Abstract
From a constitutional point of view, cities are local governments. Some of them may proudly look back on a past as autonomous states. During the construction of the nation states in the 18th and 19th century, European cities were squeezed into the corset of national intergovernmental frameworks. No matter how glorious their past forgone, European cities henceforth occupy a subordinate position within national state polities. Their autonomy is limited by upper levels of government, such as regions, federate states, and the central state. Of course, the nature and the extent of these limitations differ across space and time, resulting in a great variation of patterns of constraints to which city governments have to comply, as well as of structures of opportunities through which they can expand their freedom to act.
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Kübler, D., Michel, P. (2006). Mayors in Vertical Power Relations. In: Bäck, H., Heinelt, H., Magnier, A. (eds) The European Mayor. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90005-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90005-6_10
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