Local Party System Nationalisation: Does Municipal Size Matter?

Local party systems are not necessarily copies of their country's national party system. Some national parties do not field candidates in all municipalities, while in other municipalities there are non-partisan lists/local parties. In this article it is hypothesised that the larger the municipality (in number of inhabitants), the more the local party system will resemble the national party system (and vice versa). The hypothesis is tested using data from the 2001 local elections in Denmark. For this purpose, an index of local party system nationalisation is developed. The index is formulated in general terms so as to make it applicable in other settings and in comparisons between countries and over time.     

Community Participation in Local Governance – An Empirical Analysis of Urbanized Local Governments in the Philippines and Uganda

This article addresses community participation in local government, a controversial issue in the era of governance. Under the context of decentralisation reform in particular, active participation of the community in local governance has been expected, where as a range of critical arguments has been made on its concepts, ideas and feasibilities. Despite the significance of the issue, practices of community participation at the local level are academically under-examined, even in developed countries, let alone in developing countries. Given such situations, empirical observations from local governments of the Philippines and Uganda are introduced and comparatively analysed with in a specific analytical framework of participation. By doing so, the artide leads us to some keys to success for community participation schemes in the development context, which include the local leadership, functions of the central government and enhancing awareness of values of community participation both in the public and the local government.     

Why Do Municipalities Cooperate to Provide Local Public Services? An Empirical Analysis

Intermunicipal cooperation is being increasingly adopted in various countries as a part of local service delivery reforms. This article draws on survey data from Spain's municipalities to examine the reasons underpinning the decisions of local governments to engage in intermunicipal cooperation and privatisation. Our empirical analysis indicates that small municipalities prefer to rely on cooperation for reducing costs, while their larger counterparts prefer to privatise the delivery of services. By cooperating, scale economies can be achieved with lower transaction costs and fewer concerns for competition than is the case via private production.     

Does Size Matter? Reassessing the Relationship between Aquaculture and Poverty in Bangladesh

Aquaculture has long been promoted by development institutions in Bangladesh on the understanding that it can alleviate poverty. Most of this attention has focused on forms of the activity commonly referred to as ‘small-scale’. This article draws on concepts from the literature on agricultural growth and elaborates a typology of aquaculture based on relations of production which suggests that, in Bangladesh, quasi-capitalist forms of aquaculture may possess greater potential to reduce poverty and enhance food security than the quasi-peasant modes of production generally assumed to do so. The implications of this conclusion are explored.     

Do Accrual Numbers Really Affect the Financial Market? An Empirical Analysis of ESA Accounts Across the EU

The adoption of a full accrual framework in the public sector is differentiated country by country both for budgeting and for reporting phases. The purpose of this article is to address the following broader research question: How do accrual numbers affect the financial markets? The 10-year average interest rate on sovereign bonds across the European Union is used as a dependent variable. The results of the research show an unclear relation among the variables investigated. Given this evidence, an alignment between micro- and macroaccounting rules could be pursued. We argue the suitability of the Australian experience in this sense.     

Does Phenomenology (Still) Matter? Three Phenomenological Traditions and Sociological Theory

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society - Phenomenology has played an important role in the development of sociological theory. While modern phenomenology’s origins lie in the...     

What Encourages Cities to Become Sustainable? Measuring the Effectiveness of Implementing Local Adaptation Policies

This research seeks to understand which essential characteristics are necessary to drive municipal governments to adopt smart growth measures. By testing previously expected outcomes for why a local government would adopt a particular policy, we find an inherent need to create strong needs-based policies promoted by interest groups. We conducted a principal component analysis and a linear regression model to test several hypotheses. A discussion of this analysis is provided along with policy recommendations to explain why and when metropolitan areas use sustainability plans and how to encourage more to do so.     

Does Training and Coaching Matter? An 18-Month Evaluation of a Community Supervision Model

During the last decade, several formalized approaches have been developed to improve the effectiveness of probation and parole by implementing evidence-based research into community supervision practices. A key component of these new approaches are the use of officer coaching sessions, which are designed to improve officer fidelity in the core correctional skill areas. This study explores the impact of an initial training and monthly coaching sessions in the Effective Practices in Community Supervision (EPICS) model on probation and parole officer use of core correctional skills. The results examine the average quarterly officer use of skills over an 18-month follow-up period based on training status (i.e., trained versus untrained officers) in the EPICS model. This study adds to the understanding of the role training and coaching may play in improving officer use of core correctional skills. Policy implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed.     

