Democracy and Local Governance

Democracy and Local Governance is an ongoing international collaborative research program on the processes of democratization at the local level. It examines the beliefs, values, and behavior of local political leaders, elected, appointed and party. Its point of departure is that democratic practices and governance must be structured locally for political stability, a necessary condition of economic growth and prosperity.

The design of the research is a cross-national study of localities and their leaders, begun in the 1960's in 120 local communities in India, Poland, the U.S., and Yugoslavia. That research was extended in the late 1970's and early 80's to South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore, followed by the Netherlands, Sweden, the U.S. and several times in Poland. In the summer of 1990, the research was re-designed to examine democratic values and practices of local leaders by comparing post-communist countries with western democracies.

The empirical base of this research is now over 750 cities and communes in 25 countries with over 13,000 local leaders interviewed. The data are taken from national samples of localities, ranging in size from 25,000 to 250,000, nationally adjusted. About 15 political leaders--mayors, council people, and party activists--were interviewed in each community.

Data collected between 1991-1994 were analyzed for 18 countries: Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, Korea, Kazakstan, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United States and Uzbekistan.

In 1995-1997, the research is being completed in Armenia, Germany, Japan, Kyrghyzstan, the Netherlands, Spain and Taiwan, the same data are being gathered on nine former communist countries at a second point in time (Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakstan, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine). In 1998 the study will be conducted in Brazil and Greece. Research teams from Finland, Italy, South Africa and Venezuela are in process of joining the project.

Publication of the results, comparing 10 countries, was published in 1993, Democracy and Local Governance: Ten Empirical Studies. Second volume is now under preparation. Volume 540 of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (June 1995) is based on project's contributions.

The international research is currently being supported by the National Science Foundation (U.S.), the Central European University, and Polish Committee for Academic Research; grants have been received for various country studies.

Please send all questions and comments to either Dr. Henry Teune, University of Pennsylvania or 
Tatiana Iskra, Pultusk School of Humanities, Pultusk, Poland.

This page was last modified on November 28, 2000.