Local governments in Western Europe: a Typological approach

Abstract

This article is structured in three sections. Firstly, I present the common institutional patterns which characterise European Local Governments. Secondly, I explain the main local government models that exist in Western Europe following a typological approach. Finally, I develop some of the main factors explaining the emergence of these models. In particular, the existence of very different philosophical and political ideas on local government and its role in the political system of the countries included in the article.

Keywords: local government, institutional models, Western Europe.