The study’s focus is put on the lowest level of Russian local politics, empirically represented by two municipalities in St Petersburg. It aims at identifying factors that influence the work of municipal councils. Municipal organs are since their establishment in 1998 officially self-governing and responsible for a wide array of activities within their territories. They are perceived as administrative domains in this paper, parts of a hierarchic domain-structure. The municipal domains are both fiscally and politically restricted by upper political levels – mainly the regional authorities – that heavily reduce the capabilities of the municipal councils’ activities. Besides being dependent on resources from the regional and federal level, the municipal councils’ budgets are reliant on taxing of commercial retailing within its boundaries. Joint with the basic social and demographic circumstances of a municipality, this factor is likely to shape the extent of the council’s activity. The field study conducted specifies that while a geographically central municipality is engaged in infrastructure-maintenance and cultural activities, a peripheral ditto is mainly concerned with social help. Deputies in both districts perceive the current prospects of local government as being limited by outer influence, most of the people involved in the councils are unpaid and the resources needed to communicate with the inhabitants do not exist. The general and actual weakness of local governments is mirrored in the public attitudes, influenced by state-controlled media and revealed in participatory election turnouts. The election in December 2004 produced turnouts exceeding the legitimate limit of 20 % in almost all municipalities. However, the figures are to some extent the results of administrative pressure and liberals claim that plain frauds determined many outcomes. Tendencies point towards a politicization of municipal organs, whereas presently many perceive them as simply administrative. The municipal domain is characterized merely by responsibility instead of actual authority, ownership and substantial spatial impact. It is reliant on higher-level domains while competing for resources with neighboring domains.

The aim of the thesis: to define a concept of direct people participation and find out a variety of it's forms, to measure local government's impact of direct citizenry participation level n municipalities of Lithuania, to identify the main problems of direct participation and suggest the solutions of the problems. The principal concepts and forms of direct participation are defined by analyzing gathered scientific literature, experience of foreign countries and the survey's data.

Le Conseil de l'Europe est la première organisation internationale à avoir intégré l'acteur infra-étatique dans son action. À travers l'institution de la Conférence permanente des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux, devenue plus tard Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux, organe pleinement consacré à l'échelon infra-étatique, le Conseil a réussi à octroyer une place institutionnelle particulière aux collectivités territoriales au sein de l'organisation. En même temps, le Conseil dispose de tout un système intergouvernementale, composée des comités et des conférences ministérielles qui s'occupent des sujets relatifs à l'autonomie et à la démocratie locale. De son appareil fonctionnel, il ne reste que la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme qui semble fermer la voie d'accès aux collectivités territoriales en les assimilant à des organisations gouvernementales, rejetant ainsi leur recours. Mais, tel n'est pas le cas de l'Union européenne qui a adopté un comportement différent envers les entités infra-étatiques selon le type de recours. Le Comité des régions, organe équivalent au Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux au niveau de l'Union européenne, semble s'orienter vers les aspects économiques du développement de l'acteur plutôt régional. En outre, hormis la dimension institutionnelle, le Conseil de l'Europe a également démontré une grande activité normative, en élaborant des textes qui traitent les activités des collectivités territoriales et mettent l'autonomie locale au cœur des diverses politiques pluridisciplinaires de l'Etat. L'autonomie locale devient ainsi une notion multi-facettes dont la nature juridique mérite d'être examinée, afin de vérifier si elle pourrait constituer un droit fondamental et acquérir, par conséquent, le niveau de protection qui lui convient. / The Council of Europe is the first international organization to have integrated the sub-state actor in its action. Through the European Conference of local authorities, which later became the Congress of local and regional authorities and which is a body that focuses entirely on issues at the sub-state level, the Council of Europe pays particular attention to local and regional authorities. In parallel, the Council of Europe has set up an intergoverrunental mechanism composed by ministerial committees and· conferences, which are in charge of local self-government and local democracy-related issues. It is only the European Court of human rights that seems to black access for territorial communities by assimilating them to goverrunental organizations and thus rejecting their appeals. However this is not the case for the European Union, which treats sub-state entities differently, depending on their appeal type. The Committee of the Regions, which is an equivalent organ to the Congress of local and regional authorities in the framework of the European Union, seems to be more interested in the financial aspects of regional development. Putting aside the institutional dimension of the Congress of local and regional authorities, the Council of Europe shows an important standard-setting activity by elaborating conventions conceming the territorial communities' issues and it places local self-government in the heart of diverse state policies. Thus, local self-government has become a multifaceted notion, the legal nature of which needs to be examined in order to explore the possibility of constituting a fundamental right requiring protection. Over time, the Council of Europe has developed concrete mechanisms to control the respect of the local self-government commitments made by the member-states.

