Cities as national, European and global actors

Abstract

The relationship between local government and central government has been identified as of the main defining characteristics of local government systems in a comparative perspective (Heinelt et al., 2018). It is also used as one of the core indicators to establish the degree of local autonomy in different country settings (Ladner et al., 2016). Over the past decades, processes such as federalisation, Europeanisation and globalisation have stretched the concept of central government and multiplied the number of upper ties of government for cities, towns and their networks or associations. As an implementer of upper-level legislation, the pressure on local government has clearly mounted as a result of these evolutions. At the same time, the new intergovernmental setting has provided local government with new arenas to promote their local interests. It also sets the stage for ad hoc and structural cooperation across national and local boundaries, and gives incentives to develop internal expertise and acquire additional financial means to invest in the development of the territory (e.g., Guderjan & Verhelst, 2021). This panel addresses the question of how local authorities behave as actors on the national, European and global scene. It clusters four papers that examine this question from different perspectives, in different contexts, and using different methods. Two papers study how local government responds internally (on an individual and collective level) to this new setting in the context of the Netherlands, Germany and the US. Using content analysis and QCA, the two other papers scrutinize how local government then specifically seeks to represent its interests at the national and European level. Together, these papers showcase the versatility of the research domain, which is still largely understudied empirically. The panel demonstrates that local government studies should look beyond the traditional local boundaries and policy fields, as the results of global trends are of significant importance to what is happening inside the city hall and at the decision-making tables at upper levels of government alike.

Title	Details
Networking for Relevance? Examining the Agency of International City Networks in Global Politics	View Paper Details
Organizing Local Interests – A Resource-based Analysis of Collective Action of Local Government Associations in Germany and the United States	View Paper Details
Mainstreaming Europe in local governments	View Paper Details
Local government lobbying the European level: the impact of scope conditions	View Paper Details