The Intermediate Level of Government in European States: Complexity versus Democracy?

Also available in French
This book deals with the "intermediate level" of government in 16 European countries (the 15 EU Member States plus Norway). It focuses on the regional governments, regional state administrations and municipal associations. The relationship between these three types of structures is analysed, as is the relationship between the intermediate level and the central and local levels. In doing so, the study primarily stresses the legal, political, administrative and economic dimensions (taxation, subsidies).
The current debate about the intermediate level of government in the different countries is also presented and special attention given to whether European integration has dramatically altered this debate and/or led to any fundamental changes in how the intermediate level is organised and functions in the different countries.
The resulting picture the study gives is of an increasingly complex structure at intermediate level in many countries, as new units are often created �" for example new types of public "administrative" and self-governing bodies are emerging in many cases �" while, at the same time, old ones remain. Managing the intermediate level today, therefore, seems to be much more a question of governance by networks than a question of hierarchy, control or command: a development sometimes in harmony with ideas and ambitions to improve self-government but also quite frequently in conflict with the basic principles of democracy.
What seems to be a general development at present in almost all of the countries studied is a rather intense debate on how to organise and reform the intermediate level of administration. Even in countries like Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Greece and United Kingdom where the intermediate level was previously of minor interest it has, in recent years, become the subject of intense debate. European integration is also influencing these debates in the sense that "big" cities and regions are currently praised for their greater "visibility" with regard to European institutions. Furthermore, these debates have started to trigger reform projects throughout Europe and will undoubtedly remain the basis for further changes in the future.