村里組織是台灣實施地方自治的最基層編組，而村里資源如何運用與分配，更是影響地方自治行政功能甚鉅，然過去研究鮮少討論村里公共資源的分配政治現象。於此，本研究以政治學的分配理論為基礎，採取質性研究方法，以村里基層工作經費為研究主軸，透過深入訪談及文件分析探討村里長是分配村里資源的情形，並分析公所與村里長之間委託-代理關係的監督失靈現象。 研究結果顯示，村里長分配村里資源的模式偏向Cox-McCubbins的模型，村里長以是否為「選舉票倉區」，作為分配村里基層工作經費的基準，而鄉鎮公所與村里長之間的委託-代理關係，則因資訊不對稱及里幹事聯繫失衡對村里長的行政監督有所失靈。 基於研究發現，本文建議，村里基層工作經費應依照村里的大小及人口予以公式化的補助金分配，此外村里長與公所之間的行政責任釐清，可助於減少資訊不對稱的問題，最後村里長運用村里資源的情形應建立衡量指標，落實稽核制度。本文為一初探性嘗試，提供台灣分配政策與政治研究另外一種思考的面向，並且提供未來台灣分配政治研究的實證基礎。 / Village and Neighborhood organization is the most basic unit of local governance in Taiwan, and how the village and neighborhood uses and allocates resources has important impact on the local self-government administration. However, existing research rarely discusses distributive politics of public resources in the village arena. Therefore, based on the perspective of distributive theory, this study explores the allocation of village resources by in-depth interviews and archival research. It further presents the supervision failure by township, on village and neighborhood. The results of this study confirm Cox-McCubbins ’s model on resources allocation. The village and neighborhood chiefs use "election support zone" as criteria to allocate the village and neighborhood funds. The principal-agency relationship between township and village was disconnected due to information asymmetries and loss of contact with the village secretary, which leads to the failure of administrative supervision on village chiefs regarding allocation of the funds.. This study proposes three suggestions for reforms. First, the village and neighborhood funds should be distributed in accordance with a formula based on the size of the village and neighborhood. Second, the administrative responsibility should be clarified between the village and neighborhood chief and townships to reduce the information asymmetry problem. Finally, the indicators measuring the effectiveness of the fund’s usage, should be constructed in order to enforce the audit system. This research is a pilot attempt to provide another perspective and empirical analysis on the distributive policy at local level. It has theoretical and empirical implications for distributive politics.

