Disclosure on Measures to Prevent Corruption Risks: A Study of Italian Local Governments

This article investigates the characteristics of the disclosures of anticorruption measures that Italian local governments (LGs) publish to increase transparency, public accountability, and citizens’ trust in public administration. The analysis of the anticorruption plans of a sample of Italian LGs shows that this type of disclosure might be a way of repairing organizational legitimacy after an occurrence of corruption. More external directors in the governing body also increase the pressure on LG managers to publish information about anticorruption measures. Finally, larger LGs demonstrate a greater propensity to provide information on the actions implemented to mitigate corruption risks.     

The Determinants of E-Disclosure Attitude: Empirical Evidences from Italian and Spanish Municipalities

Research investigates the attitude to the information disclosure via website, analysing a sample of 287 Italian and Spanish municipalities. A Tobit regression approach is adopted to explore the main determinants of e-disclosure. The findings show that municipality’s factors like Internet visibility, wealth and leverage play an important role to determine the level of e-disclosure. In addition, a cluster analysis highlights that in Italy there is a greater level of e-disclosure than in Spain, revealing a set of specific elements that characterize municipalities with higher disclosure.     

Testing the antecedents to e-democracy towards citizens’ happiness: a structural equation modelling approach to ‘MyGov’ initiative,India

ABSTRACT

“MyGov” is an ambitious ICT-based platform of the government of India, where citizens contribute to policy making by engaged in various ways. As the initiative is about to complete 5 years, the research is focused on to test the antecedents to e-democracy and citizens’ happiness by a structural equation modeling on responses from 413 users of “MyGov” platform. The empirical outcomes established the predictive role of transparency and value expectancy on e-democracy in addition to the impact of trust and e-democracy on citizens’ happiness. The study also supported the positive association between transparency and trust.     

The Determinants of Local Government's Financial Transparency

This paper contributes to the scarce literature on government transparency by analysing the impact of political and socio-economic factors on municipal financial transparency. Our sample covers the 100 largest Spanish municipalities in 2008. Compulsory publicity and transparency are key to public management (rule-of-law theory). Our data show that Spanish municipalities are providing financial information beyond the legal requirements, thus exceeding the compulsory disclosures required by the rule-of-law theory. The more taxes and more transfers per capita, the more financial information is disclosed and, accordingly, the higher the transparency is. Therefore the municipalities are not taking advantage of fiscal illusion or principal–agent effects, since they are not concealing higher levels of taxes and transfers from citizens. Furthermore, left-wing parties are more transparent than right-wing ones. Finally, the population also has a positive effect on the achievement of financial transparency.     

Women’s political representation and transparency in local governance

Despite the growing interest on the influence of gender in local government, the relationship between women’s political representation on municipalities, as council member or as female mayors, and transparency is an under-researched topic. This article analyses the political representation of women in Spanish local councils and their influence on the level of transparency. Results show that women’s political representation in municipalities has a positive influence on the level of transparency, increasing information transparency and reducing information asymmetry.     

Fund Accounting from the Italian Early Tradition to the U.S. GAAP for Governments

Surprising correspondences emerge from the parallel investigation of fund accounting practices in Italian entities until the late nineteenth century and in the contemporary U.S. public sector. The analysis attempts to interpret similarities and differences in light of dissimilar environmental features, and wonders if the Italian tradition could have some explanatory capability on the U.S. present standards. The “fund” concept and its use are strictly similar; they are founded on information needs for governance and internal control. Contemporary requirements for democracy and transparency, and opportunities coming from modern ICT tools bring U.S. organizations to be accountable to the citizenry.     

Budget Transparency in Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis

The aim of this paper is to shed additional light on the determinants of budget transparency in local governments. Our work is based on a Likert-type survey questionnaire specifically designed to measure budget transparency in small municipalities. The questionnaire is based on the IMF's revised Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency (2007). Results from 33 Galician municipalities are used to assess its internal consistency and to test a battery of hypotheses on the determinants of budget transparency. While several previous findings of the literature are confirmed, some new results are also obtained.     

Freedom of information in local government: rhetoric or reality?

