Place-Shaping by Local Government in Developing Countries: Lessons for the Developed World

The Lyons Inquiry into local government in Britain represented a significant contribution to the debate on local government reform, with policy ramifications well beyond contemporary Britain. This article considers the Inquiry's concept of “place-shaping” as a mode of local government reform which captures the experience of a number of developing countries in recent years. By way of illustrative examples, we examine these processes in the specific contexts of South Africa and Indonesia. In particular, we consider whether the devolution of functions to municipalities in developmental settings constitutes place-shaping, and how this bears on processes of local government reform in developed nations.     

Is Bigger Really Better? A Comparative Analysis of Municipal Mergers in Australian and Japanese Local Government

While structural reform by means of municipal mergers has been employed in many different countries, council consolidation has been especially marked in Australian and Japanese local government. This suggests that much can be learned by examining amalgamation through the analytical prism of comparative analysis. In this article, we investigate structural reform through municipal amalgamation in Australian and Japanese local government by examining the aims of amalgamation, the methods employed by public policy makers and the outcomes which were achieved. From this comparative analysis, we attempt to draw some broader lessons for local government policy making aimed at local government reform.     

Local Government Modernisation in England: A Critical Review of the LGMA Evaluation Studies

New Labour has subjected English local government to an unparalleled period of reform. This article reviews the Local Government Modernisation Agenda evaluation studies commissioned by central government. The review identifies valuable insights from the studies into the contemporary state of English local government, central government and central–local relations. However, the studies also illustrate the need for research on public service reform to include analyses of the political origins of reform policies and the political–bureaucratic issues involved in their implementation. It is also argued that future research needs to rediscover the value of studying local politics ‘in the round’, the impact of socio-economic and non-local factors on local policy outcomes and the role of new sources of policy influence in the channels of central–local relations.     

Recasting Leadership Reform in Australian Local Government: A Typology from Political Theory

Changes to elected leadership in Australian local government have seen greater authority assigned to mayors in several jurisdictions. A Discussion Paper recently released under the auspices of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government (ACELG) has recommended further reforms, arguing inter alia that mayors ought to enjoy a personal mandate and a stronger strategic role. This paper places these suggested reforms into context by developing a typology of local government leadership from political theory. We argue that this quadrilateral typology provides a critical portrait of recommendations for stronger leadership which, in this instance, have been transposed from two unitary systems of government (England and New Zealand) to the Australian federal system, without due consideration of the literature examining stronger mayoral roles. It is argued that caution should be exercised when redrafting legislation governing mayoral authority, a process presently underway in New South Wales (NSW).     

Chalk and Cheese: A Comparative Analysis of Local Government Reform Processes in New South Wales and Victoria

A substantial empirical literature exists on the consequences of local government reform programs. However, much less effort has been directed at examining how reform processes affect the outcomes of reform programs and little work has been invested in the comparative analysis of local government reform processes. To address this neglect in the literature, this article provides a comparative analysis of the contemporary municipal reform initiatives in the New South Wales and Victorian state local government systems. It is argued that the much more deliberative and inclusive Victorian approach represents a superior approach to the hurried “top-down” New South Wales method.     

Enduring Financial Sustainability Through “Bottom-Up” Local Authority Ingenuity and Rational “Top-Down” State Regulation: The Case of Lake Macquarie City Council

For decades Australian policy-makers have relied on the blunt instrument of forced amalgamation to reform local government. However, a host of recent public inquiries has demonstrated that despite compulsory mergers in all states, except WA, financial unsustainability has become more acute. Using the case study of the successful achievement of ongoing financial sustainability by Lake Macquarie City Council in NSW through its resourceful “bottom-up” use of the “top-down” financial parameters set for NSW local government, this paper argues that state governments should concentrate on “process change” by establishing sound “top-down” regulatory frameworks thereby enabling “bottom-up” ingenuity by local authorities rather than “structural change” through compulsory mergers.     

Optimal approaches to structural reform in regional and rural local governance: The Australian experience

Abstract

Australian local government finds itself at the vortex of various mounting pressures, including acute funding shortages, complex intergovernmental relationships, and forced structural reform programmes, that have made the status quo unsustainable. State government policy makers have placed heavy emphasis on council amalgamations as their chief means of resolving the problems facing municipal governance. This paper argues that such reliance on the blunt instrument of municipal consolidation has been misplaced, not only because it is based on the mistaken premise that ‘bigger is better’ in local governance, but also because it ignores many other promising alternatives to amalgamation involving various combinations of structural change and process change better suited to the extremely diverse character of regional and rural local government in Australia.     

The Upliftment of South African Local Government?

