Creating a Comparative Index of Local Autonomy

Despite the increasing importance of local autonomy in both theory and practice of public policy and administration, there is little agreement on the definition of local autonomy, its measurement, operationalisation and impacts. The aim of this article is to create an index of local autonomy which can be used in a comparative perspective and to discuss its validity, both in terms of content and convergence – i.e. its theoretical and empirical legitimation by comparing it with other measures of local autonomy and decentralisation. The literature on the topic analyses local autonomy either by sectorial approaches – legalistic, functional, organisational or political – or by combining similar dimensions in very different ways, without a clear concept of their importance respectively. Having created and applied a codebook of 11 indicators to 39 European countries for the time between 1990 and 2014, the empirical findings (factor analyses) combined with theoretical considerations (main dimensions highlighted in the literature) lead us to regroup the indicators into seven dimensions of local autonomy and to construct a weighted overall index of local autonomy. The main findings are threefold. First, significant disparities exist on either side of the continent, with Nordic countries and Switzerland ranking high on the index, but on very different dimensions, and Southern and Black See countries as well as Ireland ranking low. Second, a general increase of autonomy took place between 1990 and 2009, especially in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. Finally, the comparisons with existing indicators show that the local autonomy index ad its constituent elements measure relevant existing but also additional aspects of autonomy. Besides updating well-known typologies of European local government systems, the local autonomy index may be used as a comparative instrument to address the implications of local autonomy for local democracy or local government efficacy.