The aim of this paper is to analyse the level of implementation by Spanish local authorities of the Transparency Act (19/2013), and their voluntary information disclosure in areas where such disclosure is obligatory in other EU countries. We identify the main factors that may influence the implementation of this Act and the self-regulation policies adopted. Our analysis highlights the existence of delays among some local authorities, with notable differences between municipalities with larger and smaller populations, in implementing the Act, and also the fact that many municipalities are committed to achieving transparency, often going beyond minimum legal requirements. Factors such as population size, the political ideology of the governing party and the education level and economic capacity of the population are related to the level of implementation of transparency and self-regulatory policies in this respect by local authorities. We acknowledge that the 2013 Act was still being implemented during the period analysed.     

The determinants of fiscal transparency in Chinese city-level governments

ABSTRACT

The transparency of the fiscal performance of governments has attracted attention from researchers, policy-makers and practitioners around the world. This study examines the determinants of fiscal transparency in the city-level governments of China, which has become a key issue in the drive to modernise the Chinese state. Employing cross-sectional data from the 2017 Statistical Yearbooks published by the official statistical institutions and the 2017 Fiscal transparency report of city-level governments edited by the Tsinghua University, this study finds that economic development, economic openness, and dependence on transfer payments are associated with weaker fiscal transparency. Large cities, those with high levels of internet usage and cities higher up within the Chinese administrative hierarchy are associated with stronger fiscal transparency. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Faces and Phases of Transparency Reform in Local Government

Abstract

The authors draw on public and official perceptions to discuss the discontinuities between various interpretations of transparency in local government jurisdictions. The article seeks to establish a theoretical understanding of transparency in public administration literature. Transparency in the formative years of a nation is not necessarily the same idea as transparency in a globalizing information age. Likewise, the meaning of transparency in least developed countries is changing with their acquisition of sophisticated information technologies and pressures to reduce corruption. Scholarship on transparency needs to recognize the different changes in meaning ascribed to this very important administrative principle. Evidently, universal lessons might be brought to bear to help develop a coherent theoretical basis on stages and interpretations of transparency reforms in local governments.     

Contracting Out Local Government Services to Private Agents: An Analysis of Contract Design and Service Delivery Performance in Ghana

Contracting out is generally justified on the principle that as governments contract out part of their responsibilities in service provision to private agents, they harness the power of market competition which leads to efficiency in service provision. In working with private contractors, local governments (LGs) face problems related to agent opportunism, while agents also face risks such as dereliction of payment responsibility by LGs for services delivered. The literature shows that these problems are addressed through a web of contractual arrangements. Using agency theory, this study investigates the relationship between contract design and quality of services delivery in three Ghanaian cities (Accra, Kumasi and Tema). The study found a surprising negative correlation between contract document and agents' performance. The paper concludes that effectiveness of contracting out documents depends on contract management capacity of government administrators. In its absence, LGs that contract out are exposed to risks. The paper uses the findings to reflect on the inherent deficiencies in agency theory and Africanist literature on patronage.     

NPM Reforms in Napoleonic Countries: A Comparative Study of Management Accounting Innovations in Greek and Italian Municipalities

This is a comparative study of the rationale and effects of management accounting innovations in Greek and Italian municipalities, as part of the NPM reform in the public sector. This article aims to understand the extent of adoption of accounting innovations in Greek and Italian municipalities, and the factors affecting the specific techniques in use. The study reports on a survey based on medium-sized and large Italian and Greek municipalities, targeted at public municipalities’ accountants, the users of accounting techniques. The study identifies the intended purposes of NPM reform and, particularly, management accounting innovations, analyzes a set of factors that affect the implementation of management accounting technologies, and discusses determinants and features of such innovation on a comparative perspective.     

New Public Management Reforms in the Italian Universities: Managerial Tools,Accountability Mechanisms or Simply Compliance?

Since 2009, a cross-sectorial reform based on the New Public Management (NPM) principles introduced a performance management system in Italian universities. On the basis of the analysis of the documents regarding the performance management system produced by 60 public Italian universities as a result of the reform implementation, the paper investigates the performance management tools in relation to both completeness and use of them. The analysis highlights that the universities have implemented performance management tools in an unstructured and nonhomogeneous way. This allows formulation of hypotheses on the main determinants of this unsatisfactory result.     

TRANSPARENCY IN PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL?

Scholars' criticism of transparency in public–private partnerships (PPPs) often focuses on ‘external’ transparency, that is, the extent to which internal information is visible to the outside world. However, to achieve external transparency, internal transparency – the availability and inferability of information for the public procurer and the private party – is crucial. In this article we analyse input, process, and output transparency from three different perspectives (institutional, cognitive, and strategic) in four PPPs in the Netherlands. We conclude that input transparency is high, but process and output transparency less so. Moreover, output transparency has gained importance in PPPs. Whether this is problematic depends on the PPPs' institutional environment. In some partnerships the desired output is uncontested and predetermined by clear standards in the institutional environment, whereas other PPPs deal with contested output norms, decreasing the partnerships' transparency. These results nuance the current debate on the lack of transparency in PPPs.     

