Local Government Restructuring: Privatization and Its Alternatives

Local government restructuring should no longer be viewed as a simple dichotomy between private and public provision. A 1997 survey of chief elected township and county officials in New York shows that local governments use both private and public sector mechanisms to structure the market, create competition, and attain economies of scale. In addition to privatization and inter‐municipal cooperation, two alternative forms of service delivery not previously researched—reverse privatization and governmental entrepreneurship—are analyzed here. Logistic regression on the 201 responding governments differentiates the decision to restructure from the level and complexity of restructuring. Results confirm that local governments are guided primarily by pragmatic concerns with information, monitoring, and service quality. Political factors are not significant in the restructuring process and unionization is only significant in cases of simple restructuring (privatization or cooperation used alone). Fiscal stress is not a primary motivator, but debt limits are associated with more complex forms of restructuring. Restructuring service delivery requires capacity to take risks and is more common among experienced local officials in larger, higher‐income communities. Restructuring should be viewed as a complex, pragmatic process where governments combine public and private provision with an active role as service provider and market player. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

我国地方政府体制改革路径的反思

伴随着我国30年的改革进程,地方政府的积极功能被极大地释放,同时,部分地方政府的腐败也日益严重.这种令人迷惑不解的现象,在一定程度上与我国改革的路径有逻辑关系.第一,我国采取以利益调整为核心的改革形式,这种利益主体博弈的渐进过程,使改革基本平稳,却使地方政府权力约束趋于软化;第二,我国采取中央统合主义的改革策略,使改革避免了社会震荡,但是,地方政府创新能力受到一定抑制,并使"上有政策,下有对策"普遍存在;第三,我国实行以行政力量为推动力的改革手段,增强了改革的成功几率,却也使地方政府寻租现象严重;第四,我国改革实际呈现出"悬浮"于民众与社会需求的单向性特点,这种政府主导式的改革,使社会发育与公民参与都没有到位,无法保证改革动力的充分展示.今后,我国体制改革的继续推进,路径完善是一个重要的关键.     

Leadership in Local Government Reform: Strategic Direction v Administrative Compliance

This paper reports on a survey across 26 Victorian local councils which assessed the impact of local government reform – boundary restructuring – compulsory competitive tendering, across-the-board rate cuts and rate capping, on the management and organisation of local government organisations in that state. It highlights the fact that leadership, planning and performance management is essential in responding to these reforms. It also reveals thatsome councils have been able to assist employees to make the shift to an outcomes-oriented deliverer of local services while others have made much less progress and are still focused on the traditional, compliance-oriented culture of local government administration.     

Local Government in Transformation: The Case of Constitutional Reform in Yugoslavia

The previous communal system in Yugoslavia (since 1955) did not prove viable. Owing to its great size (nearly 500 km² and more than 40,000 inhabitants), municipality in this period didn't affirm itself as a real community. Having many abilities in developmental planning, it was at the same time dependent on the state in the spheres of finance and normative regulations. The difference between the sphere of local government (LG) and state politics was substantially blurred.
Given the changing social conditions (introduction of market economy, political pluralism and the forms of parliamentarian democracy), the need for repeated establishment of the system of local government based on the altered position of citizens in the political system becomes evident. In this environment it is necessary to reestimate the experiences of LG in particular Yugoslav regions (republics) before World War II, and simultaneously, take selectively into account the experiences and development in other developed European countries.
This article compares the constitutional regulations of LG among particular Yugoslav republics, and between them and the characteristic orientations in other European countries, enlightening it with the aspect of actual processes and demands of centralization and decentralization, regionalism, moving the regulation of communal and other everyday needs closer to the people in LG, all in the sense of post-behavioristic trends of the "bottom-up" approach to the processes of decision-making.     

美国地方政府改革及其对中国的借鉴意义

美国地方政府是一个数量庞大、种类繁多、互不隶属、功能各异的“百衲被”式的多样化体系。20世纪 80年代以来,美国地方政府的改革趋势主要体现在组织形式上的多样化导向、政府间关系的合作化导向、公共产品和服务对象上的顾客导向、纵向权力关系上的分权导向、内部管理上的企业化导向。尽管两国在政治制度和文化传统等方面存在较大差异,但美国地方政府的改革经验仍然对中国行政体制改革特别是地方政府改革具有一定借鉴意义。     

地方政府公共服务供给侧改革研究

地方政府作为国家重要组成机构,承载着公共服务的重要职能,是国家公共服务的核心体现和基础。伴随着公共需求的发展与变化,公共服务需求与供给之间矛盾突出,对地方政府公共服务提出了新的挑战。将供给侧改革引入地方政府公共服务领域,通过供给端改革发力向需求端传导,是实现公共服务供需均衡,提升公共服务效率的创新途径。地方政府公共服务供给侧改革的关键是明确公共服务供给侧改革的价值取向与供给主体定位,以良性协作、达成行动为归依,利用社会与市场机制完善资源配置,调整供给结构,提高供给主体的供给能力,构建政府、市场与社会间多元供给机制,完善供给侧改革的配套机制,以供给侧改革促进供需平衡,实现供需"双到位"。     

Context and Mechanisms in Administrative Reform Processes: Performance Management Within Italian Local Government

ABSTRACT

This article aims to present new research on the politics of public management reform in Napoleonic countries. Drawing on the institutional processualist approach, the empirical analysis tracks and explains the trajectory and outcomes of episodes where performance management has been introduced at the local level in Italy. The comparative case analysis shows that plausible causal explanation of the outcomes of public management reform can occur only if researchers are attentive to the interaction between social mechanisms and contextual features together with their interconnections through time.     

