In the article the attempt is made to identify and to compare some of the basic principles on which the intergovernmental and interorganisational setting of France and Germany has been traditionally built as well their recent development. A promising approach for such a discussion is seen in...

The paper analyses ways to develop and premises to reform local self-government in European countries. It shows that the municipal bodies of the European Union have a right to settle issues of self-government. Reforms in municipal government systems have resulted in further decentralization of...

In pursuing an historical and comparative approach, the article aims at exploring the relation between local government and 'local community'. For comparative purposes, the paper draws primarily on the UK/England, Germany and Sweden as pertinent examples. The explicitly historical approach of...

<italic>In the early 1990s, all German Länder (states) introduced direct election of executive mayors, along with the procedures to recall a sitting mayor by local referendum. This paper looks at the context and causes of this major institutional change and its impact on local politics. Although the...</italic>

The author aims at a comparative analysis of the development of local government systems in Britain, France, and Germany. First, he makes the point that, during the historical evolution of the local government systems of the three countries over the last century, their institutional profiles...

In the post-1945 rebuilding of local democracy and local government in West Germany the local government statutes enacted by each of the regions ("Länder") created a conspicuous variety of local governments that ranged from the council/directly elected (chief executive) mayor form (installed in...