GOVERNANCE OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

Over recent decades, significant transformations of local political institutions and policy arenas have had place across the world, being triggered, among other factors, by the process of globalization.
More specifically, the equilibrium between different levels of government has changed and sub-state authorities have been substantially strengthened in many countries. At the same time, the role of market actors and civil society in decision-making has increased and new mechanisms have been introduced to allow for their institutionalized participation.
Such transformations have produce inevitable challenges for the conventional democratic foundations of policy-making, bringing forward questions about new criteria through which legitimacy, accountability, effectiveness and transparency of governance can be guaranteed.
Development policies have been strongly affected by the above dynamics. In fact, governance and regulation matters have been recognized crucial for successful achievement of sustainability objectives and, therefore, institutional reforms have been promoted to improve governance architectures for development, especially at regional and local levels in many countries around the world.
The course aims to provide students with analytical and methodological tools needed for understanding of local policy-making dynamics in a multi-level governance perspective, with particular regards to development policies.
More specifically, the following issues will be dealt with into detail:
- main topics in the current academic and political debate on sustainable development and decentralization;
─ structure and functions of local governments in a comparative perspective;
─ territorial governance reforms (decentralization, devolution, inter-municipal cooperation, etc.)
─ approaches to development policies (top-down vs bottom up, place neutral vs place-based);
─ patterns of local governance: modes and channels of participation of private actors