New Technologies and the Modernization of Local Government: an Analysis of Biases and Constraints

In emerging structures of local governance the institutions of elected local government have the potential to fulfil three complementary roles: those of local democracy, public policy making and direct service delivery. Although ICTs (information and communication technologies) could effectively develop all three roles there is a systemic bias which favours service delivery applications and ignores others. This bias can be explained by reference to a network of actors who determine ICT policy in relative isolation from the other policy networks active at the local level. The ways in which this bias is perpetuated are explored through a case study of ICT policy making in UK local government. The implications of the systemic bias for the long-term future of local government, and indeed public administration, are both severe and profound. They suggest an over-emphasis upon performance measurement, a decline in democratic activity and a diminishing capacity among elected bodies to effect broad public policy initiatives.     

Researching Local Government Using Electronic Surveys

E-government is a theme central to the modernisation of public services and local government in the UK. An unintended consequence of the growth of ICTs is the potential for electronic research methods to replace traditional techniques, potentially resulting in efficiency savings for both researcher and researched. Their viability, however, remains untested. The article reports on the results of two related research exercises involving e-methods in local government research. Response rates from three different survey methods-internet, email and post-are compared. Whilst ICT based surveys proved to be effective research tools, the article also highlights problems of technological compatibility and sample bias. Poor ICT skills, out of date hardware and software and deficient ICT working practices were also experienced, particularly among elected members. These problems may also potentially prove to be a barrier in creating more joined up service delivery and raise questions relating to the pursuit of broader e-government goals.     

Public Services, Quangos And Women: A Concern For Local Government

The past eighteen years have witnessed a shift in the locus of much public sector service provision from elected and heavily regulated local government to the more opaque, appointed sector of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations (QUANGOs). This shift has been the basis of much debate about the nature of democratic accountability and whether the users of public services are empowered by such decentralization. What has yet to be considered is how the displacement of local authority representation and service delivery may affect different groups of service users. This article is concerned with such issues in relation to women as consumers of public services who, from genuine political as well as expedient motivations, have been relatively well represented by local authorities. The concern here is that as decision making moves away from public view, the need to be seen to accommodate difference is lost, and representative diversity will suffer.     

Preventive veto and obstructive veto: the imposition of public policy by organizations on the margins of government

This article argues that powerful organizations at the margins of government (i. e,, contractors, franchisers, quangos, state-owned corporations, etc.) which provide vital public services are able to impose public policy on the electorate and elected officials in democratic countries. These organizations' enormous resources, including not only their tangible assets, but also freedom from accountability and dependent clientele, constitute both a source of power and vital vested interests. Illustrating with the example of the Kupat Holim Sick Fund of Israel, it shows how when these interests are significantly jeopardized, the organizations impose veto power: a preventive veto at the policy making stage or an obstructive veto at the policy implementation stage. Both types of veto enable them to appropriate the major instruments of policy making - allocation, regulation, and restructuring - from elected government. This ability undermines the traditional relationship between the electorate and elected and raises questions about the risks to democracy inherent in the proliferation of such bodies on the margins of government.     

RESTRUCTURING GOVERNMENT NEW ZEALAND STYLE

The fourth Labour government (1984–90) has carried out a radical restructuring of executive government comparable to corresonding reforms in Britain. The changes described have been carried out in government Bepartments, state-owned enterprises, the civil service, minister/civil servant relationships, regional and local overnment, and in the organization of the health and education services. The reforms folfow a consistent blueprint based on ideas of economists andublic choice theorists, especially those relating to agency theory and transaction costs. The themes of the New Zealand blueprint are 'decoupling' policy from service delivery, a PrinapaVagent model of managerial decentralization, new financial accounting systems, contracting for service provision and monitoring managerial performance. In implementation, where there are elected authorities but government is the main funding agent, there is uncertainty about the degree of discretion and appropriate accountabilities. Implementation has also illustrated the problems of defining desired outputs and outcomes and in malung them useable by professional workers and elected representatives.     

Beyond privatisation and cost savings: alternatives for local government reform

Unsatisfactory results from privatisation have caused local governments to seek alternative reforms. Inter-municipal cooperation, mixed public/private delivery and contract reversals are three alternatives that have gained traction in the last decade. These alternatives help local governments manage markets for public service delivery as a dynamic process. They maximise government/market complementarities and address a wider array of public goals beyond cost efficiency concerns. The alternative reforms show how local governments balance citizen, labour and community interests to ensure efficiency, coordination and stability in public service delivery.     

