Editorial: Challenges to Local Democracy:
Democratization Efforts and Democratic Backsliding at the Sub-national Level
Sara Svensson /School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden/
and
Judit Keller /Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Center for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute for Regional Studies, Budapest, Hungary/
Editorial article – Published on 10 March 2022
“There are obvious challenges to building or maintaining subnational (local and regional) democratic governance structures in the context of national-level backsliding, hybridity or authoritarianism. However, there are also many challenges to local democracy in stable liberal democracies. The aim of this Research Topic was to contribute to knowledge about the relationship between local democracy and developments at the national and/or transnational level: is there scope for local democracy to mitigate or counteract forces that are overall detrimental for democratic development or may vertical rescaling and power-sharing re-arrangements be a driver for negative national developments?”
