This chapter offers a critical theoretically informed and policy-relevant exploration of some of the most prevalent conceptual strands informing place-based development scholarship, discourse, and practice. In doing so, it examines the emphasis on co-operation, open governance, and the assumption that all places have the potential to grow and prosper. Further, it analyzes normative dispositions – namely that place-based modes of subnational development could represent a viable and progressive approach which reconciles pervasive tensions between economic growth and spatial equity. In the process, the chapter identifies four key conceptual strands that characterize place-based development theory and practice.

Key messages: Autonomy of local government: Responsibilities repatriated from the EU cannot be centralised in Whitehall. Councils have a democratic mandate to lead their communities. We need new devolution settlements in England and across the UK to bring new powers to communities through local democracy. Developing a new legal base for local government: There are many EU laws that affect the day job of local councils. The future review of UK laws of EU origin must be informed about their real world impact. It must lead to new legislative freedoms and flexibilities for councils so that local communities, businesses and consumers can benefit. Securing investment that is currently sourced from the EU: The Government needs to begin developing a growth policy which must be fully funded to deliver its ambitions and be locally driven post-Brexit. This must be designed and delivered by local areas as an integrated replacement for EU funding and existing national schemes to support infrastructure, enterprise, and social cohesion.

This paper situates Canadian local governance practices within a review of international perspectives on the meaning and evaluation of governance quality. The author finds that Canadian authorities have construed local good governance largely in utilitarian terms, as the efficiency of service delivery. He proposes a broader research program on local governance quality in Canada, one that is expressly comparative, pays equal attention to the quality of decision-making and accountability processes, and is directed toward continuous improvement. 

Democratic decentralisation through ‘conventional’ institutions of local government is facing increasing challenges, whether from financial pressures, questions of representativeness, difficult central-local relations and from a perhaps growing belief that local government has failed to realise its potential and there may be better ways of achieving societal goals. It is clear there is need to contemplate quite radical change to ensure local government becomes or remains ‘fit for purpose’. This collection of papers illustrates the way in which the role of local government is evolving in different parts of the Commonwealth and provides practical examples of new local government at work. It showcases emerging practice, and highlights success stories from new ways of working and challenges confronting local government in both developed and developing countries. New Century Local Government makes a very valuable contribution to helping understand the changing role of local government, and will ensure that practitioners are up-to-date with the most innovative initiatives in local government planning and administration.

This chapter traces the evolution and analytical underpinnings of local governance as background to a better understanding of the case studies of developing countries in this book. The next section outlines analytical approaches to local governance that can be helpful in understanding the role of governments and comparing and contrasting institutional arrangements. It further develops a model of local governance that integrates various strands of this literature. This model has important implications for evaluating and reforming local governance in both industrial and developing countries. The third section presents stylized models and institutions of local governance as practiced in different parts of the world during past centuries. It compares and contrasts the ancient Indian and Chinese systems of local governance with Nordic, Southern European, North American, and Australian models. The last section provides a comparative overview of local government organization and finance in selected developing countries as an introduction to the in-depth treatment of these countries in the rest of the book.