Call for Papers for WG1
WG Programme Coordinators:
Ilona Pálné Kovács, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, University of Pécs, Hungary
Michiel S de Vries, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Daniel Klimovsky, Comenius University, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Slovakia
Place: 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference, Prague, Czech Republic
Date: May 24-26, 2019
Introduction
The Working Group on Local Governance deals with all sub-national levels of governance from several points of view: regulation, structure, organisation, functioning, finance, representation, election, and public policies etc. The WG especially welcomes empirical research results, comparative analysis, and theoretical contributions. Of course, interdisciplinary approaches are supported.
Central theme for 2019: Internal and external challenges of local governance
Local and regional governments are facing new challenges in a time of crisis, in the era of "illiberal” turns and recentralisation in several countries. The new challenges require new structures, scales, functional methods, new cooperation forms, new kind of politics and policy making. But it is also clear that the responses are manifold in different countries in spite of some general trends and similarities. It is time to identify the common features and practices and also different patterns of territorial governance and the reasons behind them.
The panel will discuss papers dealing with topics such as:
• Local democracy, the role of councils, new forms of participation
• New, horizontal linkages between local governments and state agencies in public service delivery
• Size, scales, capacities, cooperation of municipalities
• New challenges in public policy at local and regional level
• The context in which local governments have to operate,
• Stakeholders inside the municipality
• Intergovernmental relations between the local, regional, national and European level
Therefore, although general papers on local government are welcome, we especially invite theoretical and empirical papers that address the issues mentioned above. Special attention will be paid to Policy Design and Policy Practice in the European Integration Context.
Selection criteria
• We invite especially local, nationwide empirical researches on how centralisation and decentralisation tendencies are managed and research into the (financial, functional, quality, democracy) impacts and responses.
• Comparative analyses are especially welcome.
• International or methodological or theoretical relevance: What we can learn from the paper beyond the case?
• New emphasis will be put on involving practitioners who have experience in public service delivery, in inter-municipal cooperation or in managing local decision-making in general and are willing to share analyses on their cases.