Biased Budgeting in the Public Sector: Evidence from Italian Local Governments

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse, in terms of presence, determinants and purposes, the misrepresentation of expected revenues during budget formulation and the misrepresentation of actual revenues during budget execution. To this end, we use six-year panel data from Italian municipalities with populations above 15,000. Our results suggest that overestimations of current revenues are more frequent than underestimations, during both budget formulation and budget execution. In terms of determinants, our results highlight the impact on revenue misrepresentation of both political orientation and fiscal stress. Finally, in terms of purposes, we show that revenue underestimation during budget formulation and revenue overestimation during budget execution may contribute to the formation of surpluses. The former, in particular, may allow mayors to create a ‘war chest’ in non-election years, which can then be used to increase net borrowing on the eve of elections.     

Examining Development of E-Government in Russia and China: A Comparative Approach

E-government has been an emerging trend in recent decades, inviting interest from policy makers, bureaucrats, citizens, and public administration researchers. The purpose of this article is to track and analyze inception and evolution of e-government systems in Russia and China. Authors utilized the UN e-government survey to compare various dimensions of e-government over eleven years. The findings indicate that although both countries achieved high levels of e-government development, marked by a high level of availability and integration of e-government services, both Russia and China came short of reaching e-democracy, the highest level of e-government, which inherently promotes e-participation.     

Two Faces of Transparency: The Regulations of People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information

The People’s Republic of China enacted the first nationwide open government information regulations (OGIRs) in 2007. The regulations safeguard Chinese citizens’ right to know and provide public oversight. This analysis aims to explain how and why the Chinese government incorporates the universal values of transparency and accountability into the complex Chinese political systems. The article first provides a theoretical framework of government transparency and a quick road map of OGIRs for international audiences by tracing its regulatory details. It then analyzes OGIRs’ external mechanisms of transparency on how information flows to the citizenry through public supervision and judicial review. Fourthly, the article explains OGIRs’ internal mechanisms of transparency and accountability through the hierarchical control of the party-state agencies and officials. The article emphasizes that transparency and accountability are as important to today’s Chinese government and civil society as they are in democratic regimes generally. OGIR shares the values of external transparency and legislative missions of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). However, the Chinese government tailors information disclosure to meet the institutional requirement of strengthening internal accountability mechanisms, maintaining the party-state’s authority and legitimacy, and representing the collective welfare and public interest.     

Governmental financial resilience under austerity in Austria,England and Italy: How do local governments cope with financial shocks?

The recent economic and fiscal crisis provides an opportunity for learning lessons of general and practical relevance about how governments face shocks affecting their financial conditions. This article draws on the resilience concept to investigate the organizational capacities that are deployed and/or built by local governments (LGs) to respond to such shocks, looking at their combinations and interactions with environmental conditions. The article presents the results of a multiple‐case analysis of 12 European LGs across Austria, Italy and England. The analysis allows us to highlight and operationalize different patterns of financial resilience, that is, self‐regulation, constrained or reactive adaptation, contented or powerless fatalism, that are the result of the interaction and development over time of different internal and external dimensions.     

Open Source Governance—A More Ambitious Cousin of Collaborative Governance

Open source represents a model generally known for its success in software production. The objective of this article is to establish a new strategic approach of using open source development principles for managing collaborative arrangements between citizens and public administration. The identity of open source governance is developed by highlighting how it is different from its main “competitor”—collaborative governance, and from other two popular concepts—open government and e-democracy. The other sections are designed to answer to public managers regarding why and what to adopt from this governance model for public sector services.     

Public vs. Private in Hospital Efficiency: Exploring Determinants in a Competitive Environment

This study investigates the determinants of efficiency in an Italian regional health system and estimates the effect exerted by ownership on hospitals’ performance. To achieve this aim, the Veneto region was considered as a case study and a full dataset (2011–2012) containing nonpublicly available technical data and cost and income items was analyzed. Efficiencies are measured applying a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA). Our results suggest that private hospitals perform better than public hospitals in productivity and cost saving, not considering the effect of other environmental and operational variables such as length of stay and beds per capita.