From Localism Towards Localism: a personal journey of policy discovery. Localism has become a buzzword in New Zealand politics. Though well-established overseas, it is, however, still a relatively new concept here. In this essay, Oliver Hartwich explains how his experience of German localism shaped his policy work in Britain, Australia and now New Zealand.

Localism is about citizens, not town halls. It engages, encourages and empowers citizens and their formal, semi-formal and informal groupings, street level to citywide, including not-for-profits. To be effective and constructive, citizen-centric localism needs to be bottom-up, not just top-down, driven by iterative interaction to fashion thought-through decisions. Digital technology enables this in ways not possible a decade ago. Local councils are the right level of government to develop and refine that interaction and thereby revitalise local – and in time national – democracy.

This paper identifies a range of governance mechanisms to support the efficient and equitable provision of public services and improve policy coordination in metropolitan areas. It provides examples from cities in the Global North and Global South, and takes a closer look at metropolitan governance in Brazil, where the constitution makes it challenging to create formal metropolitan structures. The paper suggests that the choice of metropolitan governance structure depends upon how one weighs conflicting considerations—prioritizing efficiency, access, and accountability points to smaller local government units whereas economies of scale, externalities, and equity suggest larger governments. The review of metropolitan governance models does not point to one model that could work everywhere because national and local context matter. Nevertheless, the paper suggests that countries should develop more effective systems of governance for metropolitan areas if they want to improve service delivery, cost sharing, and decision-making. A regional structure that encompasses the entire economic region would ensure that services are delivered in a coordinated fashion across municipal boundaries and improve the process as a whole by reaping the benefits of economies of scale and internalizing externalities.

This issue of the GSoD In Focus explores the contribution that the Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices can make to the review of progress on the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The GSoD Indices can be used to complement the official indicators of the SDGs, to acquire in-depth knowledge on trends in achieving the specific targets of individual SDGs. In this regard, the GSoD Indices can be used to provide data on the SDGs for poverty (SDG 1), hunger (2), health and wellbeing (3), education (4), gender equality (5), inequalities (10), sustainable cities and communities (11), peace, justice and institutions (16), and partnerships for the goals (17), as well as across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The second edition of this popular and authoritative text provides a truly global assessment of democratization in theory and practice in the contemporary world. It has been systematically revised and updated throughout to cover recent developments, from the impact of 9/11 and EU enlargement to the war in Iraq.