Elected Mayors: Leading Locally?

The directly elected executive mayor was introduced to England a decade ago. Drawing inspiration from European and American experience, the elected mayor appealed to both New Labour and Conservative commentators in offering a solution to perceived problems of local leadership. There was a shared view that governance of local areas was failing and that elected mayors were the answer. The first local referendums were held in 2001. Most have continued to reject the idea of the elected mayor. During 2012, the coalition government initiated 10 further mayoral referendums in England’s largest cities but only one, Bristol, opted for an elected mayor. Overall, there is no evidence of widespread public support, yet the prospect of more mayors – with enhanced powers – remains firmly on the policy agenda.

Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors’ analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England.     

Innovating Public Service Delivery in Transitional Countries: The Case of One Stop Shops in Kazakhstan

This article analyses the implementation of managerial ideas in Kazakhstan using the case of a combined public service delivery called “One Stop Shops”. Several public services are provided in a single building rather than different government offices in a business-like style of service delivery and in a modern physical environment. The service integration policy is an attempt of Kazakhstani government to improve the quality of public services and reduce corruption. Some positive progress in improving the accessibility of public services has been noted. However, as this article argues, the country-specific model of “alternative-access” service delivery was not able to implement in-depth changes in the work of the public sector and improve service quality. Implementation of the managerial ideas has been limited and constrained by the institutional framework and culture prevailing in the Kazakhstani bureaucracy. The main conclusion is that the governments of transitional countries need to critically analyze the pros and cons of the new policies and reflect on their cultures before making further steps to adopt Western managerial initiatives.     

Politicians and Interactive Decision Making: Institutional Spoilsports or Playmakers

In recent years interactive decision making has become quite popular in The Netherlands, especially at the level of local government. It involves new forms of participation of citizens, consumers of public services and interest groups in the process of policy formation. Workshops, panels, internet discussions and a lot of other techniques are used to arrive at innovative and supported solutions for existing problems. The ambitions are high: these new forms of participation should result in better government both in the sense of providing better policies, but also in bridging the democratic gap between local government and citizens. However, these new forms of participation in local government are not without problems. Recent experiences suggest that one of the major problems is the challenge interactive decision making constitutes for the existing practice of representative politics. On the basis of two cases — the decision-making process concerning the expansion of the Rotterdam Harbour and the discussion about a new administrative structure for the Rotterdam region — this article illustrates that one of the barriers that stands in the way of the success of such processes is the ambiguous attitude of elected politicians. Although politicians often initiate interactive decision-making processes, they do not actively support these processes when they are in progress. The outcomes of interactive decision-making progress are often not used in the formal political procedures that follow. Because elected politicians fear that these new forms of participation threaten their political primacy, they find it hard to play a constructive role in these processes.     

‘It’s Not Like Never-the-Twain-Shall-Meet’: Politician–Staff Relationship Structures in Local Government

Local governments have two primary components: elected representatives and employed staff. The relationship between these two groups has significant impacts on local authority operation. Two key theoretical models used to characterise these relations, the well-established Politics/Administration Dichotomy and the recently conceived Complementarity Model, are employed here to explore relationships in New Zealand councils. Results show varying views regarding whether the separation of staff and elected representatives (councillors) is based on their respective roles or inputs. A role-based separation emphasises distinct ‘realms’, with elected representatives controlling policy making and staff controlling the implementation of policy. This approach supports a hegemonic relationship and embodies the Politics/Administration Dichotomy. On the other hand, an input-based separation emphasises the issues that each group should focus on, with councillors integrating community desires and staff contributing their technical expertise. The latter lends itself to interactive processes and is consistent with the Complementarity Model. Neither input nor role-based relationships are inherently superior; various empirical factors influence the suitability of each. This suggests that it is advantageous to have multiple theoretical models accounting for alternative local government relationship structures, but future research is needed to clarify the ‘best’ options for different contexts.     

