This paper outlines a first step towards a comparative understanding of the rele-vance of council-administration relations for the adoption of managerial practices in local governments. Based on findings from a case study about the implementation of strategic management in German municipalities, the relevance of council-administration relations has been worked out: Trust between administrative staff and council members seems to be an important precondition for the implementation and viability of performance measurement, performance management and strategic management.
The paper develops a design for a comparative research on local governments in Germany and Switzerland. Using data from case studies and pretests, a model for a quantitative research is set up to analyze the relevance of council-administration relations for the implementation of managerial practices.