adapt the Hesse and Sharpe model but distinguish between local governments
embedded in unitary and federal systems. Norton ( 1994 , 13 – 14 ), in what is claimed
to be a classiWcation of ‘‘world systems of local government,’’ does add a Japan
group and splits the United States and Canada away to a separate North America
group.
The major problem with all of these classiWcations is their narrow, Western
focus. They are concerned almost entirely with mature rather than new wave
democracies. In the 1970 s less than a third of the countries in the world could be
classiWed as democratic. But a drive to democracy dominated the last quarter of the
twentieth century and, as a result, by the start of the twenty-Wrst century nearly
two-thirds of all countries were democratic (Diamond 2003 ).
All of the countries identiWed above have the minimum requirement that
they hold regular, free, fair, and competitive elections toWll positions in their
governments. These democracies all have a secret ballot, fair access to a range of
media, and basic rights to organize, campaign, and solicit votes. Not all would
count as full liberal democracies and many still suVer from signiWcant human
rights abuses, corruption, and a weak rule of law. But crucially, from the
perspective of this chapter, local democratic governance has become a more
signiWcant part of their systems. For the new wave of democracies, having a
strong system of local government has often been one of the main reform
options promoted by international organizations and consultants. As the
twenty-Wrst century unfolds, the new challenge for the classiWcation is to provide
for coverage of both mature and new democracies. Comparative local governance
needs to be more global.
There are some pioneering studies that provide a number of useful insights.
McCarney and Stern ( 2003 ), for example, oVer some valuable reXections on the
development of local governance in cities across the south of the globe (from the
Philippines, through South Africa, to Mexico). In addition to the scale and rapid
progress of urbanization, they note that reform measures have generally seen
local governments in these countries gain substantially more power. A study
sponsored by the United Nations looks at local government in Asia and the
PaciWc (Sproats 2002 ). This study focuses a lot of attention on the problems
confronted by newly established local government systems in having the capacity
inWnances, human resources, and political sophistication to manage complex
and substantial social and economic challenges. Coulson ( 1995 ) looks at progress
in Eastern Europe in countries in the initial phases of reform. Swianiewicz’s
( 2005 ) interesting case study of Poland shows there has been a signiWcant
Xowering of local government since the fall of the Communist regime at the
end of 1980 s. These studies hint at a need for a more far-reaching and cross-
cutting analysis in order to classify and better understand world systems of
local governance. The task is beyond this chapter, but it urgently needs to be
addressed.
500 gerry stoker