Local authorities in financial difficulty present a number of challenges for the central government, such as determining how deserving cases can be distinguished from unworthy ones or cases of abuse, whether financial aid or other assistance should be given, and how central government can help local authorities avoid getting into financial trouble. This report by the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR) considers these issues in terms of Council of Europe member states. It contains a number of case studies of central assistance to local authorities and seeks to analyse why local authorities are in financial difficulty and how the problem is being dealt with in practice.

The purpose of this report is to study the risks that are responsible for local authorities' financial difficulties. It provides both a theoretical and an empirical analysis based on the various financial risks facing local authorities and the means of assessing and controlling them. The report also sets out guidelines designed to help the various authorities concerned to avoid, spread and control these financial risks more successfully.

This is the first of five ambitious volumes theorizing the structure of governance above and below the central state. This book is written for those interested in the character, causes, and consequences of governance within the state and for social scientists who take measurement seriously. The book sets out a measure of regional authority for 81 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific from 1950 to 2010. Subnational authority is exercised by individual regions, and this measure is the first that takes individual regions as the unit of analysis. On the premise that transparency is a fundamental virtue in measurement, the authors chart a new path in laying out their theoretical, conceptual, and scoring decisions before the reader. The book also provides summaries of regional governance in 81 countries for scholars and students alike. Transformations in Governance is a major new academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states up to supranational institutions, down to subnational governments, and side-ways to public-private networks. It brings together work that significantly advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars. The series targets mainly single-authored or co-authored work, but it is pluralistic in terms of disciplinary specialization, research design, method, and geographical scope. Case studies as well as comparative studies, historical as well as contemporary studies, and studies with a national, regional, or international focus are all central to its aims. Authors use qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling, or mixed methods. A trade mark of the books is that they combine scholarly rigour with readable prose and an attractive production style. The series is edited by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the VU Amsterdam, and Walter Mattli of the University of Oxford.

This publication deals with the following issues; effectiveness and efficiency in delivering services, quality of services without increasing the costs, avoiding overlap, fostering horizontal and vertical co-operation between public authorities and achieving synergies with the private sector.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

The "European Yearbook" promotes the scientific study of nineteen European supranational organisations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Each volume contains a detailed survey of the history, structure and yearly activities of each organisation and an up-to-date chart providing a clear overview of the member states of each organisation. Each volume contains a comprehensive bibliography covering the year's relevant publications. This is an indispensable work of reference for anyone dealing with the European institutions.

The process of urban segregation seems to have intensified in recent years, and there is a growing awareness of the problems of these neighbourhoods by the public in general and local authorities in particular. In this report, the Steering Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR) examines the state of neighbourhood services in two types of area: disavantaged urban areas (DUAs) and areas with low population density. The report presents a range of local government initiatives and examples of good practice, and offers guidelines for further action in this field.