Multiple Indicators of financial instability in local governments

This paper suggests methods to ascertain the fiscal health of local governments. The methods can be applied to total, short-term, or long-term indebtedness and are conducive to market or regulatory management approaches. Essentially, we argue against the use of single indicators of financial health applied in an absolute manner and for the comparative use of multiple indicators through time. Tracking multiple indicators through time affords administrators, regulators, investors and citizens a better picture of the financial situation of a locale in comparison to other similar locales at any point in time as well as a clearer indication of potentially troublesome trends. The paper concludes with an illustration of the multiple indicators method applied to the total and GOB indebtedness of a sample of 161 Florida cities and towns. The illustration includes a suggested threshold level and finds less than 10 percent of Florida cities and towns above this limit.

The paper concludes with an illustration of the multiple indicators method applied to the total and GOB indebtedness of a sample of 161 Florida cities and towns. The illustration includes a suggested threshold level and finds less than 10 percent of Florida cities and towns above this limit.     

Expert Knowledge Mediation in the Relationship between Cultural Stakeholders,Politics and the State

This article is based on the general hypothesis that in Chile, as in many other parts of the world, politics has professionalized and the State has been transformed into an institution that possesses rational government knowledge (Joignant 2004). This has occurred within the framework of specific historical and social conditions that provide increasing differentiation and autonomy in both the political field and within specific government agencies. The cultural arena has also been impacted by these transformations. In this work, we will concentrate on the specific case of the cultural institutional framework that Chile has built over the past 20 years, upholding that the genesis and subsequent operation of Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes (National Council of Culture and the Arts) was determined by the inter-relationship between certain consecrated knowledge, cultural actors and the political world, where the intellectual/expert had an active participation in the whole process.     

Environmental cooperation among Swedish local governments

Recent contributions to the literature on collective action towards common pool resources (CPR) hold that for such action to become institutionalized among the principals sharing the CPR, there must develop “trust and a sense of community.” Using data on existing environmental cooperation among Swedish municipalities, as well as data from a 1991 survey of Chief Environmental Inspectors in those municipalities, this article analyzes whether the content, intensity and patterns of the cooperation and contacts across municipal borders do in fact contribute to such a development. Using the results of this analysis, the article ends with a discussion of the odds for a supply of CPR regimes across municipal boundaries in Sweden.     

Organisational culture and strategic change in Australian local governments

This study examines the impact of organisational culture on strategic change in local governments in Australia. The findings indicate that strategic change is affected by two organisational culture factors, innovation and attention to detail. This study contributes to the management accounting contingency literature and the public management literature by providing an insight into the role of organisational culture as a contingency factor influencing strategic change. Such findings may be used by local government managers to enact change effectively.     

Pay-for-performance in local governments: the views of personnel directors

This article provides new information about the use of pay-for-performance in local governments by presenting findings from a national survey of personnel directors in municipalities and counties. The findings show that most respondents view pay-for- performance as a useful tool, even though it is only used in a minority of local governments. An in-depth analysis of 40 possible benefits and problems showed that PFP benefits are relatively undefined and that users do experience some potentially serious problems, though these problems appear less serious than the existing literature would predict.     

Subnational governments in a stabilization program: lessons learned in Argentina

Autonomous subnational governments pose a serious challenge to national stabilization strategies. As illustrated by the case of Argentina, fiscal reforms that have been successfuly implemented at the national level have proved to be much harder to induce among subnational governments. Provincial reform is still largely pending and provincial governments continue to generate large public deficits, posing a threat to the success of Argentina's overall reform program in the medium and long term.

This paper provides a retrospective on Argentina's reform program with a focus on subnational governments. It identifies elements within the reform program itself, such as windfall increases of guaranteed central transfers, that systematically undermined early efforts to induce provincial reform. It also examines the government's strategy to neutralize their effects through the decentralization of services and the negotiation of two fiscal pacts, as well as its success in introducing major reforms by capitalizing on the financial pressure that resulted from the Mexican crisis. Finally, it draws lessons of experience that may be useful for policy makers faced with the similar challenge of inducing fiscal reform within autonomous subnational goverments.     

Administrative innovation in municipal government

The purpose of this study is to identify those factors which account for administrative innovation in municipal government bureaucracies. Two dimensions of administrative innovation are examined: management and technology. Management innovation refers to procedures and methods by which policies are implemented. Technology innovation refers to the adoption of new physical products or processes. Multiple indicators of specific innovative practices are used to create a management scale and a technology scale and the two scales are then combined to create a composite administration innovation scale. In order to explain the dimensions of innovation the study employs a model comprised of three sets of independent variables: community variables, political system variables, and bureaucratic variables. Multiple regression analysis is used to examine the relationship between each set of independent variables and the dipensions of innovation. A second stage of analysis combines the three sets of explanatory variables into a single equation for each type of innovation. The results indicate that the three sets of variables are of significant power in explaining innovation, although as one moves from community variables to political variables to bureaucratic variables there is a decline in the amount of variation explained. Some variables are more important for certain types of innovation than for others, but population size, community growth rate, and electoral competition cut across the various types of innovation.     

