About this Research Topic
Since the beginning of the 21st century, local governments across Europe have been facing increasingly more complex challenges. These were predominantly illustrated in three dimensions: 1) austerity measures imposed in most countries as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, 2) the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent necessity of reconstructing the social fabric as well as 3) the necessity of much more transparent and inclusive and informative policymaking due to ever increasing general access to information and self-organization, which were made possible by the social media.
These issues were more exacerbated among the rather diverse local government systems of the Central and Eastern Europe, as a result of much narrower scope of discourse (with many scholars carelessly aiming to put all countries of the region into one, ‘post-Communist’, basket), and, subsequently, more shallow understanding (both within the scholarly community and policy practitioners) of the local peculiarities.
The goal of this Research Topic is to assess to what extent local authorities in the Central and Eastern Europe have responded to emerging challenges during the last 10 years through the toolkit that has been made available to them. More specifically, our goal is fivefold:
1. To identify recent approaches to local government reform and restructuring that were aimed at enhancing the operational performance of local self-government bodies and better addressing newly emerging challenges,
2. To reflect on the dynamics between local and regional/central authorities and the extent to which local authorities are consulted to matters at the higher levels affecting them,
3. In a comparative regional perspective, to showcase successes and failures in how local authorities have resolved to tackle most pressing challenges, more specifically reflecting on the capacity (financial, managerial and/or HRM) of local authorities,
4. In similar fashion to widespread policy learning opportunities within the Western European countries (such as through OECD ministerial meetings), to explore similar examples from the Central and Eastern Europe,
5. To establish how the citizenry engages with local politicians and policy practitioners both in terms of cooperation and co-production but also in ensuring their transparency and accountability.
In line with the general goal of this Collection, we welcome a wide and interdisciplinary assessment of recent challenges in the region and the various approaches that local authorities resolved to while addressing them, with the hope of integrating the fragmented research activities in this often-neglected area (both geographically and analytically). We welcome contributions that would range from rather theoretical assessments of local government systems, their underlying philosophies and resulting policy preferences (in terms of each of the four illustrations of this edition’s goal), comparative empirical analyses of reform initiatives or policy responses as well as review articles of recent studies in this area.
These issues were more exacerbated among the rather diverse local government systems of the Central and Eastern Europe, as a result of much narrower scope of discourse (with many scholars carelessly aiming to put all countries of the region into one, ‘post-Communist’, basket), and, subsequently, more shallow understanding (both within the scholarly community and policy practitioners) of the local peculiarities.
The goal of this Research Topic is to assess to what extent local authorities in the Central and Eastern Europe have responded to emerging challenges during the last 10 years through the toolkit that has been made available to them. More specifically, our goal is fivefold:
1. To identify recent approaches to local government reform and restructuring that were aimed at enhancing the operational performance of local self-government bodies and better addressing newly emerging challenges,
2. To reflect on the dynamics between local and regional/central authorities and the extent to which local authorities are consulted to matters at the higher levels affecting them,
3. In a comparative regional perspective, to showcase successes and failures in how local authorities have resolved to tackle most pressing challenges, more specifically reflecting on the capacity (financial, managerial and/or HRM) of local authorities,
4. In similar fashion to widespread policy learning opportunities within the Western European countries (such as through OECD ministerial meetings), to explore similar examples from the Central and Eastern Europe,
5. To establish how the citizenry engages with local politicians and policy practitioners both in terms of cooperation and co-production but also in ensuring their transparency and accountability.
In line with the general goal of this Collection, we welcome a wide and interdisciplinary assessment of recent challenges in the region and the various approaches that local authorities resolved to while addressing them, with the hope of integrating the fragmented research activities in this often-neglected area (both geographically and analytically). We welcome contributions that would range from rather theoretical assessments of local government systems, their underlying philosophies and resulting policy preferences (in terms of each of the four illustrations of this edition’s goal), comparative empirical analyses of reform initiatives or policy responses as well as review articles of recent studies in this area.
Keywords: local governance, Eastern Europe, institutional development, citizen engagement, public sector reforms, digital transformation of local government.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
