1. Interactions of Societal Actors and Local Government in Institutionalized Governance Arrangements: The Book’s Scope and Content

The chapter sets the stage for a comparative analysis of institutionalized governance networks grouping local governments and individual and collective or corporate societal actors unfolding at the municipal, sub-municipal and inter-municipal level. It details the premises for analyzing these networks with an emphasis on organized interests and interest intermediation and their relationship with the notion of democracy. It then reviews existing literature on the relationship between local governments and societal actors at two different levels. With reference to the municipal (micro) level, it looks at interest theory, the community power debate and the local governance approach. With reference to the macro level, it looks at the broader political science approaches to state–society relations, the debates on pluralism and neo-corporatism, and the policy-networks approach. At the intersection of these levels, the chapter also examines the typology of national infrastructures for local governance.