Preface -- Chapter 1 - Global Trends In Local Governance -- Chapter 2 - Recent and Contemporary Trends in European Studies of Local Government and Local Politics -- Chapter 3 - Governance without power? The fight of the Hungarian counties for survival -- Chapter 4 - From Financial Centralization to Political Centralization. The Focal Points of the Municipal Reforms from the Transition until present day Hungary -- Chapter 5 - Development of intra-municipality decentralisation systems in Japan -- Chapter 6 - The 'big-bang politics' and process of council amalgamations: a comparative study of the state in Australia and Austria -- Chapter 7 - Regional administrative boundaries and the building of internal borders in decentralised states. The case of two Spanish interregional borders -- Chapter 8 - The impact of European regional policy and Local Action Groups on inter-municipal cooperation in Slovakia -- Chapter 9 - The Rise and Limits of Local Governance: LEADER/Community-led Local Development in the Czech Republic -- Chapter 10 - Lost in Transformation: Place-based projects in the EU's multi-level system -- Chapter 11 - European Standards in Regulating Public Participation on Sub-national Levels: The Case of Croatia -- Chapter 12 - Citizen Participation in Spatial Planning in Portugal 1920-2020. Non-Participation, Tokenism and Citizen Power in Local Governance -- Index.

This book addresses and explores recent trends in the field of local and urban governance. It focuses on three domains: institutional reforms in local government; inter-municipal cooperation; and citizen participation in local governance. In the last decades, in different regions of the world, there is ample evidence that sub-national government, in particular the field of local governance, is in a permanent state of change and reflux, although with differences that reflect national particularities. Since these institutional changes have an impact in the local policy process, in the delivery of public services, in the local democracy, and in the quality of life, it is mandatory to monitor these continued institutional changes, to learn and develop with these changes, if possible before these experiences are transferred and replicated in other countries. The editor and contributors address issues of interest for a wide audience, comprising of students and researchers in various disciplines, and policy makers at both national and sub-national tiers of government.