Next November, the International Public Policy Association will hold its Spring School on Public Policy in São Paulo (Brazil). More information about the program is available on the official webpage: https://www.ippapublicpolicy.org/summerschool/spring-school-sao-paulo-edition-2026/page/general-program/549/72
22Sep 2026
International Public Policy Association Spring School 2026
04:31 - By Carmen Navarro
15Jul 2026
The Future of Local Democracy in Times of Crisis: Autonomy, Capacity and Democratic Resilience
18:40 - By Carmen Navarro
IPSA Research Council 05 successfully held the panel “The Future of Local Democracy in Times of Crisis: Autonomy, Capacity and Democratic Resilience” as part of IPSA WiPS (Work in Progress Sessions) on the 14th of July 2026.
Convened by Carmen Navarro (RC05 Chair) and José Hernández Bonivento (RC05 Vice Chair) the panel attracted participants from four continents, fostered very fruitful discussions, and was able to provide valuable feedback to the paper presenters.
Program
Ezekiel Clottey, University Winneba, Ghana.
“Centralized Decentralization and the Limits of Local Democratic Resilience: Lessons from Ghana’s Effutu Municipality”
“Centralized Decentralization and the Limits of Local Democratic Resilience: Lessons from Ghana’s Effutu Municipality”
Demokrat Xhori, The University of Western Australia
“Ideological Polarisation of Public and Political Opinions on COVID-19 Crisis Policies: A Case Study of Western Australia”
“Ideological Polarisation of Public and Political Opinions on COVID-19 Crisis Policies: A Case Study of Western Australia”
Desislava Kalcheva, Sofia University, Bulgaria.
“Local Autonomy under Stress: Formal Powers and Effective Capacity of Bulgarian and Croatian Local Governments during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Energy-Inflation Crisis”
“Local Autonomy under Stress: Formal Powers and Effective Capacity of Bulgarian and Croatian Local Governments during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Energy-Inflation Crisis”
Giulia Bonazzi, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca / Università degli Studi di Padova
“Public Administration Capacity Building for Collaborative Governance: The Case of Local Development Policies”
“Public Administration Capacity Building for Collaborative Governance: The Case of Local Development Policies”
14May 2026
LocGov Research Network
08:23 - By Carmen Navarro
Researchers from across Europe and beyond (LocGov Research Network) gathered at La Cristalera (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) from 7–10 May 2026 for the Seminar on Local Government Surveys, an intensive working meeting focused on the development of the Mayors III survey and the Professionalization and Politicization Project (PPP)
14May 2026
Municipal Councillors in Europe
08:15 - By Carmen Navarro
We are pleased to announce the publication of Municipal Councillors in Europe (volumes I and II), published by Springer as part of the Local and Urban Governance series. The volume offers a comprehensive comparative analysis of the role, profiles, attitudes, and challenges of local councillors across European countries, contributing to current debates on local democracy, political representation, and municipal governance. The book examines key themes such as political recruitment, representation, councillors’ relations with mayors and local administrations, policy priorities, professionalization, and the changing nature of local political leadership. Drawing on extensive comparative survey data and cross-national research, the volume provides valuable insights into how local councillors perceive their role and how local democracy is evolving across different institutional and political contexts. https://link.springer.com/
14May 2026
Municipal Tasks and Financing
08:12 - By Carmen Navarro
We are pleased to announce the publication of Municipal Tasks and Financing: An Urban-Rural Perspective, edited by Francisco Velasco Caballero, Martin Burgi, and Karl Kössler. The volume provides a comparative and multidisciplinary analysis of how local governments perform their tasks and finance public services in contemporary urban and rural contexts. Bringing together contributions from the Horizon 2020 LoGov project across six continents, the book addresses key themes such as public transport policies, public service provision, public-private partnerships, financial equalization, and alternative sources of local revenue. The volume stands out for its global comparative perspective and its attention to the growing challenges generated by urban–rural inequalities and territorial transformation in local governance. The book is available in open access through https://link.springer.com/
14May 2026
Citizen Participation in Local Governance
08:09 - By Carmen Navarro
We are pleased to announce the publication of Citizen Participation in Local Governance: An Urban-Rural Perspective, edited by Karl Kössler and Erika Schläppi. The volume provides a comparative and multidisciplinary analysis of citizen participation in local governance, bringing together contributions from scholars involved in the Horizon 2020 LoGov project across six continents. The book addresses key themes such as participatory planning, participatory budgeting, digital participation, and citizen involvement in large-scale projects, while paying special attention to the urban–rural dimension of governance challenges. It also incorporates under-researched case studies from beyond Europe, offering a genuinely global perspective on local democracy and participation in the 21st century. The book is available in open access through https://link.springer.com/
