The comparative study of local government systems—a research agenda1

Abstract The comparative study of local government systems has a long and flourishing tradition. In this article, three broad approaches are distinguished; inductive, deductive and ideal type based analyses. Inductive studies, which represent the mainstream, need to move from description to theory development. Deductive studies are few and could benefit from utilizing theories emphasizing the historical‐institutional and socio‐political contexts of local government. The ideal type approach is particularly promising for analyses of potential systems to show their advantages and disadvantages. Hence, despite the large number of studies in this field, there is still a challenging agenda for future research.