Theoretically, South Africa has one of the most advanced systems of local government in the world with its powers and functions being constitutionally entrenched. Two different conceptual models of local government were used to assess how autonomous this local government system is in practice. The autonomous model views local government as a clearly separated sphere of government, while the integrationist model sees greater functional interdependence between the various spheres of government. The article concludes that there are different views of decentralisation within the state. On the one hand there are local government reform measures by the state to position itself within the global economy that reflects a more integrationist view of local government. On the other hand there are elements of the autonomous model such as attempts to empower local government through the promotion of local democracy.     

Between Democracy and Efficiency: Trends in Local Government Reform in the Netherlands and Germany

In this article attention is drawn to a striking difference between recent attempts to reform local government in the Netherlands and in Germany. What has been the prime focus of attention in the Netherlands in the 1980s is being emphasized in Germany in the 1990s, and what is being emphasized in the Netherlands in the 1990s has been the prime focus of attention in Germany in the 1980s. Trends in local goverment reform in the Netherlands have been going from a focus on more efficiency to a focus on more democracy, while trends in local government reform in Germany have been going the other way around. Likely explanations for these intersecting reform trends are built on four pillars: financial crises, legitimacy crises, formal institutions and informal institutions     

The Politics of Local Government Reform in Northern Ireland

A major review of public administration in Northern Ireland has resulted in proposals for radical reforms in health, education and local government services. Although originating from the devolved government of 1999, intermittent suspensions resulted in Direct Rule Ministers taking over responsibility for the review. This article traces the influence of a sizeable body of research evidence on the outcomes of the review, specifically controversial reforms to local government, and the significant influence attached to macro political factors in reaching key public policy decisions. It also highlights the asymmetry in power relations between Stormont and local government and how devolution has simply compounded regional centralism in Northern Ireland.     

Modernising Local Government: Micro-Organisational Reform and Changing Local Structural Configurations

This article takes an indicative group of county, metropolitan and unitary authorities located in the English West Midlands to examine how effectively local government is grappling with modernising’ reforms in a context where the appropriate unit of analysis has become problematic because of broader changes to local governance. Sub-national territorial structural variability is becoming more pronounced while, paradoxically, what stands out in the micro-organisational dimension is the extent to which local authorities are increasingly working to a common reform agenda, notwithstanding the need to resolve incoherences in New Labour's modernisation project. The explanation for these observed (contrary) changes lies not only in the vagaries of top-down pressures emanating from central political and regulatory infiuences, but also in local institutional dynamics, as well as in lateral or peer dissemination of ‘good’ practice within local government.     

Local Democracy in a Digital Age: Lessons for Local Government from the Manchester Congestion Charge Referendum

Local government in England has, in general, struggled with exploiting the much heralded democratic potential of the Internet. Evaluations of the local e-democracy initiatives, funded as part of the New Labour Government's e-government programme, were largely unfavourable. Since this initiative ended usage of the Internet has arguably reached a critical mass opening new opportunities for local policy makers interested in more effectively involving citizens in the local decision-making process. This article illustrates these opportunities by drawing on new empirical evidence of the online political activity associated with the 2008 Manchester Congestion Charge referendum. It also serves to highlight the political challenges facing local government and argues that if the Internet is to be used for strengthening local democracy then local government must become a fit for purpose institution and develop strategies that tackle the online influence of vested economic interests and the problem of enacting local citizenship online.     

Local Government Modernization in Germany: Between Incrementalism and Reform Waves

In taking a historical-institutionlist approach, this paper looks at the development of administrative reforms in German local government which, because of the comparatively high degree of political and administrative decentralization of the Federal Republic has played a crucial role in the latter's entire politico-administrative setting and, hence, in its institutional reforms. The paper mainly identifies three stages in the post-war development of administrative reforms. During the 'planning movement' of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Germany's local level government and administration underwent significant and, to a considerable degree, lasting institutional changes. The 1980s were a period of incrementalist adaptation. Since the beginning of the 1990s, conspicuously later than in the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries, but earlier and faster than the federal and the Länder levels, Germany's local government has embarked upon dramatic changes particularly on two scores. First, in a growing number of municipalities and counties, administrative modernization was incorporated under the heading of a 'New Steering Model' (NSM) that largely drew on the dominant international New Public Management (NPM) debate. The dynamics of the ongoing administrative reforms are marked by an 'amalgamation' of NPM/NSM and earlier ('traditional') reform concepts. Secondly, at the same time, the political institutions of local government have under-gone a significant shift as a result of the introduction of direct democratic procedures (direct election of mayors and heads of counties, binding local referenda). The paper argues that it is this co-incidence and co-evolution of administrative and political reforms that make for the peculiarity of Germany's current modernization trajectory, distinguishing it from the Anglo-Saxon and, to a lesser degree, from the Scandinavian modernization paths.     

