Henry Bäck Livres

Starting in the late 1980s and accelerating around the turn of the century, major cities in Scandinavia began decentralising their political, administrative, and service-provider organisations. Oslo led the way with its bydelsutvalg, followed by Goteborg's stadsdelsnämnder. By the turn of the millennium, decentralised political bodies were established in six key cities: Copenhagen, Bergen, Oslo, Goteborg, Malmo, and Stockholm. Some researchers had previously conducted single-city evaluations and decided to compare findings across these cities. While decentralised political structures exist globally, the high degree of decentralisation in Scandinavia appeared particularly noteworthy, with central city authorities having relinquished about three-quarters of their budgets. Communicating these Scandinavian experiences in decentralisation was deemed valuable. With funding from the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, the project commenced in 2000. Preparations included an inventory of surveys conducted in the six cities during evaluation studies, leading to the compilation of a common dataset that was shared among the group members.

Henry Bäck, Annick Magnier and Hubert Heinelt There are various images of the political leader in Europe’s cities and towns. There is the time-honoured ceremonial mayor watching over the keys of the city. But there also is the political boss ruthlessly governing his/her ‘subjects’. We might also offer the streamlined university educated professional or the - ecutive committee leader promoted to a primus inter pares after long service in a political party. With this book we aim to describe and analyse the selection, daily life, networks and values of local top political leaders in seventeen European co- tries. The empirical basis for the investigation into town halls across Europe is a survey conducted mainly in 2003 and 2004 with mayors and corresponding top local political leaders. The data covering responses from more than 2,700 lead- 1 ers constitute a unique and rich material allowing descriptions and analyses pursuing a number of lines of inquiry.