This special issue of Res Publica about administrative power of municipalities in the Netherlands and Flanders, Belgium, focuses in particular on the meaning of cooperation for the strengthening of administrative power. Until recently discussions on administrative power concentrated mostly on the possibility of the merger of municipalities. The three contributions to this issue demonstrate that different kinds of cooperation are a fair alternative for the strengthening of administrative power of municipalities.

This special issue about the practice of local referendums in the Netherlands and Flanders, Belgium, focuses in particular on the relationship between referendums and the consensus model of democracy. On the one hand, referendums are widely conceived of as a typical majoritarian device. On the other hand, the legal possibility of referendums forces political elites to reach broad agreement, in order to prevent a popular vote in which decisions would be recalled. The three contributions to this issue demonstrate that consensus democracy influences the debate about referendums in the legislative, as well as how the practicalities are organised, in more varied ways. Studies of independent referendum bodies in the Netherlands and question wording in referendums in Flanders show that the nature of consensus democracy enables both countries to find solutions to potential problems, but also brings new problems. Guidelines for how these may be prevented in future referendums are provided.