[Review Article] Typologies of European Local Government Systems: From Western Europe to Central Eastern Europe

This article explores the academic progress of typologies about European local government systems during last 30 years. Typologies of European local government systems can be classified into two groups: firstly, a number of studies focus on vertical dimensions of local government (in other words, central-local relations). Secondly, some studies argue, however, that it is important to consider horizontal relationships of local government including political leaderships of mayors. Although these studies have been widely accepted, they have some faults in parallel with changes in the environment surrounding local governments. For instance, existing typologies have not paid attention to a variety of local democracy in Central Eastern Europe. This paper shows we cannot classify them into single category by applying current studies. Moreover, there are ambiguities in terms of dividing of individual types. So, in short, this paper argues that new typologies should cover both vertical and horizontal dimensions, qualitative and quantitative analyses