Supply or Demand? Migration and Political Manipulation in Mexico

Collective remittances are the money flows sent by hometown associations (HTAs) of migrants from the USA to their communities of origin. In Mexico, the 3?×?1 Program for Migrants matches by three the amounts that HTAs send back to their localities to invest in public projects. In previous research, we found that municipalities ruled by the party of the federal government were more likely to participate in the Program. The political bias in participation and fund allocation may stem from two possible mechanisms: HTAs?? decisions to invest in some municipalities but not in others may reflect migrants?? political preferences (a demand-driven bias). Alternatively, government officials may use the Program to finance their own political objectives (a supply-driven bias). To determine which of these two mechanisms is at work, we studied a 2?×?2 matrix of statistically selected cases of high-migration municipalities in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. We carried out over 60 semistructured interviews with state and municipal Program administrators, local politicians, and migrant leaders from these municipalities. Our qualitative study indicates that migrant leaders are clearly pragmatic and that the political bias found is driven by elected officials strategically using the Program. The bias in favor of political strongholds is reinforced by the Program??s requirements for cooperation among different levels of government. This study casts doubt about the effectiveness of public?Cprivate partnerships as valid formulas to reduce political manipulation. It also questions the ability of matching grant programs to reach the areas where public resources are most needed.     

Local Councillors: Between Local 'Government' and Local 'Governance'

With a two-dimensional concept of 'New Public Management' as its point of departure, the article points to the development of a specific Danish model of NPM at the local level of government. In the municipalities the market-oriented NPM dimension has been almost absent and the managerial dimension has been interpreted and translated into a 'governance'-oriented model that combines decentralized self- and user-governance from below with centralized goal-steering from above. This combined model institutes new governing roles including a new leadership role for elected councillors as central goal-steering decision and policy makers. Rather than strengthening the local councillors, the new leadership role has turned out to be problematic for the elected councillors. The problems inherent in the new institutional role as goal-steering decision makers are discussed and arguments are put forward in favour of a more 'governance' and less NPM and government-oriented role for elected councillors. What seems to be needed is another new role that stresses local councillors as co-governors and guardians of an inclusive and democratic form of local governance.     

Pulling the Strings: An Analysis of Informal Local Power Structures in Three Dutch Cities

Recent reform trends in local government ‘constitution’ have aimed at invigorating local democracy by strengthening local executive powers and making political leadership more visible through direct mayor elections. However, observers still tend to paint a gloomy picture of local democracy in contexts where reforms have been implemented. This article evaluates the notion of marginalised local democracy by adopting mandate theory. A data set on Norwegian mayors and deputy mayors provides evidence that mayors elected by the council are more confident in their own success regarding fulfilment of pre-election announcements than deputy mayors are. The mayoral advantage disappears if the mayor is directly elected. Regarding implementation of idiomatic party policy, political cohesion between the mayor and the deputy mayor (coalition or party conjunction) increases the confidence of both. Yet, cohesion does not increase confidence in fulfilling pre-election announcements, thus suggesting a rupture between issues emphasised in campaigns to local election and idiomatic party policy. While results are unfavourable to direct mayor elections, they do not otherwise support the gloomy picture of marginalised local democracy.     

Leading and learning? Knowledge transfer in the Beacon Council Scheme

This paper examines the Beacon Council Scheme as a distinct policy element within the UK government's wide–ranging local government modernization agenda. The aim of the Beacon scheme is two–fold. First, reward for high performing councils and second, the achievement of substantial change by sharing 'best practice' from identified centres of excellence. The scheme presupposes an implicit theory of organizational change through learning. The Beacon Council Scheme is based on the assumption that the organizational preconditions exist which will facilitate learning, and through its application to practice, improve service delivery. The paper analyses the presumed and possible conditions which facilitate or impede interorganizational learning and service improvement through the scheme. The paper then examines empirical data from 59 local authority elected members and officers about their attitudes towards and motivation to take part in the Beacon scheme during the first year of its existence. The data indicate that there are differing motivations for participation in the scheme and that these reflect different learning needs. The experiences of local authority participants suggest that the formulators of the dissemination strategy at the heart of the scheme have not yet given sufficient consideration to the processes of interorganizational learning, the conditions that support such learning between authorities and the embedding of new understandings, practices and organizational cultures in the receiving authority. This suggests that the underlying theories of organizational learning and cultural change may be insufficiently developed to create and sustain the kind of transformational change that is intended by central government.     

