Reforming Local Councils and the Role of Councillors: A Comparative Analysis of Fifteen European Countries,

Project also involved researchers from: Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland and SlovakiaThe chapter aims at highlighting and analyzing attempts to restore or improve the existing institutions of representative democracy – the councils and the councillors – in 15 different European countries, from a comparative perspective and the effects that can be identified from these reforms. The chapter develops a typology of reforms and seeks to analyse the drivers of, and approaches to, reform. Most of the initiatives are national, covering and entire country, but some are specific to parts of countries or certain localites. The focus is on the extent to which there are differences and similarities between countries with regard to the occurrence of reforms, and how these may be understood