Paul Carmichael is a Senior Lecturer in Public Administratoin at the School of Policy Studies, University of Ulster Arthur Midwinter is Professor of Government at the University of Strathclyde.

'A valuable contribution; not only for what is said, but also for the way in which it brings together different perspectives and for the ideas and questions it sets running.' - Michael Hughes, University of Bimingham in Local Government Studies'...the collection should benefit interested researchers and students, and it offers useful historical and international context for practitioners.' - David O'Brien in Political Studies Review

• Central-local relations since the Layfield Report; intergovernmental relations in Scotland post-devolution; central grants and local spending in Britain; guide democracy or multi-level governance? New trends in regulatory regimes in central-local relations in the Nordic countries; central government over local government - a Western European comparison; central-local financial relations in South Africa; between rhetoric and reality - does the 2001 White Paper reverse the centralizing trend in Britain?