No abstract

Despite growing interest in decentralized governance, the local government systems that comprise the most common element of decentralization around the world have received little systematic attention. This article, drawing on the first systematic index of decentralization to local government in 21 countries, demonstrates a close relation between Social Democratic welfare states and an intergovernmental infrastructure that in important respects ranks as the most decentralized among advanced industrial countries. This empowerment of local government in these countries was less an outgrowth of Social Democratic welfare state development than a preexisting condition that helped make this type of welfare state possible.

In recent international comparative studies of urban governance, the nation-state has usually figured as a direct influence on local government and politics. This article, drawing on case studies of a similar U.S. city and German city, demonstrates the need for a new, more sophisticated conception of the effects from national institutions. In the German city, a pro-business coalition carried out extensive social and environmental policies. In the U.S. city, a progressive coalition subordinated social and to a lesser degree environmental objectives to developmental aims. To account for these results, the author proposes and applies a typology of national institutional contexts. These contexts influenced urban governance not only through direct effects on the choices of local elites and activists but through indirect effects on translocal economies, urban economies, and local culture.