14May 2026
Local Government Structure and Intergovernmental Relations
08:03 - By Carmen Navarro
We are pleased to announce the publication of Local Government Structure and Intergovernmental Relations, edited by Karl Kössler and Eva Maria Belser. The volume offers a rich comparative and global perspective on contemporary challenges in local governance, with contributions emerging from the Horizon 2020 LoGov project involving scholars from six continents. The book addresses key themes such as metropolitan governance, intergovernmental relations, municipal mergers, inter-municipal cooperation, and the representation of local interests from an urban–rural perspective. It also includes several under-researched cases beyond Europe, contributing to a broader comparative understanding of local government transformations worldwide. The book is available in open access through https://link.springer.com/
23Jul 2025
Global Survey on Academic Research in Local Government and Politics — Preliminary Results
11:10 - By Carmen Navarro
We are pleased to share the preliminary findings of the Global Survey on Local Government and Politics, an initiative launched by the IPSA Research Committee on Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics (RC05). These preliminary results were presented at the 28th World Congress of Political Science (IPSA), held in Seoul in July 2025.
Led by Prof. Carmen Navarro (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and Prof. Daniel Cravacuore (Universidad Nacional de Quilmes), this ongoing project aims to map the global landscape of academic research in the field. The survey explores scholars’ disciplinary backgrounds, thematic priorities, methodological choices, and evolving research agendas in local governance studies. With over 1,600 contacts collected through systematic searches of academic databases and direct outreach, the study provides an overview of the field across world regions.
The results presented here are provisional and based on data gathered up to June 2025. Final analyses will follow once the survey period concludes. We welcome your comments and contributions to help us improve and enrich this global academic mapping effort.
For more information or comments, please contact:
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Carmen Navarro – c.navarro@uam.es
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Daniel Cravacuore – dcravacuore@unq.edu.ar
22Jul 2025
RC05 Business Meeting – IPSA World Congress 2025
05:30 - By Carmen Navarro
RC05 held its Business Meeting during the IPSA World Congress in Seoul on July 15th, 2025. We are pleased to share the Minutes of the Meeting, which include a summary of activities from the past two years and outline the RC05 Work Plan for 2025–2027. You can read the full document [here].
03Jul 2025
RC05 Panels at the IPSA World Congress – Seoul 2025
05:05 - By Carmen Navarro
The Research Committee on Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics (RC05) will be well represented at the IPSA World Congress in Seoul (12–16 July 2025), with 10 panels covering a wide range of topics, including climate resilience, intergovernmental coordination, citizen engagement, and local democracy.
The panels reflect the active participation and growing interest of a broad academic community working on local government. We invite all congress participants to join our sessions and connect with colleagues from around the world.
Please find the whole schedule for the panels in the attached document
http://rc05.ipsa.org/public/RC05_Comparative_Studies_on_Local_Government_and_Politics.pdf
25Mar 2025
The Local Autonomy Index 2.0 (LAI 2.0)
04:33 - By Carmen Navarro
The Local Autonomy Index (LAI) is a multi-dimensional tool for conceptualizing and measuring local autonomy, first developed in 2015. The initial volume, published in 2019, focused on constructing the index and applying it to European countries, exploring patterns, causes, and consequences of local autonomy. This second volume introduces the LAI 2.0—an enhanced and expanded version covering countries across six continents. It offers a comparative analysis of local autonomy dynamics over a 30-year period (1990–2020). We hope this work becomes a key reference in the academic and policy debates on territorial organization, decentralization, public administration, local governance, and intergovernmental relations.
Link: https://www.elgaronline.com/monobook-oa/book/9781035337958/9781035337958.xml
12Mar 2025
New publications of our colleague Hellmut Wollmann
12:29 - By Carmen Navarro
There is a new book available Hellmut Wollmann titled "Local Government and Governance in Germany Challenges, Responses and Perspectives". More information of the book here: https://www.google.es/books/edition/Local_Government_and_Governance_in_Germa/j3olEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
Also, there is a new edition of the classic book of our colleague "Introduction to Comparative Public Administration" coauthored by Sabine Kuhlmann, Hellmut Wollmann and Renate Reiter
25Sep 2024
IPSA RC05 on Local Government and Politics Sponsors a Panel on the GIGAPP International Conference, Madrid 23th September 2024
10:20 - By Carmen Navarro
https://congresoxii.gigapp.org/ipsa-rc05-seminar The initiative was held successfully and received papers from Italy, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Germany and Spain.
