Introduction to session 2: Magnitude of the crisis: The fiscal and human costs

Abstract

Many are looking to California and its state housing law for advice on how to deal with the affordability challenges affecting many metropolitan areas throughout the nation. It is thus critically important to go beyond the laws themselves and examine how state and municipal governance structure affects affordability, supply, and production. Some states give broad freedom to localities to develop policies that can potentially meet a range of goals and objectives. Others directly undermine those efforts by limiting local ability to pursue policy reforms while simultaneously failing to engage on the state level.

The redefinition of federalism on the national level, coupled with continued resistance to growth from some localities, establishes the state as at least an equal partner in dealing with housing supply and affordability issues. Understanding these distinctions is important, and the housing community needs to take them into account as it moves on the state front.     

The changing geography of metropolitan opportunity: The segregation of the poor in U.S. metropolitan areas, 1970 to 1990

Abstract

This analysis uses census tract data to measure the segregation of the poor in U.S. metropolitan areas in 1970, 1980, and 1990. Two measures of segregation are used: the indices of dissimilarity and isolation.

In 1990 the mean dissimilarity of the poor in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas was 36.1, which is substantial but below the 60.6 dissimilarity of blacks. The 1990 isolation of the poor was 21.0. From 1970 to 1990, the dissimilarity of the poor increased by 11 percent, and the isolation of the poor rose by 9 percent; in contrast, racial segregation declined. Exploratory regression analyses reveal that income segregation in metropolitan areas was significantly greater in 1990 and increased more from 1970 to 1990 in the Northeast than in the South and West. Midwest areas generally were not significantly different from Northeast areas in 1990 segregation levels or in changes from 1970 to 1990.     

Neighborhood change and the city of New York's ten‐year housing plan

Abstract

This article examines neighborhood changes associated with New York City's Ten‐Year Plan—the largest municipal housing program in the United States. We examine indicators of change, in the context of two possible hypotheses about the program's impact: (1) neighborhood revitalization, including improved physical and housing market conditions, as well as gentrification, and (2) the concentration of poor and welfare‐dependent households, as well as the possibility of residential segregation by race or ethnicity.

Our results present a mixed picture, with some evidence favoring both hypotheses, especially when parts of the city, particularly the South Bronx, are examined separately. Specifically, the program is associated with steep declines in the rate of boarded‐up buildings and some indications of increased home values, as well as rent burdens. However, it is also correlated with increases in maintenance deficiencies and a greater proportion of poor, single‐parent, and welfare‐dependent households, but there is little evidence of accentuated residential segregation.     

我国地方行政程序立法的新发展

近年来,我国多个地方政府制定了行政程序规则,这在学界引起了较大反响和争鸣。这些地方行政程序立法的主要内容包括立法目的、原则体系、行政程序的类型、公众参与和信息公开、立法架构、制度创新等方面,其主要特点是回应性、创新性、民主性、程序实体兼顾性。我国地方行政程序立法仍有诸多后续课题需要研究。     

Ethnic Origins and the Disposition of Delinquents in Israel

Theoretical considerations lead to the hypothesis that the dispositions of juvenile cases affecting Oriental Jews will be harsher than those affecting European Jews in Israel. Further, that Arab juveniles will be dealt with more harshly than will either European or Oriental Jews. Analysis of official delinquency data reveals that this is the tendency. However, the authoritarian structure of the Arab community rather than prejudice explains the difference in handling Jewish or Arabic cases.     