Municipal Amalgamations and Common Pool Problems: The Danish Local Government Reform in 2007

Amalgamating municipalities carries risks in terms of public expenditure control. The tax base of the new amalgamated municipality represents a common pool resource. The incentive is to exploit it – that is, to spend before closing time. This article investigates last-minute spending by Danish municipalities before the local government reform in 2007 in which 271 municipalities were reduced to 98. It shows that local councillors exploited this situation to finance local projects before closing time. The article thus demonstrates the occurrence of common pool problems in amalgamation situations. However, it also shows that it is the availability of a common pool that matters, not its size.     

以地方政府改革创新论行政管理体制改革——2009年地方政府改革典型调研分析

在对12个省市进行调研的基础上,分析·地方政府行政改革创新举措的现状,总结了其中的成绩,分析了出现的普遍性问题.问题主要为改革理论研究不足,改革系统化程度有限、透明度不高、创新空间不足、法制化程度低、没有触及政府职能的核心领域.针对这些问题,指出在宏大的行政管理体制改革进程中,需要进行全面的理论研究,进行系统的规划,中央政府在实践中应通过政策制定强化分类指导,激励地方政府寻求突破.     

Reform or Resistance? Local Government Responses to State-Mandated Ethics Reform in Kentucky

Although several studies have examined state and federal regulationof political corruption andethics reform, few studies have extendedtheir focus to local governments. In this study, we examinethe local government response to stale-mandated ethics reformin Kentucky during the 1990s. Based on a quantitative analysisof local government ethics codes in 288 cities, we concludethat local compliance with state-mandated ethics reform hasbeen largely driven by local political factors. Cities withrelatively developed democratic institutions, characterizedby high levels of electoral competition and a strong media presence,were significantly more likely to construct strict ethics ordinances,as were cities reflecting moralistic political cultural values.     

中国地方政府变革的研究路径简论

本文归纳了目前研究中国地方政府变革的四种路径,即经济路径、国家中心路径、社会中心路径以及能动者路径。在比较了它们的优点和缺陷的基础上,文章提出可以采取治理的路径来研究地方政府的变革,并且阐述了该路径所具有的独特优势。     

N Generations of Reform in UK Local Government: Compliance and Resistance to Institutional Pressures

ABSTRACT

The UK government under the Thatcher administration was one of the first to launch NPM-type reforms. Since then, several generations of reform initiatives can be identified in the UK—including the “quality” initiative under Major, the Blair administration's early emphasis on “Best Value,” followed by its emphasis on targets and inspection, and its recent reconversion to public governance concerns. The UK, then, represents an interesting test case for studying how several generations of reforms co-exist and inter-relate. This article examines the imprint of past reforms in the current drive towards contestability and choice in local government modernization. It argues that coercive isomorphism has been evident in local government but that resistance has been successfully mounted against each generation of reforms, that these resistance efforts have themselves displayed isomorphic tendencies but that, nevertheless, a gradual move towards a mixed economy of provision has emerged in many local authorities.     

过去10年的中国地方政府改革——基于中国地方政府创新奖的评价

依据中国地方政府创新奖创办以来五届申请项目的资料,辅以问卷调查,对过去10年来中国地方政府创新的若干问题进行了讨论。这些问题包括中国地方政府创新的现实性、创新的分布、创新的类型、创新的动力和可持续性以及创新的影响力。研究发现,必须从中国社会政治发展的总体背景出发来审视丰富多彩的地方政府创新。这些创新多是从问题出发的,是对现有体制的充实和发展。但是,创新分布于不同的层级和部门,所以其对整体制度的影响也会由于层级、部门之间的矛盾而受到削弱。     

地方政府改革中县级行政体制创新与模式转型

当前县级行政管理体制改革和创新面临的主要问题是,理论研究层面欠缺,目标模式选择不确定,现有的行政体制存在制约,政府职能转变不到位.县级行政体制改革创新的目标导向,应是坚持正确的改革方向,确立科学合理的价值理念,采取切实可行的改革和创新措施.其基本路径是以改革为突破口,进行权力结构的调整与革新,调整和完善垂直管理体制,进一步理顺和明确"条"与"块"的权责关系,改革和完善现行的财政管理体制,实现事权与财权相统一,科学界定新形势下县级政府的职能,合理核定县级行政单位的机构设置,探索大部制改革之路.     

比较视野下的中国地方政府改革及其挑战

20世纪以来,基于行政理论、经济理论和民主理论的西方政府改革,呈现统治职能的非人格化、管理职能的刚性化和服务职能的扩大化等特征。进入21世纪,中国政府发展为应对"现代化"和"后现代"两个历史阶段的高度叠加,在兼顾"管理补课"和"改善服务"的问题上,整合20世纪以来西方政府改革的三种价值取向,形塑了较为均衡的地方治理风格。当下,在构建国家治理体系进程中,地方政府改革和发展的"三合一"模式面临挑战。     

治理结构多元化：地方政府机构改革的新思路

通过对当代中国地方政府机构改革的一些典型个案进行分析,发现其陷入困境的深层次原因在于强调国家统一管理而导致的地方治理结构单一化。当代中国的地方治理结构单一化是历史遗传和传统体制的产物,与转轨时期纵向政府间关系中存在的压力型体制也有着内在的关联。随着改革的深入,地方治理结构单一化的弊端逐渐显现出来。但是,从美国和英国等西方发达国家的实践来看,地方治理结构多元化与国家的统一管理并不矛盾。因此,在已有的地方政府机构改革的思路基础上,实现地方治理结构多元化应该成为继续推进当代中国地方政府机构改革的新思路。