The Second Tier of Local Government in the Context of European Multi-Level Government Systems: institutional setting and prospects for reform

This article takes a comparative approach to the second tier of local government across 12 European countries. The first section of the article identifies the differences and commonalities in the institutional settings of the second level of local government. As we explain, the position of the second tier of local government in the context of multi-level government systems is highly influenced by the territorial organisation and the systems of political and administrative decentralisation of each country. Both factors define its institutional strength in relation to the central state, regions when they exist and municipalities. However, this conclusion becomes blurred when we analyse the reform processes affecting the second tier of local government over the last decade in the second section of the article. From an institutional perspective, the second tier of local government in Southern and Eastern European Countries is weaker than in most Central and Northern European Countries, but legal and political constraints on its reform are higher, thus showing that intergovernmental (central-local) relations still have a decisive influence in the on-going debates about the rescaling of statehood.