analysis of the occurrence of intermunicipal and municipal political orientations in two Swedish city-regions and how they vary. The analysis shows that the variation to a large extent can be explained by a combination of civic voluntarism, territorial identity, and city-regional integration. In addition, intermunicipal orientations turn out to be most common among suburban dwellers in large city-regions. The results of the study are significant for our understanding of citizenship in city-regions, as well as policy implications because they emphasize the need to develop democratic measures that make it possible for citizens to exert influence over collective matters in the city-region as a whole.

Public Authorities and Intermunicipal Cooperation in a European Context

Although not entirely clear with regard to definitions and delimitations, the article by Savitch and Adhikari opens up for a comparative research agenda of considerable importance for better understanding the preconditions for how the metropolis can be governed. Their suggestion that public authorities are important for solving collective problems in the metropolitan areas is also relevant in a European context. There is already a tradition in Europe to establish cooperative arrangements between metropolitan local governments for tasks that requires a larger territorial scale, but Savitch and Adhikari direct our attention to private law arrangements, i.e. inter-municipal corporations. Also in Europe, these have become increasingly common, which may be understood in the light of the increasing marketization of local government. Although lacking in democratic legitimacy, they provide more flexibility and may also include private businesses in their governing body. However, knowledge about their occurrence and functions is limited, which calls for further, systematic and comparative research. In particular, it should be investigated whether they, as in the US, are more common in the metropolitan areas with the strongest resources.