Local Leadership and Local-Self Government: Avoiding the Abyss

• Main Authors: Copus, Colin, Steyvers, Kristof
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Local Self-Government Maribor (Slovenia) 2017
• Subjects: scipo; geo; Morali; Iceland
• Online Access: http://pub.lex-localis.info/index.php/LexLocalis/article/view/15.1.1-18%282017%29

A series of trends have emerged across Europe which have stimulated change in local government, local democracy and local leadership particularly where local government and local leaders have had to respond to crisis, economic downturn and the pressures of public engagement in times of restraint and public service decline. The special issue of Lex Localis (14:4, 2016) explored those factors in countries as diverse as Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, the Czech and Slovak Republics and Poland, to provide valuable insights into the turbulent times within which local self-government is located. That issue of Lex Localis was drawn from two related sources: the ECPR joint sessions work shop in Warsaw on local political leadership in times of austerity and from papers produced for the LocRef Cost Action democratic renewal workgroup. The paper here presents a review of, and retrospective introduction to that special issue. But by also drawing on other sources it offers an exploration of the broad trends shaping the development of local government and also develops a commentary on the factors which stimulate or hinder the success of local leadership, local government and local democracy in challenging times. V Evropi se je pojavila vrsta trendov, ki so spodbudili spremembe v lokalnih ravneh upravljanja, lokalni demokraciji in lokalnem vodenju zlasti tam, kjer so se morali lokalne ravni upravljanja in lokalni voditelji odzvati na krizo, gospodarsko recesijo in pritiske javnosti v času omejevanja in upada javnih storitev. V posebnem izvodu revije Lex Localis (14:4, 2016) so bili ti dejavniki raziskani v različnih državah, kot so Islandija, Nemčija, Grčija, Italija, Španija, Češka in Slovaška ter Poljska, s čimer smo dobili dragocen vpogled v nemirno obdobje, v katerem se je znašla lokalna samouprava. Taisti izvod revije Lex Localis je bil pripravljen na osnovi dveh povezanih virov, in sicer na delavnici skupnih sej ECPR v Varšavi o lokalnem političnem vodenju v obdobju varčevanja in na razpravah, pripravljenih za ...