This book explores sub-municipal units’ (SMU) role in decision making, decentralized institutional innovation, social innovation and, in rural areas, service delivery. An under-explored topic in the literature, this book provides a comprehensive, comparative European, thematically broad, descriptive book on sub-municipal governance.

1: Introduction: Decentralization Beyond the Municipal Tier; Nikos Hlepas,  Norbert Kersting, Sabine Kuhlmann, Pawel Swianiewicz and Filipe Teles.- 2: Reaching out to sub-municipal decentralization: an ongoing challenge in Belgium; Ellen Wayenberg and Trui Steen.- 3: The “Little Town-Halls” in The Czech Republic: An Unexploited Potential of Functional Decentralization; Jakub Lysek.- 4: Decentralisation, Democratisation and Delivery: English Sub-Municipal Devolution; Colin Copus.- 5: Sub-Municipal Units in Germany: Municipal and Metropolitan Districts; Norbert Kersting and Sabine Kuhlmann.- 6: Between identity politics and the politics of scale: Sub-municipal Governance in Greece; Nikos Hlepas.- 7: Sub-municipal arrangements in Norway: District system in Oslo; Jan Erling Klausen.- 8: New Experiments of Maintenance of Old Traditions? Dual System of Sub-Municipal Units in Poland; Paweł Swianiewicz.- 9: Deeply rooted but still striving for a role: the Portuguese Freguesias under reform; Antonio F. Tavares and Filipe Teles.- 10: Sub-municipal units in Slovenia: Experiences from the past and policy advice for the future; Irena Bačlija Brajnik and Roman Lavtar.- 11: Rural and Urban Sub-Municipal Governance in Spain. The contrasting worlds of Lilliput and Brobdingnag; Carmen Navarro and Esther Pano.- 12: Conclusions; Nikos Hlepas, Pawel Swianiewicz and Norbert Kersting.

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. 

Addresses the very basic nature of identity, local and self-government Questions the survival and promotion of sub-municipal governance when European trends are towards amalgamation and scale efficiency policies Contributes to the debate on size, democracy and policy delivery efficiency, as well as on decentralization and multi-level governance at the micro-level