Political Leadership in Local Governments in Western Europe Cover Image

Przywództwo polityczne w zachodnioeuropejskim samorządzie lokalny
Political Leadership in Local Governments in Western Europe

Author(s): Lucyna Rajca
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: EUROREG - Uniwersytet Warszawski, Regional Studies Association - Sekcja Polska
Keywords: local government; political leadership; institutional reforms

Summary/Abstract: In Western Europe, the model of local government has been changing in the previous decades: from a council-committee model to more executive-oriented ones, like the parliamentary and the presidential models. Political leadership lies at the heart of many of the recent institutional reforms of local government. An explicit aim of these reforms has been to strengthen the executive power, and to provide strong, visible and effective leadership. For example, the position of the mayor in Britain and Germany and of the board in the Netherlands has changed. The direct election of mayors is one of the ways to strengthen the political executive. Not all countries are undergoing such kind of transformation. In some of them, changes have been restricted to few municipalities. Others have been relatively immune to this international trend towards institutional reforms.

  • Issue Year: 9/2008
  • Issue No: 34
  • Page Range: 80-98
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish
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