RC05 - Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics

Global Survey on Academic Research in Local Government and Politics — Preliminary Results

Carmen Navarro — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:10:00 -0400

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.

Download the presentation

For more information or comments, please contact:

Carmen Navarro – c.navarro@uam.es
Daniel Cravacuore – dcravacuore@unq.edu.ar

RC05 Business Meeting – IPSA World Congress 2025

Carmen Navarro — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 05:30:00 -0400

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].

RC05 Panels at the IPSA World Congress – Seoul 2025

Carmen Navarro — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 05:05:00 -0400

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

The Local Autonomy Index 2.0 (LAI 2.0)

Carmen Navarro — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 04:33:00 -0400

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

New publications of our colleague Hellmut Wollmann

Carmen Navarro — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 12:29:00 -0400

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

IPSA RC05 on Local Government and Politics Sponsors a Panel on the GIGAPP International Conference, Madrid 23th September 2024

Carmen Navarro — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:20:00 -0400

https://congresoxii.gigapp.org/ipsa-rc05-seminar The initiative was held successfully and received papers from Italy, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Germany and Spain.

Travel Grants IPSA

Carmen Navarro — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 05:27:00 -0400

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.

http://rc05.ipsa.org/public/travel_grants_IPSA_rotated.pdf

Decision on the travel grants for the Summer School of Local Government and Politics

Carmen Navarro — Tue, 07 May 2024 11:38:00 -0400

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

Call for applications: Travel Grants for the Summer School of Local Government and Politics

Carmen Navarro — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 17:40:00 -0400

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

Conference panels for the upcoming IPSA conference in Buenos Aires (15-19 July 2023)

Carmen Navarro — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 09:26:00 -0400

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.

RC05 Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics

Convenor: Prof Norbert Kersting

Panels

RC05.10 A better seat at the table? Local Governments in Intergovernmental Relations
Chair: Dr. Daniel Alberto Cravacuore
SJ1 115
RC05.03 Decentralisation and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Chair: Prof. Fred Lazin
SJ2 204
RC05.06 Decentralization, Local Administration and Local Management Reforms
Chair: Prof. Ivan Koprić
SJ1 122
RC05.01 Local Participatory Democracy
Chair: Prof. José Hernández-Bonivento
SJ2 204
RC05.09 Local Policies
Chair: Prof. Eran Razin
SJ1 110
RC05.05 Local Political Actors-Mayors and Councillors
Chair: Prof. María Ángeles Huete García
SJ2 204
RC05.04 Local Political Participation
Chair: Dr. Chris Tapscott
SJ1 110
RC05.07 Shrinking Cities and Metropoles
Chair: Dr. Carmen Navarro
SJ1 122
RC05.08 Smart Cities
Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting
SJ1 108

IPSA seminar on Smart Cities and Open Government (23/09/2022)

Carmen Navarro — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 08:11:00 -0400

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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Author/s	Topic
Mohamad Amin Alomar & Mohammad Al Saleh	Smart deliberation at the local level? A study of social learning withing municipal councils in Brussels
Lenhard Hamza	Experimenting with the use of Smart City Concepts and Digital Solutions in Municipalities of the Global South: An International Development Cooperation Perspective in South Africa
Jill L. Tao	Smart and Green at the Local Level: Is It All for Naught?
Filipe Mello Rose	Hybrid Democratic Innovations: The case of Decidim.Barcelona
Rafael Amorim & José Varlos Vaz	Access to Technology and Democracy in Smart Cities: The Case of São Paulo
Norbert Kersting	Smart Cities, Online Participation, and the Covid-19 pandemic
Bastián González-Bustamante	Territorial Patterns in Digital Development and Open Government: Evidence from Chilean Local Governments
Ricardo Alvira Baeza	Citizens' participation in public government. On a consistent underlying democracy conceptualization and operationalization
Luiza Brunetti Silva Jardim	E-participation in tackling the pandemic: a mapping of the digital initatives of Brazilian city halls
Mary Francoli	How 'Local' are Action Plans submitted by OGP Local Participants?
Martine Legris	Local participatory budgets: an extension of political participation?
José A. Hernández-Bonivento	Who is asking for local public information? Predictors of Freedom of Information Requests to municipalities in Chile

Updated RC05 List of Panels for IPSA 2021

Carmen Navarro — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 06:29:00 -0400

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.

Title	Convenor	Chair	Co-Chair	Discussants
Cities and Migration. Conflicts and Solutions	Prof. Norbert Kersting	Prof. Angel Iglesias		Dr. Pekka Kettunen
Decentralization and Sub-Municipal Units	Prof. Norbert Kersting	Dr. Filipe Teles		Prof. Eran Razin
Local administration and Fiscal policies in a comparative perspective	Dr. Andrew Matsiko	Dr. Andrew Matsiko		Dr. Parestico Pastory
Local Administration and Reform	Prof. Norbert Kersting	Prof. Eduardo Grin		Dr. Filipe Teles
Local Elections	Prof. Norbert Kersting	Prof. Eran Razin		Prof. Mirko Klarić
Local Elections. Candidates and Political Parties	Prof. Norbert Kersting	Prof. Euiyoung Kim		Prof. Snežana Djordjevic
Local Governance and Political Participation	Dr. José Hernández-Bonivento	Dr. José Hernández-Bonivento		Prof. Fiona Anciano
Local Governance in Contemporary Japan: Pressing Challenges and Innovative Approaches	Dr. Hanno Jentzsch	Dr. Hanno Jentzsch	Prof. Gabriele Vogt	Prof. Jill Tao
Local Government, State Capacities and Public Policies in Federal States of the Global South: Cities and the Environment from a Policy-Politics Perspective	Dr. Klaus Frey	Dr. Klaus Frey		Dr. Lúcio Bittencourt
Local Government, State Capacities and Public Policies in Federal States of the Global South: Federative Coordination and Multilevel Governance	Dr. Klaus Frey	Dr. Renata Bichir		Dr. Klaus Frey
Local Participatory Democracy	Dr. José Hernández-Bonivento	Prof. Fiona Anciano		Dr. José Hernández-Bonivento
Metropoles and Shrinking Cities	Prof. Norbert Kersting	Prof. Snežana Djordjevic		Prof. Euiyoung Kim
Smart Cities, Reforms and Local Democracy	Dr. Pekka Kettunen	Dr. Pekka Kettunen		Prof. Norbert Kersting

