Local Autonomy and Institutional Arrangements: Understanding Local Government Effectiveness

Local governments operate in increasingly complex institutional environments. While decentralization reforms have expanded the formal responsibilities of local governments in many countries, significant differences persist in their capacity to exercise autonomy and respond effectively to local needs. Formal autonomy alone does not necessarily translate into effective local government: its exercise depends on the institutional arrangements that structure relationships between different levels of government, allocate responsibilities and resources, and shape decision-making at the local level. This open panel invites theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions that examine the relationship between local autonomy, institutional arrangements, and local government effectiveness. It seeks to explore how different political, administrative, fiscal, and intergovernmental arrangements enable or constrain local governments in exercising their responsibilities and responding to territorial challenges. The panel is particularly interested in submissions that address dimensions such as political, administrative, and fiscal autonomy; decentralization and recentralization processes; intergovernmental relations and multilevel governance; the allocation of functions and resources among different levels of government; institutional and state capacities; intermunicipal cooperation; and the effects of institutional arrangements on local policymaking and service delivery. A central question guiding the panel is whether similar levels of formal local autonomy produce different outcomes under different institutional arrangements, and how these differences can be understood in political and territorial contexts. Contributions that examine the gap between formal norms and the effective exercise of local autonomy are especially encouraged. The panel welcomes studies from different regions of the world and encourages transnational, transregional, and comparative approaches. By bringing together diverse theoretical perspectives and empirical experiences, it seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the institutional conditions under which local autonomy can underpin effective, responsive, and democratically accountable local government.