A working model to help institutionalize quality improvements in local governments

This article describes a working model designed to help leadership in public management introduce quality improvements and eventually facilitate transformations to quality organizations (TQO). By quality improvements and transformations to quality organizations -- whether in government, public education, public health, or other fields of activity -- we mean those institutional changes which reliably achieve ever greater effectiveness in accomplishing mission and responsively achieve ever higher levels of measurable service to public “customers.”

This article discusses the development of an organizational assessment instrument which the authors designed for the County of Los Angeles. Building on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the President's Award in the USA, as well as on the review of other state and local criteria and comments received through a national review process, the authors formulated criteria of quality management with a view toward public service customers, particularly at local levels of government.

The model described has been initially applied to conduct self-assessments in four departments of Los Angeles County. It is also intended for broader use by administrative practitioners and scholars interested in the organizational change process. This article reports the development of the working model and identifies some lessons learned. The purpose of this article is threefold: (1) to inform about quality developments in the County of Los Angeles, (2) to present the working model as a point of departure for dialogue about the role which quality criteria might play in strengthening local governments more broadly, and (3) to consider the working model's possible use in facilitating shared mutual learning across geographic and other boundaries electronically.     

The importance of contextual factors for reform efforts in rural local governments

Local governments in rural areas are often characterized as lacking in professionalism and capacity necessary for confronting the variety of problems that must be addressed at the local level.

The public administration perspective is often one of recommending reforms to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness with which these governments do things, thereby increasing their capacity to manage their affairs. Well meaning reformers often take for granted the fact that constituents of the reform-targeted governments also recognize the need for change. In practice, the opposite may be closer to the truth. The State of Mississippi has just endured several years of bitter struggles to restructure its county governments. Resistance to structural reform of county government in Mississippi is largely a factor of the existing split between rural citizens and those who live within incorporated municipalities. While rural citizens generally oppose reforms, this opposition virtually disappears when only African-American citizens are examined. There are some important differences associated with the region of the state in which one resides. These differences are not as important as the message they convey. Reform efforts are important for improved governance in rural areas, but their success or failure may depend upon how accurately we assess the socio-political environment in which these reforms are introduced.     

论人民调解制度的完善

人民调解作为解决纠纷的软手段,在社会生活中被广泛地应用到纠纷解决过程中。其具有灵活性、民主性、准司法性等特征。然而,随着近年来经济文化及法制进程的发展,人民调解自身的纠纷解决功能弱化,人民调解的认可度、公信度降低。因此急需对人民调解制度从调解的程序、调解员队伍建设等方面予以完善,从而提高大众对人民调解制度的认可度,将人民调解机制解决纠纷的功能充分发挥出来。     

Private provision of public services: Contracting by large local governments

This study examines public service delivery by counties and municipalities of over 500,000 popula tion, through the practice of contracting out with the publicsector. It is based on responses to a question naire sent to purchasing officials in American and Canadian cities, counties, and state governments Results indicate the types of services contracted out the frequency of contracting out, procedures utilized and administrative attitudes. We find that a diverse group of non-professional,non-construction services are being provided by private contractors for these jurisdictions, but the jurisdictions are not providing a majority or even a significant portion of their services in this manner.     

Regional councils of governments at the crossroads: implications for intergovernmental management and networks

Councils of governments (COGS) have been subjected to powerful forces of change in the 1980s, due principally to drastic reductions in federal financial support. To survive, the councils have had to become more entrepreneural, to extend themselves in new directions They have scanned their local and regional task environments intensively for opportunities to form and/or join new networks and to provide more services in traditional and in new areas. The new style of council is described in this paper, using a market model. The model emphasizes opportunistic scanning of the regional task environment, and the assessment of issue networks as an iterative process in COG direction setting and implementation efforts.     

Effects of municipal mergers on voter turnout

We study the effects of municipal mergers on voter turnout in a difference-in-differences framework, using data from a wave of municipal mergers in Finland in 2009. Analysing two pre-merger elections and three post-merger elections, spanning a total of 17 years, we find that municipal mergers decrease voter turnout by 4 percentage points in the long run in the relatively small municipalities compared to similar small municipalities that did not merge. As the average turnout rate prior to merging in this group was around 69%, this is a substantial effect. We also find that virtually nothing happens to turnout in the municipalities that were relatively large within their merger. Furthermore, mergers are associated with a decrease in voters’ political efficacy and turnout decreases more in those municipalities that experience larger decreases in efficacy.     

涉少民事案件中诉前强制调解程序的构建

调解是我国民事诉讼中的基本原则,但是涉少民事案件却没有规定诉前强制调解,这不利于涉少民事案件的审理和肘未成年人的保护。本文通过对诉前调解程序的介绍,指出在涉少民事案件实施诉前强制调解的必要性,以及如何构缝诉前强制调解程序。     

An Analysis of Reconciliatory Mediation in Northern Albania: The Role of Customary Mediators

Blood feuds are still festering wounds in northern Albanian society. This study will describe the process and the mechanisms utilised by traditional mediators in resolving blood feuds in northern Albania. It will describe the practice of mediation in northern Albania, and will discuss the reasons why people resort to traditional mediators in blood feuds, what their roles are in the process of mediation, forgiveness and achieving peace and what norms or values are used to influence the parties to make peace.