Local Government Studies

The Double-edged sword: China’s local government special bonds and county-level economic growth The burgeoning issue of local government debt has emerged as a pivotal factor influencing the trajectory of sustainable economic growth in China. Using a novel county-level panel data spanning from...

📢🆕in Local Government Studies journal: 'The Double-edged sword: China’s local government special bonds and county-level economic growth' by Huiwen Chen and Rongxue Jin from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

In sync or out of tune? Investigating intraparty opinion homogeneity between national leaderships and local representatives Homogeneity of opinions is important for the cohesion and unity of political parties. While most research focused on homogeneity at the national level, we argue that opinion homogeneity between nat...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies Journal: 'In sync or out of tune? Investigating intraparty opinion homogeneity between national leaderships and local representatives' by Matthias Van Campenhout, Christophe Lesschaeve and Julie Sevenans.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

📢 Meet the researchers behind our upcoming London conference on 18th March!
We're excited to introduce the authors of our new report, Accelerating Local Climate Action, which will be presented at our in-person event. 🧵
tinyurl.com/CEUKConf

Transparency in local government: exploring the impact of female leadership and political context Transparency is crucial for good governance and the prevention of maladministration. Since 2013, the Municipal Transparency Index – Portugal has assessed the transparency of local governments based...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies journal: 'Transparency in local government: exploring the impact of female leadership and political context' by Bruna Filipa Gonçalves Ribeiro, Miguel Ângelo Rodrigues and Francisca Tejedo-Romero

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Local Government Studies Volume 52, Issue 1 of Local Government Studies

New academic research on public sector innovation, Brexit & enterprise zones, local government Twitter use & blame avoidance amongst local government officers. Volume 52, Issue 1 of Local Government Studies is now available. Most articles are #openaccess

www.tandfonline.com/toc/flgs20/5...

Factors influencing accessible electronic service delivery in Chinese municipalities: a comparative analysis As digital transformation accelerates, the Chinese national government has introduced policy initiatives urging local governments to provide accessible electronic services for digitally vulnerable ...

📢 🆕 in Local Government Studies Journal: 'Factors influencing accessible electronic service delivery in Chinese municipalities: a comparative analysis' by
Biao He & Vincent Homburg from the University of Tartu.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

It’s all in the details: comparing and explaining variation in the ‘policy specificity’ of sub-city climate activities Comparative analyses of policy datasets enable explanations of variation, but not all policy activities are extensive enough to be assessed through the established ‘policy intensity’ approach. We i...

📢 🆕NEW article in LGS journal: 'It’s all in the details: comparing and explaining variation in the ‘policy specificity’ of sub-city climate activities' by Paul Tobin, Neil Carter, Joshua Barritt, Anna Sanders and James Jackson #openaccess

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Arenas of conflict? How local integration infrastructures and multi-level dynamics shape the space for conflict and cooperation at the local level in Austria The 2015 ‘migration and refugee crisis’ had a major impact on national level politics, media and policy debates in Austria. This article explores how the conflictual politics of refugee reception a...

📢🆕 in Local Government Studies Journal: 'Arenas of conflict? How local integration infrastructures & multi-level dynamics shape the space for conflict and cooperation at the local level in Austria' by Albert Kraler & Isabella Skrivanek #OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies Journal: The scope of active labour market policies in local labour market programmes in Swedish municipalities – driven by needs or values? From authors Olov Hemmingsson and @gustavliden.bsky.social #openaccess

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Institutional pressures and local climate policy isomorphism in Ireland Coercive, mimetic and normative pressures contribute to the tendency for local authorities operating in the same institutional environment to develop increasingly similar policies. This article use...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies Journal: 'Institutional pressures and local climate policy isomorphism in Ireland' by Paul Wagner from @edinburghnapier.bsky.social

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Are more affluent parents treated more favourably by elementary school principals? Socioeconomic discrimination among local Swedish public officials This article argues that previous public administration and political science research might have missed important class-based inequalities by primarily focusing on ethnic discrimination among publ...

@jonastaghizadeh.bsky.social investigates class-based #inequality by focusing on #discrimination based on socio-economic status in his study of Swedish public officials. Are affluent parents treated more favourably by elementary school principals?
@lgstudies.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

The scope of active labour market policies in local labour market programmes in Swedish municipalities – driven by needs or values? This study takes its vantage point from the increasing decentralisation of welfare by examining the growing trend of welfare states implementing active labour market policies (ALMPs), with a focus ...

