Abstract
When looking at the local level of democracy we may find ourselves lost among the variety of terms for the same basic unit of government which is the closest to citizens. From, ‘local governments’, ‘local self-government’, ‘local autonomy’, ‘local authorities’, ‘local entities’, ‘local governance’ to ‘local self-determination’ as well as ‘municipal government’, ‘municipalities’, or even ‘cities’. These are used in addition to terms such as ‘territorial autonomies’, ‘subnational authorities’, ‘subnational entities’, ‘regional and local authorities’, which refer indistinctly to the two regional and local dimensions together, or to the regional dimension without real importance and recognition given to the local one which is considered as included within it.