Book contents
- Multilevel Democracy
- Multilevel Democracy
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Multilevel Democracy and the Modern State
- 3 Multilevel Democracies
- 4 Trajectories of Local State Formation
- 5 The Local State and the Formation of Civil Society
- 6 The Policy State and Local Governance
- 7 The Quality of Multilevel Democracy
- Postscript
- Appendix Cluster Analysis of Institutional Indicators
- References
- Index
2 - Multilevel Democracy and the Modern State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2020
- Multilevel Democracy
- Multilevel Democracy
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Multilevel Democracy and the Modern State
- 3 Multilevel Democracies
- 4 Trajectories of Local State Formation
- 5 The Local State and the Formation of Civil Society
- 6 The Policy State and Local Governance
- 7 The Quality of Multilevel Democracy
- Postscript
- Appendix Cluster Analysis of Institutional Indicators
- References
- Index
Summary
In the contemporary world of nation states and globalizing forces, institutions and governance arrangements at the scale of cities and communities remain a persistent fact of political life. Systems of local government addressed to this scale are a near-universal feature of contemporary democracies. In older democracies they grow out of long-established traditions, and take the form of highly institutionalized instances for decision-making, policy implementation, and political participation (Page and Goldsmith, 1987, Hesse and Sharpe, 1991, Pierre, 1999, Vetter, 2007, Lidström, 2003). The reasons governance at the local scale has persisted go well beyond the case that Tocqueville made for local institutions. Since long before he wrote, the scale of communities and cities was regarded in Western political theory as the most critical site of linkages between society and the state. Contemporary democracies, along with other states, still rely systematically on local institutions. Democracy at the local and the national scale, and the continued efforts of nation states to shape society through policy, have compounded this reliance.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Multilevel DemocracyHow Local Institutions and Civil Society Shape the Modern State, pp. 21 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020