New study with Olov Hemmingsson in @lgstudies.bsky.social

This study sheds new light on the local politics of welfare decentralisation. Using a new dataset on Sweden’s municipal labour market initiatives, it investigates why some municipalities run extensive local labour market programmes.

Upturning the turnout voting upside down: the case of the Arab local government in Israel This study challenges the conventional assumption that high voter turnout signifies a well-functioning democracy and government legitimacy. In the case of Arab local elections in Israel, exceptiona...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies Journal, ‘Upturning the turnout voting upside down: the case of the Arab local government in Israel’ from Mohammed Khalaile, Yousef Makladeh and Doron Navot #openaccess.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Crisis management in cities: how politicians and public servants worked together during the Ukrainian refugee reception Dr. Nicolai De Wulf, Prof. Dr. Joris Voets When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, millions of people fled their homes seeking safety across Europe. In Belgium, cities such as Antwerp, Ghent,…

📢 🆕 blog post from Dr. Nicolai De Wulf and Prof. Dr. Joris Voets 'Crisis management in cities: how politicians and public servants worked together during the Ukrainian refugee reception', published by @inlogov.bsky.social (The Institute of Local Government Studies)

inlogov.com/2025/11/18/c...

The ‘community’ concept in local government community plans: defining community in regional Australia The concept of community is synonymous with local governance. It is relied upon to speak to populations and to define the values of a region. This paper draws on an analysis of non-metropolitan loc...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies Journal: Andrew Hickey and Sally Hourigan analyse local government community plans from Queensland, Australia to examine the ways that the community concept is rendered with functional meaning.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Decentralisation and electoral participation: does fiscal independence affect voter turnout in local elections? After the third wave of democratisation, many countries underwent reforms of decentralisation to consider the heterogeneous preferences of voters across different localities. However, contrary to t...

📢 🆕 NEW article in Local Government Studies Journal: Eun Young Kim finds that decentralization without fiscal independence of local governments weakens the link between local governments and citizens

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Crisis management in cities: politico-administrative complementarity during the reception of Ukrainian refugees This study investigates politico-administrative relations across four key crisis management tasks: sense-making, decision-making and coordination, meaning-making and account-giving, and learning du...

📢 🆕 in LGS Journal: When crisis hits, politics and administration must work hand in hand. What can we learn from Flemish cities that built “emergency villages” for Ukrainian refugees? By Nicolai De Wulf & Joris Voets. Read the full article #LocalGovernment
doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Regionalisation Nordic Style: Will Regions in Sweden Threaten Local Democracy? Governance in the Nordic countries has a highly local character. Most public services are provided by locally elected bodies that enjoy a high degree of autonomy in relation to political institutio...

Does regionalisation in the Nordic setting reduce the democratic quality of #governance in the area of health care? Not necessarily, according to this study by @uu-polisci.bsky.social's Paula Blomqvist and Patrik Bergman.
@lgstudies.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Councillors’ intentions to seek re-election in a gender-balanced local government system: evidence from Iceland With few exceptions, women are underrepresented in local councils throughout the world. Moreover, female councillors have much higher turnover than their male counterparts, leaving political life q...

📢🆕in Local Government Studies Journal: 'Councillors’ intentions to seek re-election in a gender-balanced local government system: evidence from Iceland' from authors Eva Marín Hlynsdóttir and Hafsteinn Einarsson from the University of Iceland.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Political resistance, representation, and identity during English local government re-organisation: a micro-case study This paper examines the political and identity-based consequences of the 2019 Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), where three historic towns were mer...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies: ‘Political resistance, representation, and identity during English local government re-organisation: a micro-case study’ from Tabitha Baker and Ian Gwinn from Bournemouth University.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Shall we tango? Exploring the drivers of co-production in US local governments Co-production requires two main actors: citizens and local governments. However, a significant portion of existing research has primarily examined co-production from the citizens’ perspective. Addr...