Call for Papers Lisbon 2020

Norbert Kersting — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 03:40:00 -0400

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:

And closed panels:

Interplay of decentralization and recentralization under new circumstances Chair: Ivan Kopric

RC5 Conference on: “Public administration in a democratic society. Thirty years of democratic transition in Europe” in Dubrovnik, October 3.-5. 2019

Norbert Kersting — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 03:39:00 -0400

RC5 organized together with RC 32 the International Conference “Public administration in a democratic society. Thirty years of democratic transition in Europe”, which took place in Dubrovnik on October 3.-5. 2019.

More than 50 colleagues presented papers at parallel sessions. Others took part at the Round table discussions. The conference was perfectly organized by Prof Ivan Kopric and his team. This important theme, which showed an evaluation of the transitional process, 30 years after the winds of Change in 1989, focused furthermore on research questions such as: What are the key public administration concepts that promote and preserve democratic values in public governance in transition countries? How did different types of relations between public administration and politics determine transition outcomes? How did people, political actors, and scientists assess and evaluate the results of public governance transition? What were the goals of the transition and did or can transition end?

In the Award Ceremony Professor Emeritus Hellmut Wollmann (Humboldt University) received a – RC5 Recognition of Merit – for his important role in RC5 and his numerous academic contributions.

RC05 Business Meeting in Brisbane 2018

Norbert Kersting — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 05:49:00 -0500

IPSA World Congress (WC), Brisbane RC 05: List of panels (updated)

Norbert Kersting — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 07:55:00 -0400

During the IPSA World Congress in Brisbane, the RC05 has organised the following panels:

IPSA 2018 Brisbane RC 5: List of panels, papers and authors

Panel: Local Elections

Papers

Panel: Local Government Structures

Papers

Panel: Local Participatory Democracy

Papers

Panel: Local Policies and Administration

Papers

Panel: Mass Migrations, Integration and Local Governments: Issues and Prospects

Papers

Panel: Metropoles

Papers

Panel: Political Culture and Alternation in the Subnational Democracies in Mexico: an Evaluation of Democratic Quality

Papers

Panel: Urban Poverty Alleviation

Papers

Sub-Municipal Governance in Europe Decentralization Beyond the Municipal Tier

Carmen Navarro — Sat, 23 Jun 2018 09:50:00 -0400

New Book by Editors: Hlepas, N.-K., Kersting, N., Kuhlmann, S., Swianiewicz, P., Teles, F. (Eds.)

This book explores sub-municipal units’ (SMU) role in decision making, decentralized institutional innovation, social innovation and, in rural areas, service delivery. Focusing on fourteen European countries, the book examines the impact of political cultures, administrative traditions and local government systems on the functioning of the SMUs. An under-explored topic in the literature, this book provides a comprehensive, comparative European, thematically broad, descriptive book on sub-municipal governance: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319647241

IPSA World Congress (WC), Brisbane (Australia), 21-25 July 2018

Norbert Kersting — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 16:02:00 -0400

The submission process for the IPSA World Congress on Political Science has started. Here are the key informations and dates:

Submission of Proposals

All paper and panel proposals must be submitted online via the Congress website. No emails, PDFs or Word documents will be accepted as submissions.

Paper proposals may be submitted in up to three (3) sessions of interest.
Paper submissions for panels must be submitted using the specific link provided in the invitation from a panel convenor.

Submit a Paper
Instructions

Panel proposals may be submitted in up to three (3) sessions of interest.

Please note that the Program Chairs have established new submission procedures for panels for this Congress and only complete panels (closed) may be submitted during the Call for Proposals.

Submit a Panel
Instructions

View All Sessions Open to Submissions

Key Dates

10 OCT 2017	Deadline to submit paper and panel proposals
25 OCT 2017	Review period of proposals starts
10 DEC 2017	Deadline to review paper and panel proposals
19 JAN 2018	Paper and panel proposers are notified of final results
15 MAR 2018	Early-bird registration deadline
10 APR 2018	Registration deadline to appear in the printed program Deadline to edit paper title and abstract
09 MAY 2018	Final registration deadline for all panelists Participants not registered are withdrawn from the Congress Program
01 JUL 2018	Deadline to upload full papers

RC5 Listserver

Norbert Kersting — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 03:59:00 -0400

The IPSA RC5 Local Government Email Listserver is online. To subscribe to the existing RC5 email list go to https://listserv.uni-muenster.de/mailman/listinfo/ipsa-rc5-local-government

This Listserver is supposed to keep you up to date on current projects and research topics. Every member can share and provide information by sending an email to ipsa-rc5-local-government[at]listserv.uni-muenster.de .

NEW RC05 Email Server

Norbert Kersting — Mon, 15 May 2017 05:38:00 -0400

The IPSA RC05 Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics and Research Email Listserver is online. To subscribe to the existing RC05 email list go to https://listserv.uni-muenster.de/mailman/listinfo/ipsa-rc5-local-government.

This Listserver is supposed to keep you up to date on current projects and research topics. Every member can share and provide information by sending an email to .