Introduction

Abstract

In February, 2000, local government scholars from around the globe gathered in Sydney, Australia to share ideas and research findings from their respective countries. As the 20^th Century drew to a close all our scholars had been keen observers of a commonly occurring phenomenon: local administrative and political reform. While reform in itself is not unusual in government, it tends to occur incrementally. Sometimes, however, there are more dramatic and sustained periods of activity, which usher in conspicuous change. The 1980s and 1990s was such a period, not only in governments generally, but also in local government. What is most intriguing about these closing decades of the Century is that reform of local government was a globally occurring phenomenon. All our countries experienced reform, the nature of which represented, in some cases, a significant departure from traditional approaches to local self-government and administration. The global extent of local institutional reform has lead some commentators to question whether the concept of local self-government ought to be completely redefined (Montin 2000). We use the concept of reform as a theme throughout the book, although we are acutely aware that it may be a problematic concept because reform suggests intentionality, that is, it presupposes that there are reformers who want change in a certain direction. Students of government have observed that frequently change happens that is not intended (Brunsson & Olsen 1997).