CAPA-city: Collective Action, Political Accountability and Administrative Capacities in European Cities

Important results from the project

This project aimed to understand the emergence of administrative capacity at the sub-national level and identify factors that influence higher investment in it. The project had three key research goals: It mapped how the local administrative capacity varies across cities in Spain, the Czech Republic and Romania. It provided and tested explanations for varying administrative capacity levels across cities. And suggested possible mechanisms that determine low administrative capacity and thus ways how a city can improve its administration.

Expected long term effects

The project has contributed to empirical research by compiling data on administrative capacity in 2000 Czech, Spanish and Romanian cities and mapped the similarities and divergences across cities within these three countries. The variation is larger in mid-sized cities. The analysis also showed that political variables matter for stability and quality of public administration more than socio-economic factors. The preliminary results highlight the influence of political factors on administration also in countries with meritocratic public administration.

Approach and implementation

The project has employed a multi-level comparative perspective and aimed at combining quantitative data collection with fieldwork and case studies. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the methodology has to be adapted and includes instead survey questions from an ongoing project on civil servants’ ethics and more detailed quantitative data gathering. The findings of this project were presented at international conferences, presentations for policymakers and activists like Fearless cities congress and will be published in academic journals and book chapters.