Municipal Mergers in New Zealand: An Empirical Analysis of the Proposed Amalgamation of Hawke’s Bay Councils

Local government policymakers across the developed world have frequently employed municipal amalgamation to improve the operation of local councils, and New Zealand is no exception. This paper empirically examines claims made in Potential Costs and Savings of Local Government Reform in Hawke’s Bay that the merger of the five local authorities in the Hawke’s Bay Region of New Zealand would generate significant cost-savings. We empirically test for the existence of scale economies in a single merged Hawke’s Bay council and find that no cost-savings can be expected. This removes a key argument for a forced Hawke’s Bay amalgamation.     

Does Public Spending Improve Citizens’ Quality of Life? An Analysis of Municipalities’ Leisure Supply

This paper offers new evidence regarding the impact of public spending on the supply of leisure services on citizens’ spare-time quality of life. Using data from 103 Italian capital municipalities covering the period 2007–2010, the analysis revealed that public spending on leisure impacted spare-time quality of life in various ways, depending on the category of spending. Spending for tourism essentially followed an upward path, linearly enhancing citizens’ spare-time quality of life. Surprisingly, municipalities’ spending on sport- and culture-related services had a non-linear impact. Hence, spending on sports within a maximum threshold reveals a positive impact on spare-time quality of life, whereas passing over a minimum level of public spending for culture-related projects had a positive effect. This paper provides helpful suggestions for policymakers who approach decisions that address whether it is worth spending on leisure, which is typically a non-basic need but one that must be properly satisfied by municipalities in today’s service-based society.     

The Rise of the Resilient Local Authority?

The term resilience is increasingly being utilised within the study of public policy to depict how individuals, communities and organisations can adapt, cope, and ‘bounce back’ when faced with external shocks such as climate change, economic recession and cuts in public expenditure. In focussing on the local dimensions of the resilience debate, this article argues that the term can provide useful insights into how the challenges facing local authorities in the UK can be reformulated and reinterpreted. The article also distinguishes between resilience as ‘recovery’ and resilience as ‘transformation’, with the latter's focus on ‘bouncing forward’ from external shocks seen as offering a more radical framework within which the opportunities for local innovation and creativity can be assessed and explained. While also acknowledging some of the weaknesses of the resilience debate, the dangers of conceptual ‘stretching’, and the extent of local vulnerabilities, the article highlights a range of examples where local authorities – and crucially, local communities – have enhanced their adaptive capacity, within existing powers and responsibilities. From this viewpoint, some of the barriers to the development of resilient local government are not insurmountable, and can be overcome by ‘digging deep’ to draw upon existing resources and capabilities, promoting a strategic approach to risk, exhibiting greater ambition and imagination, and creating space for local communities to develop their own resilience.     

The Correlates of Local Government Responsiveness Under Decentralization: Do Performance Ratings Matter in the Philippines?

To improve local service delivery under decentralization, performance ratings are often introduced. In this article, performance ratings and other correlates of the citizens’ assessment of the responsiveness of their local governments are investigated with a regression analysis of survey data collected during the pilot test of a performance rating scheme in 12 Philippine cities and municipalities in 2001–2003. The local governments in the eight sites where the ratings were announced are assessed less responsive by their own constituents than those in the four control areas by theirs. Possibly, the citizens exposed to the ratings expected better performances from their officials.     

What are the Local Political Costs of Centrally Determined Reforms of Local Government?

Taking advantage of a quasi-experimental setting and drawing upon analysis of electoral results and a survey of voters, this article explores the political costs of reform through the example of the 2009 local elections in Denmark. The article finds that the local parties of mayors were punished at the polls for implementing municipal amalgamations decided by the central government. However, the effect on the mayoral parties’ electoral result is more indirect than direct. Analyses of the electoral results demonstrates that the political parties holding the mayoralty in times of amalgamations tend to nominate very tenured mayors as candidates, thereby missing the positive first-term incumbency effect, which a new mayor could have acquired. And analyses of a survey of voters demonstrates higher levels of dissatisfaction with the municipal service in amalgamated municipalities, leading to a higher cost of ruling for mayoral parties which have led the implementation of an amalgamation.     

Does Power Corrupt? An Empirical Study of Power,Accountability, and Performance Triangle in Public Administration

Foundational work in public administration has considered the relationship between administrative power, accountability, and performance in public organizations. Even with the vast literature addressing power, accountability, and performance, scholars are still theorizing on how they influence one another. This study proposes and empirically tests a theoretical model of the relationships between each of these three constructs. Data are analyzed from an original survey of a national sample of US local government public administrators—city managers. Using structural equation modeling, results show that there are positive relationships between power and accountability, power and performance, and accountability and performance. The article discusses theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Did the Big Stick Work? An Empirical Assessment of Scale Economies and the Queensland Forced Amalgamation Program

In 2007, the Queensland Government imposed forced amalgamation with the number of local authorities falling from 157 to just 73 councils. Amalgamation was based inter alia on the assumption that increased economies of scale would generate savings. This paper empirically examines pre- and post-amalgamation (2006/07 and 2009/10) for scale economies. For the 2006/07 data, evidence of economies of scale was found for councils with populations up to 98,000, and thereafter diseconomies of scale. Eight percent of councils in 2006/07 (ten councils) – representing 64% of the state’s population – exhibited diseconomies of scale. For the 2009/10 data, the average cost curve remained almost stationary at 99,000 residents per council, but almost 25% of all councils (thirteen councils) were now found to exhibit diseconomies of scale. The compulsory merger program thus increased the proportion of Queensland residents in councils operating with diseconomies of scale to 84%.     

