INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNMENT
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INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

A Comparative Analysis of Advanced Democracies

9781852780050 Edward Elgar Publishing
The late Alan Norton, formerly Honorary Lecturer and Former Senior Lecturer, Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham, UK
Publication Date: January 1994 ISBN: 978 1 85278 005 0 Extent: 576 pp
The Handbook offers a comparative analysis of local and regional government in a wide range of countries, discussing their histories, traditions, national and internal institutional structures, financing, competences and functions.

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This major new reference work is an authoritative, detailed guide to subnational systems of government in advanced democracies.

The Handbook offers a comparative analysis of local and regional government in a wide range of countries, discussing their histories, traditions, national and internal institutional structures, financing, competences and functions. Inter-governmental relationships, electoral systems and public participation in local administration and the governance of metropolitan areas, are also reviewed extensively. The book draws upon a wide range of official and academic sources in several languages, published and unpublished, many of which are not otherwise available in English.

The first part surveys principal aspects of the subject through a cross-national comparison of Western Europe, English and French-speaking North America, Japan and Australasia. Later chapters examine individually the cases of France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, the USA, Canada and Japan. In order to facilitate comparison within a global perspective the contents of each of these chapters are organised under the same headings as those in the first part.

Offering an unparalleled history of western systems of local democracy and the concepts and values that sustain them, the Handbook will be an aid to constructive thinking for politicians and administrators, as well as a comprehensive reference source for teachers, students and researchers.
Critical Acclaim
‘. . . the best bibliography on comparative local government available. This book is absolutely essential reading for all relevant courses.’
– L.J. Sharpe, Political Studies

‘This is a practical and resourceful book, making clear distinctions between forms of government within Europe that will inform our increasing awareness of the implications of the Charter of Local Government, and our involvement in the European process, including the evolution of regional strategies.’
– Local Government Information Unit

‘This is a very comprehensive reference source.’
– International Review of Administrative Sciences

‘Norton’s volume is a well-organized survey, bringing together a mass of information about local government in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Britain and USA, Canada and Japan.’
– Government and Opposition

‘This impressive book is a comparison of sub national governments in the developed world by an academic at the Institute of Local Government Studies at the University of Birmingham, England. . . . This work is an important comparative analysis of subordinate governments’.
– Nigel Tappin, American Reference Books Annual

‘. . . an enormously useful reference work for personal or institutional shelves.’
– Kenneth Newton, Local Government Studies

‘The book is invaluable as a descriptive source and will be very useful in that vein as a storehouse of research material.’
– Lionel D. Feldman, Governance

‘Everyone should be grateful for the painstaking work, the encyclopaedic command of detail, that Norton, brought to his task. He provides an authoritative work of reference and a copy should be in every library.’
– R.A.W. Rhodes, Journal of Regional and Federal Studies
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