📢🆕 in Local Government Studies Journal. 'Shall we tango? Exploring the drivers of co-production in US local governments' From authors Donwe Choi, Jinsol Park and Sung-Wook Kwon.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Attention please! Explaining local governments’ political attention for Europe As a result of the ongoing European integration process, the EU increasingly impacts local governments. However, how they respond to this differs: local governments ‘Europeanise’ in different ways....

📢 🆕 in Local Government Studies. 'Attention please! Explaining local governments’ political attention for Europe' by authors Pieter Zwaan, S. Elemans, S. André and M. van Genugten #openaccess

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The impact of city-county amalgamations on small administrative units: evidence from land transfer in China The attitude of small units is crucial to the success of city-county amalgamations. This paper focuses on the impact of amalgamations on small units from the perspective of land transfers. Based on...

📢🆕NEW in Local Government Studies Journal: ‘The impact of city-county amalgamations on small administrative units: evidence from land transfer in China' from authors Tao Zheng and Bindong Sun.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

From single-issue to sustained Influence: factors driving the endurance of local political parties This study aims to advance the understanding of new political party longevity by examining an overlooked phenomenon: challengers formed exclusively to run for local elections (‘local parties’, ‘loc...

📢🆕 in Local Government Studies journal, 'From single-issue to sustained Influence: factors driving the endurance of local political parties' by Felicia Andreassen, Gissur Ó Erlingsson & Susanne Wallman Lundåsen #openaccess

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Managing inclusive co-creation processes in a superdiverse neighborhood: drivers of inclusion in the case of Rotterdam This study responds to the call in the literature for more attention to examine the inclusive nature of co-creation processes. It explores the dynamic nature of inclusion within co-creation process...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies: 'Managing inclusive co-creation processes in a superdiverse neighborhood: drivers of inclusion in the case of Rotterdam' from authors Warda Belabas, Ingmar van Meerkerk and Thomas van den Kieboom. #openaccess

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Politician–manager relationship, procurement decisions, and corruption risk in local governments This study combines agency and patronage theories to explore how the nature of local governing bodies – elected politicians or centrally appointed commissioners – influences managerial decisions an...

📢 🆕 in LGS Journal: 'Politician–manager relationship, procurement decisions & corruption risk in local governments' from authors Riccardo Mussari, Fabio Monteduro, Simona Caramia & Veronica Allegrini from the Department of Business & Law, Siena University in Italy.

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Unlocking the potentials of Information and Communication Technology on citizen participation in Tanzania local government authorities: the citizen’s perspectives Globally, ICT use is considered vital for citizen participation in local governance. However, the impacts of ICT use on citizen participation in local governance of developing countries like Tanzan...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies Journal: 'Unlocking the potentials of Information and Communication Technology on citizen participation in Tanzania local government authorities: the citizen’s perspectives' from authors
Nicholaus Ngowi, Gasper Kissoka & Parestico Pastory

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

Twitter communication in times of crisis: how do German local governments use and frame social media messages and how do citizens react to them? This study examines how local governments use social media during crises and how citizens respond to their communication. Focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, we analyse over 50,000 social media post...

📢 🆕 NEW in LGS: 'Twitter communication in times of crisis: how do German local governments frame social media messages and how do citizens react?' Hannes Lampe & Dominik Vogel explore how different message framings affect citizen responses: #openaccess
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

When do cities propose taxes? Evidence from California municipalities, 1996–2010 What prompts city leaders to propose new taxes? While prior research emphasises voter preferences, this paper examines how fiscal constraints and city leaders’ own assessments shape municipal tax p...

📢 🆕 NEW in Local Government Studies Journal: 'When do cities propose taxes? Evidence from California municipalities, 1996–2010'. Daniel Alvord & Jennifer Nations find that city leaders’ negative evaluative assessments of fiscal outlook predict tax proposals in future years.

doi.org/10.1080/0300...

The responses of government officials to questions from local councillors: analysis from a blame avoidance perspective When legislators raise questions, their intentions are to expose executive shortcomings, as well as to prompt officials to acknowledge their responsibilities, in turn, demonstrating their professio...

📢 🆕 in Local Government Studies: 'The responses of government officials to questions from local councillors: analysis from a blame avoidance perspective' from authors Chun-Ming Tsui, Yu-Cheng Jiang & Hongwung Wang from Taiwan University #openaccess