Local Government Policy Evolution in New Zealand: Radical Reform and the Ex Post Emergence of Consensus or Rival Advocacy Coalitions

Between 1984 and 1993 New Zealand reformers followed a top-down strategy designed to minimize the opportunity for resistors to affect the reform process and preclude the ex post emergence of a stable alignment of rival advocacy coalitions. The evolution of the local government policy debate since the implementation of radical reform in 1989 suggests that these strategic goals may be more difficult to achieve than at first thought. The quest to make local government more efficient and democratic by making it more accountable has given way to a 'minimalist-activist' controversy over the comparative institutional advantage of local authorities and the role of trust in their relations with central government that has the potential to contribute to the eclipse of the post-reform consensus and the emergence of a 'advocacy coalition structure'.     

Local Political Leadership and the Modernisation of Local Government

Political leadership has been a key element of central government's attempts to ‘modernise’ local government over the past decade, within a discourse that emphasised ‘strong’ and ‘visible’ leadership and the role of leaders and leadership in driving change within local authorities. In the context of such an approach, and also taking account of academic discourse, this article draws upon interviews with nearly thirty individuals in leadership positions in local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales to assess their experiences of leadership and their views of some aspects of the role and work of councils. It suggests that whilst there is broad convergence between the aspirations of government and the narratives that emerge from these leaders on some aspects of local political leadership, there are also differences, perhaps most notably over the relationship between changes to decision-making structures and the loci of political power.     

Health and Local Government Partnerships: The Local Government Policy Context

This article explores partnerships between health and local government from the local government perspective; placing developments between the two sectors within the wider context of the Local Government Modernisation agenda. A number of commentators have argued that developments since 1997 – in particular the emphasis on community leadership and the new power of well-being – have provided local authorities with an exciting opportunity to reclaim a more pivotal role in shaping the health agenda at the local level. Such a role would be based on promoting well-being and a good quality of life, in keeping with the social model of health. In the longer run this reclaimed role could produce a shift in what has become the main boundary between health and local government: the health–social care boundary. The article reviews developments in three key areas: the health–social care boundary; the core components of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda; and the relationship between regeneration and health. The paper concludes that although progress has been made in regeneration and health and there is potential in elements of the Modernisation Agenda that these do not equate to a paradigm shift in local government's perspective on health. Instead, the social care boundary continues to dominate local government's vision of health. Central to this picture of modest progress is the substantial barrier to more radical change provided by the performance management frameworks governing both sectors.     

'Enabling' And The 1993 Local Government Act In New South Wales

Different conceptions of 'enablement' provide a framework for the analysis of the reform of local government in New South Wales. The enabling local authority is one that contracts out to the commercial and not-for-profit sectors, adopts a consumerist approach to the recipients of services, engages in strategic planning, influences other organizations, stimulates pluralist collectivism, and facilitates participation. In New South Wales the Local Government Act of 1993, though potentially enabling, especially in the delegation of a general competence, has had less effect than might have been expected. However, local government has traditionally been enabling in the narrow sense as well as in the sense of employing interesting forms of participative community management and in seeking to influence the decisions of other organizations which are part of local governance. Some councils are developing community plans to strengthen these relationships.     

Financing Local Government

There has been much debate in the UK over the implications for local government accountability of the high proportion of central funding of local government. The question has received particular attention recently as a key issue in the government's 'Balance of Funding' review. Two forms of accountability can be distinguished: average accountability and marginal accountability. This paper provides an analysis of the relationship between the balance of funding and these two concepts of accountability and concludes that increasing the proportion of local funding would be beneficial. One method of addressing problems caused by high central funding would be to introduce a local income tax alongside council tax, enabling the central grant to be reduced. The paper examines practical issues involved in the introduction of such a tax.     

Social Media Use in Local Government: An Australian Perspective

Social media offers governments extensive opportunities to engage with citizens, particularly at the local level. This study investigates the issues that local governments face in implementing social media initiatives. It builds on existing literature by using an interpretive approach to examine the perceptions of public employees and elected officials of local councils in an Australian context. The article reports on the issues that inhibit a move to a more interactive use of social media and examines how these may be addressed. Implications for research and practice are given.     

Amalgamation Impacts on Local Public Expenditures in Sweden

This paper concerns amalgamation impacts on local public expenditures. The empirical analysis is based on the extensive 1952 municipal reform in Sweden. The 1952 reform amalgamated municipalities in a way that they had at least 2,000–3,500 inhabitants. This was done in the belief that larger municipalities would improve administration efficiency and public services by exploiting economies of scale. The results show that the reform had a negative impact on expenditures as long as the municipalities did not exceed a critical size.