Jochen Franzke is a Professor of Administrative Science at the Faculty of Economics and Social Science, University of Potsdam, Germany. His main research fields are comparative sub-national public administrative reforms and new forms of local governance and citizen participation. He is a member of the Board of the Institute of Local Government Studies (University of Potsdam) and Co-chair of the Permanent Study Group on Local Governance and Democracy at the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA). He has been a visiting scholar at several European universities. 

José M. Ruano de la Fuente is a Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain, and has been a visiting scholar at several European and American universities. His main research fields are comparative public administration and local governance. Currently, he is Vice-President of the European association Entretiens Universitaires Réguliers pour l’Administration en Europe (EUROPA), President of its Scientific Committee, and Co-chair of the Permanent Study Group on Local Governance and Democracy at the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA). He is Co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Decentralisation in Europe.