Nico Steytler is Professor of Public Law and the South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development at the Dullah Omar Institute of Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

This book brings together leading scholars and practitioners from around the globe to examine the current roles of and future trends in local government structures and mechanisms in 16 different federal and federal-type countries. In doing so, this volume explores pressing topics such as the institutions of local government, constitutional recognition, financial management, intergovernmental relations, political culture, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role of local government in federal systems. Contributors to this volume provide a timely and comprehensive account of the integral role local governments play in federal countries and offer fascinating perspectives on how these roles may change as individual federal systems evolve. These individual analyses are contextualized in a comparative perspective in order to gain a holistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities of various local government dynamics in different regions around the world.
This is an open access book.

Chapter 1. Introduction - Nico Steytler

Chapter 2. Argentina - Penelope Vaca Avila

Chapter 3. Australia - Graham Sansom and Su Fei Tan

Chapter 4. Austria - Karl Kössler

Chapter 5. Brazil - Sol Garson and Kleber Castro

Chapter 6. Canada - Enid Slack and Zachary Taylor

Chapter 7. Ethiopia - Zemelak Ayele

Chapter 8. Germany - Henrik Scheller

Chapter 9. India - Niranjan Sahoo

Chapter 10. Italy - Elisabeth Alber, Alice Valdesalici, Greta Klotz

Chapter 11. Mexico - Monica Unda-Gutierrez and Alejandra Reyes

Chapter 12. Nepal - Khim Lal Devkota and Gopi Krishna Khanal

Chapter 13. Nigeria - Rotimi Suberu

Chapter 14: South Africa - Jaap de Visser

Chapter 15. Spain - Francisco Velasco Caballero

Chapter 16. Switzerland - Andreas Ladner

Chapter 17. United States of America - Meryl Chertoff

Chapter 18. Concluding Remarks - Nico Steytler