本文首先由地方自治意義與功能談起，藉以探討地方自治獲先進國家重視 的原因，並對於地方自治理論如何影響地方自治制度之演進加以說明。再 者，將地方自治與地方政府作一區別，釐清兩者之間的差異，以避免「有 地方政府等於實施地方自治」之錯誤觀念。我國憲法中明文保障地方自治 ，但觀諸臺灣地區實施地方自治四十多年，或受限於政治因素，屢以行政 命令作為實施依據。由於行政命令可隨中央或上級政府之意更改，因而使 得地方自治權限屢受侵剝，論者每以「中央集權又集錢」來形容。是以健 全地方自治，完成地方自治法制化及確實改進地方自治制度的呼聲四起， 本文將檢討因地方自治未落實而產生的之各種問題，並對地方自治法制化 問題做一歸納，以暸解省縣自治法產生之背景。省縣自治法的誕生，使臺 灣地區的地方自治邁入了新的里程碑，但此法公布施行後，除了完成法制 化以及「省長民選」之顯而易見的效果之外，似乎並未能完全解決以前地 方自治的種種問題，以及使地方自治發揮應有的功能。本文將探究其中有 礙地方自治功能發揮之處，並嘗試提出建議，以期健全地方自治法制，使 地方自治功能發揚光大，進而帶動國家整體的進步。本文研究建議，1. 關於自治事權的劃分，應以事權之性質、種類加以劃分，而非以地域來區 分。2.關於自治組織方面，由於縣市政府與鄉鎮市公所組織規程準則皆由 省政府所擬定，省政府在擬定此二規程準則時，應做彈性的規定，使地方 可依當地環境靈活運用。3.在自治財政方面，地方自有財源比例並未明定 ，為保障地方財政自主性，將來應在省縣自治法中明定地方自有財源比例 。再者，為避免中央以補助之名而行干預地方之實，補助與統籌分配制度 應儘速制度化。4.在自治監督方面，似乎可考慮將自治監督之章名改為「 中央與地方之關係」， 因為中央與地方之關係，隨著時代潮流與社經環 境之變遷，不再只是單純的監督關係。中央對地方還有諮詢、服務等關係 ，若僅以監督來看待中央與地方之關係則不僅過於狹隘，且容易因為過於 強調監督反而形成過分干預。5.省縣自治法對於地方人民權利的規定，與 以前相比，顯見充實。但是，相關的法律如創制複決法、資訊公開法等， 均尚未問世。是以中央政府應加速立自治法的規定形同具文。

<p>This study develops a model for understanding spatial change and the construction of space as a meeting-place, and then employs it in order to show an otherwise little-known picture of (sub-)urban Russia and its transformation from Soviet times to today. The model is based on time-geographic ideas of time-space as a limited resource in which forces of various kinds struggle for access and form space in interaction with each other. Drawing on cultural semiotics and the concepts of lifeworld and system, the study highlights the social side of these space-forming forces. Based on a long-term fieldwork (participant observation) in Ligovo/Uritsk, a high-rise residential district developed around 1970 and situated on the outskirts of Sankt-Peterburg (St Petersburg), the empirical material concerns processes of urban identity, spatial representations and local politics. The study explicates three codes used to form the image of the city that all relate to its pre-Revolutionary history, two textual strategies of juxtaposition in creating the genius loci of a place, and a discussion of what I call Soviet "stiff landscape" in relation to Soviet mental and ordinary maps of the urban landscape. Moreover, the study shows that the newly implemented self-governing municipalities have not realised their potential as political actors in forming local space, which raises questions on the democratisation of urban space. Finally, the study argues that the model that guides the research is a tool that facilitates the application of the world-view of time-geography and the epistemology of the landscape of courses in concrete research. The study ends with an attempt to generalise spatial change in four types.</p>

This study develops a model for understanding spatial change and the construction of space as a meeting-place, and then employs it in order to show an otherwise little-known picture of (sub-)urban Russia and its transformation from Soviet times to today. The model is based on time-geographic ideas of time-space as a limited resource in which forces of various kinds struggle for access and form space in interaction with each other. Drawing on cultural semiotics and the concepts of lifeworld and system, the study highlights the social side of these space-forming forces. Based on a long-term fieldwork (participant observation) in Ligovo/Uritsk, a high-rise residential district developed around 1970 and situated on the outskirts of Sankt-Peterburg (St Petersburg), the empirical material concerns processes of urban identity, spatial representations and local politics. The study explicates three codes used to form the image of the city that all relate to its pre-Revolutionary history, two textual strategies of juxtaposition in creating the genius loci of a place, and a discussion of what I call Soviet "stiff landscape" in relation to Soviet mental and ordinary maps of the urban landscape. Moreover, the study shows that the newly implemented self-governing municipalities have not realised their potential as political actors in forming local space, which raises questions on the democratisation of urban space. Finally, the study argues that the model that guides the research is a tool that facilitates the application of the world-view of time-geography and the epistemology of the landscape of courses in concrete research. The study ends with an attempt to generalise spatial change in four types.

