Local Governance in Central and Eastern Europe

This book is an examination of local government performance in key areas of social services and economic promotion in eight towns in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia.

After a decade and a half of decentralization reforms in post-communist states, we still know very little about their impact on local populations. This study, which examines local social services and economic promotion in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia, fills this important gap. The book dispels the myth that socio-economic ‘givens’ or inter-governmental systems are key determinants of local development. Party political factors and local civic activism can and do make a difference, and should be given greater prominence in the literature on local performance.

TOMILA V. LANKINA is a research fellow with the Local Governance Research Unit, Faculty of Business and Law, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. She is the author of Governing the Locals: Local Self-Government and Ethnic Mobilization in Russia (2004). Her current research focuses on comparative local governance and on the impact of transnational and supranational actors on local democracy in Central and Eastern Europe
ANNEKE HUDALLA is a scholar and journalist specializing on the politics of the Czech Republic. She is the author of Außenpolitik in den Zeiten der Transformation: Die Europapolitik der Tschechischen Republik 1993-2001 (Foreign Policy in the Time of Transition: European Policy of the Czech Republic, 1993-2001).
HELLMUT WOLLMANN is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy, Institute for the Social Sciences, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. He is coeditor of Local Democracy in Post-Communist Europe and co-author of Governing after Communism: Institutions and Policy-making.

Preface–H.Wollmann * Methodology and Case Selection–T.V.Lankina * Local Government Performance in Social Policy–A.Hudalla * Local Government Performance in Economic Promotion–A.Hudalla * Social-Economic Contexts–A.Hudalla & T.V.Lankina * Intergovernmental Setting and Local Performance–A.Hudalla * Parties and the Politics of Local Performance–T.V.Lankina * Conclusions–T.V.Lankina * Bibliography * Index