We invite submission of original research papers, with a preference for empirical papers addressing questions of conflict and political violence at the micro level. Papers making an explicit reference to the connection between institutions and conflict are particularly welcome.

In More Developed Countries in the last 40 years, many national governments have claimed to be decentralising power to regional and local levels of the state, and the latter in turn often claim to be decentralising power to civil society, ‘communities’ and neighbourhoods or to ‘the local...