Après avoir adopté la centralisation comme mode d´organisation politique etadministrative, l´Angola et le Mozambique ont décidé d’emprunter la voie de ladécentralisation.Cette option pour la décentralisation se justifierait, selon le discours porté,principalement, par les acteurs politiques, par sa capacité à répondre à des enjeuxpolitiques, sociaux, économiques et administratifs qui on trouve dans ces deux pays.Cependant, le synchronisme entre ce discours et la consécration juridique de ladécentralisation dans ces pays reste loin d´être une réalité.Ainsi, la présente étude analyse la consécration juridique de la décentralisation,compte tenu du discours sur la décentralisation tenu dans ces deux pays. / After adopting political centralization as a form of political and administrativeorganization, Angola and Mozambique made up on decentralization reforms as a largeprocess of administrative reform.This choice for decentralization reforms would be warranted, according to theprevailing discourse, mainly by political actors, by its capacity to address certainpolitical, social, economic and administrative problems that can be found in these twocountries.However, the synchronism between this discourse and the legal consecration ofdecentralization in these countries remains far from being a reality.Thus, this study analyzes the legal consecration of decentralization, taking into accountthe discourse of decentralization prevailing in both countries.

Les études françaises sur la citoyenneté en Suède sont généralement centrées sur le niveau national. Or le niveau local des communes, landsting et régions a acquis au cours des dernières décennies une forte légitimité pour la citoyenneté. La citoyenneté sociale est assurée en grande partie par les collectivités locales qui mettent en oeuvre le système redistributif de l’État-providence ; grâce à des institutions relativement vertueuses, en dépit des restrictions financières et de la privatisation de services publics le niveau local fournit des services de qualité qui servent de point d’appui essentiel au sentiment d’appartenance des citoyens et à leur degré de confiance dans la société.Mais la citoyenneté locale est en mutation. Le mythe égalitaire qui avait servi de base au Folkhem est remis en cause par des évolutions politiques, économiques et sociétales créatrices d’inégalités. La « communauté imaginée » qui façonnait le lien entre les citoyens est fragilisée par la montée des inégalités, l'apparition de l'extrême-droite dans le paysage politique ainsi que par les conditions créées par l’immigration et le multiculturalisme.Le citoyen exerce moins sa citoyenneté locale dans le cadre du cercle vertueux traditionnel de la civic literacy que dans celui du political trust ; il adopte des comportements civiques pragmatiques, axés par exemple sur ses choix économiques et sur sa responsabilisation dans le domaine environnemental. Dans cette phase de recomposition de la citoyenneté locale, le débat porte essentiellement sur les défis posés par les inégalités sociales et les inégalités socio-ethniques. Cette étude montre que le niveau local fait sens pour la pratique, l’exercice et la représentation de la citoyenneté suédoise / Studies on citizenship in Sweden carried out in France have mostly focused on the national level. However local government in cities, counties or regions has become highly legitimate to address citizenship over the last decades. Local authorities implement at their level the most part of the redistributive social welfare, hence social citizenship is largely granted by them.However local citizenship is changing. The egalitarian myth that once grounded the "Folkhem" is put under question due to social, economic and political changes that produce inequalities. The "imagined Community" that used to bind citizens is weakened by those rising inequalities but also by the increase of far-right political parties. This community struggles to adapt to this new context.Citizens are less prone to act in the traditional virtuous circle of civic literacy but rather in the context of political Trust. New pragmatic, civic behaviours, based on responsibility for the environment and on economic choices can be observed. In this context, debates tackle essentially challenges sparked by social and ethnical inequalities. This study shows that the local level matters when it comes to the practice and the implementation of citizenship in Sweden

Diploma thesis deals with local polity, politics and policies in the Nordic countries. The main aim of this thesis is to study local polity, politics and policies in the Nordic countries and then identify what are the most important common features of these countries and the most significant differences between them. The first chapter deals with known theoretical approaches to distinctions between local government systems. This chapter presents some typologies of local government systems. Another four chapters are dedicated to local politics in the Nordic countries. The second chapter is focused on Sweden. The third chapter deals with Denmark. The fourth chapter is focused on Norway, while the fifth chapter on Iceland. The each of these four chapters is split into several subchapters, which are focused especially on competencies, tasks and duties of municipalities, structure and functioning of municipal institutions, forms of intermunicipal cooperation, number and size of municipalities, structure of municipal earnings and expenditures and other financing matters, electoral and party systems at local level, neighborhood councils, user democracy and free commune experiments. The last chapter summarizes and compares findings. Conclusion presents the most evident common features of local polity, politics and...