Does Ideology Matter? Incentive,Efficiency and Management in the Public Sector

Contracting out has become increasingly popular as a strategy for public sector management for reducing costs, alleviating the burden on government agencies providing services, as well as taking advantage of the practices that have succeeded in the private sector. Generally, the system of management in capitalist liberal democratic systems of government that emphasize rule of law, transparency, performance measurement, and accountability are expected to be more efficient, while socialist regimes are considered to be inefficient due to the lack of these features. This article compares two dissimilar cases of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Shenzhen Special Economic Zone of China. An examination of the management of contract in the area of public housing in these cities reveal that the socialist city of Shenzhen has achieved a higher level of efficiency, while capitalist Hong Kong lags behind in establishing an effective system of management of contracts in the public sector. The finding challenges the traditional assumptions related to efficiency under different ideological regimes.     

Welfare Dynamics in Pakistan and Ethiopia – Does the Estimation Method Matter?

Identifying household-level welfare dynamics and associated dynamic poverty trap thresholds can have important implications for the targeting of poverty reduction policies. The small existing empirical microeconomic literature has found evidence both for and against poverty traps. Using household panel data from rural Pakistan and Ethiopia, this article examines whether these different results are likely driven by differences in estimation methods or whether they reflect actual differences across settings. It applies the estimation methods from the existing literature to the same two datasets and also proposes a novel semiparametric panel data estimator that combines the advantages of the previous fully parametric and nonparametric approaches. The results suggest that absent any dynamic poverty trap thresholds the effect of using different estimation methods is secondary, having a small influence on the estimated long-term level of household well-being but not the identification of multiple dynamic welfare equilibria and associated dynamic poverty thresholds. Households in rural Pakistan and Ethiopia seem to be stuck in a static, structural-type poverty trap facing an expected level of long-term well-being that places them squarely in poverty.     

Problems of Coordination in Field Administration in Bangladesh: Does Informal Communication Matter?

The main thrust of the article is to analyze the state of problems of inter-organizational coordination in the upazila (second tier of local government) in Bangladesh. It also explains to what extent informal communication matters for inter-organizational coordination. Based on empirical data collected in 2009, findings of the study suggest that a number of factors have facilitated non-existence of inter-organizational coordination at the upazila. These factors include lack of division of activities, dualism in control over officers, lack of proper functioning of the committees, and dual authority in disbursement of funds and its impact on timely disbursement. Findings also suggest that in the absence of coordination among different departments, informal communication has been observed to be one of the prominent mechanisms of ensuring coordination. However, existence of factors like lack of willingness to be engaged in informal communication and lack of cooperation has hindered the process of building informal communication among different departments. Despite having some problems this research has concluded that informal communication has helped the process of coordination among different departments while they are carrying out their responsibilities.     

Is Local Development Good Politics? Local Development Expenditures and the Re-Election of Governors in the Philippines in the 1990s

Abstract

Are incumbent governors who put more weight on development spending likely to be re-elected? To answer this question, an economic model of a re-electionist local chief executive is introduced and validated with a panel data of provincial governors who ran for another term of office during the election years 1992, 1995 and 1998 in the Philippines. It is found that incumbent governors improve their re-election chances with higher spending on economic development services, other things being constant. Moreover, governors who are members of political clans also have higher development spending especially when faced with rival clans. Thus, elections are still an effective disciplining device, more especially when rivalry is intense among political clans. The policy implication then is to enhance political competition rather than just ban political dynasties to improve the performance of elected officials under decentralization.     

Are Changes Effective in Performance Management? An Analysis of Japanese Agencies

Agencies are key organizations for implementing and studying performance measurement and management (PMM). This article explores the implementation and effect of PMM in Japanese agencies. In Japan, design of the agency system included New Public Management elements, such as independence and delegation of powers, but also traditional ones, with a strong system of controls. The discourse about the soundness and ambitions of the PMM system permeated the agencies but not so much their effort toward PMM. The performance improvement attained by agencies depends on their agency characteristics, organizational culture, and organizational factors, with a remarkable influence of the organizational culture.