THE DESIGN AND USE OF PERFORMANCE INFORMATION IN INDONESIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS UNDER DIVERGING STAKEHOLDER PRESSURES

Public sector managers in less developed countries are confronted with opposing forces. A lack of sufficient resources along with a tradition of corruption are obstacles for developing and using performance measurement systems. However, recent public sector reforms in less developed countries, including decentralisation and anti‐corruption programmes, stimulate the development and use of such systems. On the basis of a framework, which distinguishes different types of stakeholders, each with particular performance interests, we analyse how public sector managers are coping with the two opposing forces, given the relative power positions and the interests of their stakeholders. On the basis of four cases studies of local government agencies in Bali (Indonesia), we found that with respect to the annual performance reports, managers in these agencies focus more on fulfilling the formal requirements regarding the format of these reports and on their timely submission than on their contents, which are all symptoms of a symbolic rather than functional use of performance information. However, the reports include information on inputs that is linked to similar information in short‐term reports, which the managers use in a functional manner. These managers show a kind of juggling behaviour, in the sense that they partially try to serve conflicting performance interests. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Flypaper Effect Revisited: Intergovernmental Grants and Local Governance

Abstract

Local governance arrangements shape the incentives of local actors, which may in turn influence fiscal choices. By emphasizing the role of local government institutions in local fiscal choices, we seek to bridge between median voter and Leviathan models prevalent in the literature. We then offer some preliminary evidence to support this explanation by empirically testing several propositions regarding the flypaper effect in intergovernmental grants. One limitation of the median voter model is that the model does not consider political institutions and their influences on government expenditures. In this study, we attempt to capture the influence of political dynamics in determining public expenditures by considering institutional variables. Test results show that the political institutional variables could be one of the explanation variables for the flypaper effect.     

Analysing Local Political Management in Spain

This article examines the strong mayor form of local political management in Spain. Drawing on empirical research conducted with members and officers in a Spanish municipality, the system is analysed according to leadership, representation and responsiveness, accountability, scrutiny, and decision-making. It finds that the model underpins concentrated individualised leadership exercised by the mayor. Representativeness and responsiveness in the system are hampered by the absence of electoral divisions within the municipality, meaning citizens do not have their own councillor, and by there being no institutionalised system of citizen participation or decentralisation. Elections every four years serve to hold incumbent mayors to account, and the full council has the power to recall the mayor, though such a recall is unlikely. There is little detailed scrutiny of the performance of the municipal government. It is argued that the security of tenure enjoyed by Spanish mayors is unlikely to be replicated in England, and that there is some concurrence in Spain with reform trends observed elsewhere.     

Multi-Agency Protocols as a Mechanism to Improve Partnerships in Public Services

This paper discusses and tries to explain the paradoxical observation that a local government reform aimed at reducing or even removing bureaucracy actually leads to more formalisation, not less. During the last 10–15 years more than 40 per cent of Norwegian municipalities have adopted an organisational model that makes the administration more disaggregated, decentralised and flat. The reform has been promoted by strong post- or even anti-bureaucratic rhetoric, arguing for increased managerial autonomy at the operational level. The basic idea is that greater autonomy will create better performance. The paradox of increased formalisation is discussed on the basis of rhetoric, unintended consequences, diagnostic problems and linguistic problems. The paper concludes by pointing out the need for a more nuanced conception of bureaucracy than the dichotomous approach of post-bureaucracy can offer. It also outlines a couple of supplementing explanations for increased formalisation.     

An Empirical Typology of Local Government Systems in Eastern Europe

The most widely used typologies of European local government systems are based on research conducted in the 1980s. The most popular are those of Page and Goldsmith (1987), distinguishing between Northern and Southern European systems, and Hesse and Sharpe (1991), distinguishing between Southern, Northern and Anglo-Saxon models. The rare attempts to include the Eastern part of the continent are far from comprehensive or satisfactory. They usually view the whole region as a distinct group, referring to its specific historical background and recent radical decentralisation (Bennett 1993, Heinelt and Hlepas 2006). Disappointingly, the same approach is presented in the most recent comprehensive analysis of European local government systems (Loughlin et al. 2010). This article tries to fill the gap produced by this simplification, by offering a comprehensive picture of the variation within the Eastern European region and suggesting a first attempt at a typology of around 20 countries of the region. The criteria for this typology refers to those used in earlier classifications of the Western European systems and include: (i) territorial organisation and tiers of elected local governments, (ii) scope of functions provided by local governments (functional decentralisation), (iii) financial autonomy, (iv) horizontal power relations within local government institutions (election systems and relationships between mayors and councils).