Elgar Companion to Quality of Local Governance

The Elgar Companion to Quality of Local Governance brings together leading researchers from around the world to tackle the most pressing questions for scholarship and practice in the field: what makes local governance good, and how can it be measured and improved?Expert contributing authors confront the challenges of assessing the quality of local governance amid contested values, limited data, and the embeddedness of local governments in multilevel systems. Bridging two traditions that have developed largely in parallel – research on local governance and research on quality of government – the Companion advances an integrative, process-oriented account of how governance quality can be understood, assessed and improved. Drawing on conceptual analyses, methodological innovation, and case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, it offers a coherent and wide-ranging foundation for research and practice, attentive to institutional capacity as much as normative principles.The Elgar Companion to Quality of Local Governance is a comprehensive and authoritative resource for scholars and practitioners of public administration and urban studies interested in local governance. Addressing key contemporary challenges such as digital transformation, climate adaptation, and democratic participation, it will also greatly benefit policy professionals in local and regional government.