12Jul 2024
Travel Grants IPSA
05:27 - By Carmen Navarro
PhD students Jaedson Gomes and Exequiel Rodriguez have succesfully participated in the EUROLOC Summer School on Local Government and Politics, funded by the IPSA Research Committee 05.
07May 2024
Decision on the travel grants for the Summer School of Local Government and Politics
11:38 - By Carmen Navarro
Announcement of the Chair with the resolution of the travel grants for the Summer School of Local Government and Politics attached in the pdf below
http://rc05.ipsa.org/public/Decision_on_travel_grants.pdf
14Apr 2024
Call for applications: Travel Grants for the Summer School of Local Government and Politics
17:40 - By Carmen Navarro
The period to request the travel grants to participate in the Summer School of Local Government and Politics (Barcelona, July 2 ND to 5 th) is now open. The deadline is the 5 th of May. More information in the attached document below.
http://rc05.ipsa.org/public/Call_for_applications_Travel_Grants.pdf
19Jun 2023
Conference panels for the upcoming IPSA conference in Buenos Aires (15-19 July 2023)
09:26 - By Carmen Navarro
Below, you'll find an overview of the panels on Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics for the upcoming IPSA conference in Buenos Aires.
04Oct 2022
IPSA seminar on Smart Cities and Open Government (23/09/2022)
08:11 - By Carmen Navarro - News
Below, you'll find the program of our most recent event. Thanks to those who participated!
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IPSA Seminar – RC05, RC10, RC22 & AECPA
Smart Cities and Open Government: Local responses to participation, public information, and democracy
September 23rd. 2022
Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM- Spain)
Panel 01. Smart Cities September 23rd. 10:00 - 11:50 hrs. (Madrid) Super Aula (NT 115).
Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting University Muenster. (Germany)
Panel 02. Open Government
Date; September 23rd. 12:00 - 13:50 hrs. (Madrid) Super Aula (NT 115). Chair: Prof. José A. Hernández-Bonivento Organization: Universidad Austral de Chile. (Chile)
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14Jun 2021
Updated RC05 List of Panels for IPSA 2021
06:29 - By Carmen Navarro - News
RC 5 Business Meeting is on Tuesday 13.7. at 15:30 (UTC) (17:30 German summer time)
Use the zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84573466490?pwd=NS9kNElmcjVOUHZZQXhzeXZWU0xndz09.
The RC5 business meeting is open for all interested colleagues (no IPSA conference registration required!)
Please find here the updated list of all Panles held by the RC05 at the IPSA 2021. You can also access more details by clicking on the Panel name. We are looking forward to interesting and entertaining discussions with all of you.
17Oct 2019
Call for Papers Lisbon 2020
03:40 - By Norbert Kersting - Events
IPSA's 26th World Congress of Political Science in Lisbon (Portugal) July 24-28 2020 is coming closer.
The deadline for panel and papers is extended to October 24. 2019!!
Up till now we have 10 open panels, which cover most relevant topics. If you have not yet registered, use the chance to join one of these panels. In case we receive too many papers givers in a panel (max is 6) we will split the group and open another panel:
Preliminary list of open panels:
- Cities and Migration Chair: Dr. Carmen Navarro
- Decentralisation and Sub Municpal Units Chair: Dr. Filipe Teles
- Local Administration and Reform Chair: Dr. Pekka Kettunen
- Local Elections Chair: Prof. Chris Tapscott
- Local Government Reform in Globalized World Chair: Prof. Inderjeet Singh Sodhi
- Local Government, State Capacities and Public Policies in Federal States of the Global South Chair: Dr. Klaus Frey
- Local Participatory Democracy Chair: Dr. José Hernández-Bonivento
- Local Territorial Reform and Intercommunal Cooperation Chair: Prof. Robert Cameron
- Metropoles and Shrinking Cities Chair: Prof. Jefferey Sellers
- Smart Cities in Comparative Perspective: Challenges for Political Participation in Data-Driven Local Governments Chair: Prof. José Carlos Vaz
And closed panels:
- Interplay of decentralization and recentralization under new circumstances Chair: Ivan Kopric
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