Hubert Heinelt

Since the 1990s ‘beliefs’, ‘ideas’ or ‘knowledge’ as well as processes of communicative interactions such as persuasion, argumentation and learning have received increasing attention in social science for the understanding of political changes. Meer

Is the ‘golden age’ of democracy really over due to the pressures of globalisation and the erosion of the nation state?

Within this book, Heinelt seeks to address the democratic deficit in political systems linked to limited Citizen Participation reflecting on the notion of democracy and participatory governance and how they relate to each other. Meer

This book offers a cross-national analysis of contemporary issues and challenges for the governing of urban regions. The case studies on Germany, Spain, France, Greece, The Netherlands, Finland, the UK, Switzerland, Australia, the US and Canada, place particular emphasis on the tensions building on metropolitan governing capacity and democratic legitimacy. Meer

This book reflects on the role and task perception as well as the behaviour of councillors in the changing context of local democracy. Political leadership at the local level has attracted growing attention in recent years in parallel with reforms of local government and of the municipal administration as well as the debate on a shift from government to governance. Meer