The system of constraints and opportunities for cities is changing. The pressures exerted by the state, and by the whole society, toward uniformity and homogenisation have become less distinct. At the same time, local authorities in Europe have to face changes brought about by integration, economic globalisation, individualisation, growth pressures of conurbations, state restructuring, and competition. Within cities, problems and priorities are beginning to be articulated differently from those that exist for the rest of the country. Actors’ interests, perceptions, and strategies are diverging. Redrawing the boundaries of the political playing field has the direct or indirect effect of repositioning cities, especially the largest of them, within states. Close links, developing transversely with other European cities and vertically with the EU, have impacts on the way city councils organise. Elected representatives – especially the most important of them, the mayor or equivalent – are being given a more important role in representing the city to the outside world and in building links between interests...