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The goal of the paper is to identify and discuss the factors shaping the local leaders' attitude towards metropolitan collaboration. The focus is on the relations within the political space and it is set in institutional collective actions dilemmas context. This article is based on 103 in-depth interviews with politicians and officials as well as on analysis of statistical and financial data. The results generally confirm the most often discussed set of factors that influence the collaboration in metropolitan areas but also induce to pay attention to the details. It is very difficult to define what it is positive incentive to collaboration in general – it has to be shaped to the chosen place.

Policy innovation in unitary states relies heavily on the proclivity of local governments to identify and respond to emerging policy challenges. The article contributes by applying a framework for policy innovation normally used in federal systems to a comparative analysis of two unitary states – Poland and Norway. The analysis serves to highlight how the effectiveness of horizontal, non-coercive diffusion mechanisms relies on established norms and traditions for local political self-rule. A key finding is that the prospects of success for 'soft' central government steering seem to rely not least on the resourcefulness of the local units. The study furthermore highlights the importance of historical trajectories for internal as well as external determinants for policy innovation.

Drawing on classical and emerging research perspectives, this comprehensive book provides an up-to-date review of local government in Europe.

The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamics of local development in the Polish-German borderland in the process of European integration. Taking the perspective of the economically weaker partner (Poland) and its inner market, fiscal and socio-economic indicators were used to depict both spatial and time dimension of the phenomenon. The analysis showed that the dynamics of local economy, foreign investment and labour market have been changing with the advancement of debordering process and had a non-linear character. Furthermore, the legal barriers earlier imposed by the state border were replaced by other limitations for the new common market – more socio-economic in nature. As a result the immediate neighbourhood of the border was the first beneficiary of the European integration initiated in the nineties and the first to experience its drawbacks.

Published online: 05 Jun 2020 ; The aim of the paper is to identify the factors determining the choice between service delivery modes to provide local services. The original choice model proposed by Ferris and Graddy predicts that local officials seek to minimise service delivery costs (production and transaction costs), subject to political and fiscal constraints. The article tests production efficiency and transaction costs hypotheses in relation to the modes of service delivery adopted by local governments in Poland: in-house, corporatisation, cooperation, contracting out. It explores delivery choices of three different services: water supply, local transportation, and home care for elderly people. Based on the results of a nationwide survey addressed to all municipalities we test the aforementioned hypotheses using multinomial logit regression models. The empirical evidence confirms the basic expectations that the externalisation of service delivery is a function of local officials' attempt to minimise the sum of production and transaction costs subject to fiscal and political constraints. ; The article is part of a research project supported by the Polish National Science Centre, entitled 'Determinants of local public service provision model in the context of transaction costs economy, market characteristics and political costs' under grant agreement number UMO-2016/23/B/HS4/03148. Antonio Tavares acknowledges the support of the Centre for Research in Political Science (UIDB/CPO/00758/2020), University of Minho/University of Évora, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and ...

Directly elected mayors are political leaders who are selected directly by citizens and head multi-functional local government authorities. This book examines the contexts, features and debates around this model of leadership, and how in practice political leadership is exercised through it. The book draws on examples from Europe, the US, and Australasia to examine the impacts, practices, and debates of mayoral leadership in different cities and countries. Themes that recur throughout include the formal and informal powers that mayors exercise, their relationships with other actors in governance - both inside municipalities and in broader governance networks - and the advantages and disadvantages of the mayoral model. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to build a picture of views of and on directly elected mayors in different contexts from across the globe. This book will be a valuable resource for those studying or researching public policy, public management, urban studies, politics, law, and planning