Abstract
Multilevel democracy means that the citizens belong to several democratic associations at one and the same time: at the local, regional, national and European levels. The fact that this concept has now become established marks a turning-point in the history of political ideas. For centuries philosophers have attempted to discover the most appropriate size for a working community. The village was long deemed to be the ideal; democracy was considered to work best in small communities in which everyone knew everyone else. After the American and French revolutions, the nation state came to be seen as the natural foundation of democratic institutions.
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© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Petersson, O. (2004). Democratic Governance and Local Autonomy. In: Molander, P. (eds) Fiscal Federalism in Unitary States. ZEI Studies in European Economics and Law, vol 6. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0503-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0503-7_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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