The wide range of local government public services

This chapter provides an analysis of the concept of local government services from an international perspective, examining what can be considered local government services and how various local government services might be categorized. Under the framework of contingency theory, this chapter reviews the complex issue of defining and classifying a wide range of public services provided at local level. It focuses mainly on i) the subject-community beneficiary ofthe service provision; ii) the subject-government responsible for the service provision, distinguishing the government tiers involved in service supply and the recourse to contracting out to fulfil public duties; and iii) the objective definition of the services, aiming to provide a list of functions that are considered service tasks for local governments. This chapter contributes to the conceptual analysis of public services, demonstrating similarities and differences in the cross-national development of contingent local government public services