NGOs as Incubator of Participative Democracy in South Korea: Political,Voluntary, and Policy Participation

Abstract

This article is designed to examine the roles of Non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in South Korea as an incubator of participative democracy and to review the evolution of their relationship with governments. The study is comprised of four parts. First, related literature on NGOs will be examined from three different perspectives: state‐civil society perspective, voluntary social service perspective, and policy perspective. Second, this essay will survey emerging roles of NGOs in promoting organized citizen participation in the three areas: political participation, voluntary social service participation, and policy participation. Third, recent governments' institutional efforts to support NGOs will be reviewed briefly. Finally, this paper will conclude with the implications for the future of government‐NGOs relationship in policy‐making processes.     

Explaining Less Accountability: the Growth of Local Quangos

There has been substantial growth in the number of non-elected public bodies – or quangos – operating at the local level. This development presents a marked change from the model of elected local authorities as the main focus for the governance and delivery of local public services. Four interpretations of this change are examined: agency-type, ideological control, managerial restructuring and regulationist explanations. Agency-type explanations recognize a plurality of factors, but lack theoretical or predictive rigour. Ideological and managerial explanations have a stronger theoretical basis but fail to recognize the wider structural context. Regulationist explanations offer, but also suffer from the problems of, structuralist analysis. An integrating framework is developed. Three phases in the development of local quangos are presented as a process by which government has resolved tensions in the British state. A consequence, however, has been to raise questions about the state's longer term legitimacy.     

Local Authorities and Non–elected Agencies: Strategic Responses and Organizational Networks

This article deals with developing relationships between local authorities and local non–elected public service agencies in England and Wales. It classifies local authority responses to the growth of the non–elected state. Account is taken of varying agency characteristics and the constraints and dilemmas they face. From the local authority vantage point what is at stake is organizational (re)positioning in a changing institutional environment. Insights derived from strategic management are therefore utilized. But resource dependencies and exchanges also manifest themselves in these emerging relationships. Moreover, account must be taken of the scope for local authorities to be 'network managers' given the structural reconfiguration of the local state. The analysis therefore takes on board organizational networking theoretical frameworks. Although central government remains best placed to manipulate the 'rules of the [new and uncertain] game', interesting possibilities present themselves if local authorities can show more strategic skill than in the recent past.     

COMPARING BUSH–CHENEY AND CLINTON–GORE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: ARE THEY MORE ALIKE THAN DIFFERENT?

Successful performance management strategies are intrinsically linked to the political environment in which public policy‐making occurs. Since the mid‐1990s, many governments have re‐examined how to simultaneously reduce costs, increase performance and achieve results. Public agencies are experimenting with performance measurement and management systems designed to meet public policy goals and respond to citizen demands. Various reform models have been proposed and public administrators now expend considerable time, effort and resources exchanging ‘best practices’, finding ‘best value’, and ‘rethinking’ government operations. Although equally important, less effort has been devoted to performance management (PM) within increasingly complex, ideologically charged and politicized decision‐making environments. Despite significant increases in productivity, more theoretical and empirical research is needed to assist public managers in applying private market‐based alternatives to public service delivery structures. This article compares the PM initiatives of the Clinton–Gore Administration in the United States, known as the National Performance Review (NPR), with President Bush‘s Presidential Management Agenda (PMA). Following the comparison, a theory‐based research agenda is proposed to determine which of many approaches best ‘fits’ the varied and often contradictory systems for delivering public services in a decentralized governance system.     

The county perspective on intergovernmental relations and government capacity

This analysis examines the issues of state and federal responsiveness and state and local government capacity from the perspective of county officials. Using data from a national survey of county administrators, elected executives, and commission chairpersons, the study finds that county officials are: (1) very confident of their own capacities to respond to local problems, but not as confident of local fiscal capacities; (2) very concerned about the responsiveness of state governments, particularly state legislatures, to local needs; and (3) not confident of the responsiveness of federal government to local needs either, but desirous of federal fiscal support. The assessments of state responsiveness appear related to state efforts to expand the policy making, taxing, and borrowing authority of their county governments.     

Policy making/implementing activities of elected county executives and appointed county administrators: Does form of government make a difference?

This article undertakes a comparative analysis of the policy making/implementing behavior of elected county executives and appointed county administrators. While both sets of actors are engaged considerably in the policy making and implementing processes, the manner in which they undertake these activities varies, suggesting that form of government and method of (s)election do make a difference in how counties are governed.