Lokální politika v Česku a v Evropě aneb vítejte v labyrintu místní samosprávy

This article reviews four books about the specifics of local democracy. Two of them focus on the Czech context only, the other two books present a large set of data from the comparative surveys of 15 European countries. The arguments of the review article are accompanied by preliminary findings of our own survey conducted in three selected Czech municipalities which represent (in our opinion) cases of progressive local governance. Structure, political culture and self-perception of local councillors across Europe are characterized by incredible variety. In comparison with the European average, the structure of local governance in the Czech Republic is extremely fragmented. European local politics is dominated by educated, nonpartisan and long-term residents; even more so in the Czech where local politics is also more masculine. The landscape of local councils in Europe oscillates between the idea of representative government (which slightly dominates), and the concept of participatory democracy. Czech councillors have a higher affinity with representative forms of democratic governance, but they also declaratorily support direct forms of public participation in decision-making.