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Local Councils (local + council)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	60%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	13%

Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences

General & Introductory Development Studies	33%

Selected Abstracts

The Failure of Popular Justice in Uganda: Local Councils and Women's Property Rights

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2001
Lynn Khadiagala
Advocates of alternative dispute resolution argue that informal, community-based institutions are better placed to provide inexpensive, expedient and culturally appropriate forms of justice. In 1988, the Ugandan government extended judicial capacity to local councils (LCs) on similar grounds. Drawing on attempts by women in southwestern Uganda to use the LCs to adjudicate property disputes, this article investigates why popular justice has failed to protect the customary property rights of women. The gap between theory and practice arises out of misconceptions of community. The tendency to ascribe a morality and autonomy to local spaces obscures the ability of elites to use informal institutions for purposes of social control. In the light of women's attempts to escape the ,rule of persons' and to seek out arbiters whom they associate with the ,rule of law', it can be argued that the utility of the state to ordinary Ugandans should be reconsidered. [source]

Planning to Reduce Risk: The Wildfire Management Overlay in Victoria, Australia

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2009
RACHEL HUGHES
Abstract In a world where climate change is a ,given', the concepts of vulnerability, resilience and risk are now pivotal in public policy debates in many countries. Within this context, planning controls are designed to facilitate safe, sustainable and prosperous communities. In line with March's (2007, 11) observation that ,one important "reason to plan" is the reduction of risk', Victoria's Wildfire Management Overlay (WMO) was developed with the aim of mitigating wildfire risk through the identification of high risk areas and ensuring that minimum fire protection measures are implemented. The need for such an Overlay is becoming increasingly apparent as climate change contributes to the growing frequency and intensity of bushfires in Australia. Empirical research has found that, by following WMO prescriptions, the risk of a dwelling igniting from direct flame or radiant heat generated in a one in 50-year fire event can be greatly minimised. Yet not all local Councils in Victoria have built the WMO into their land use planning processes and schemes. Barriers to adoption include: lack of political will, a distrust of ,over-regulation', lack of training and mentoring of planning staff, and potential conflicts with vegetation conservation objectives. [source]

A practical protocol to assess impacts of unplanned disturbance: a case study in Tuggerah Lakes Estuary, NSW

ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION, Issue 2003
A. J. Underwood
Summary Environmental managers are often confronted with unplanned or accidental disturbances that may lead to environmental impacts. Procedures for detecting or measuring the size of such impacts are complicated because of the lack of data available before the disturbance and because of the intrinsic variability of most natural measures. Here, a protocol for detecting impacts is illustrated for single-measure variables (numbers of individual species) and multivariate measures (relative abundances of invertebrates in assemblages). The present paper describes a case concerning drainage of acidified water into an estuary due to construction of a drainage channel in an area of wetland for which there had been no prior investigations (i.e. no ,before' data). The spatial extent of any impact was also unknowable. Sampling was, therefore, designed to allow for impacts of only a few tens of metres (using control sites 50 m from the mouth of the channel) and impacts covering much larger areas (500 m and 1 km from the mouth of the channel). Invertebrates in the mud around the channel and in control sites were sampled in replicated cores and the amount of seagrass in each core was weighed. Average abundances of invertebrate animals and weights of seagrass were compared, as was variation among samples in potentially impacted and control sites (using univariate analyses of variance). Sets of species were compared using multivariate methods to test the hypothesis that there was an impact at one of the scales examined. In fact, there was no evidence for any sort of impact on the fauna or seagrasses; the disturbance was a short-term pulse without any obvious or sustained ecological response. One consequence of the study was that the local council was able to demonstrate no impact requiring remediation and no penalties were imposed for the unapproved construction of the channel. The implications of this type of study after an environmental disturbance are discussed. The present study identifies the need for clear definition of relevant hypotheses, coupled with rigorous planning of sampling and analyses, so that reliable answers are available to regulators and managers. [source]

Escalation and de-escalation of commitment: a commitment transformation analysis of an e-government project

INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006
Gary Pan
Abstract., This paper presents a commitment transformation framework for analysing the change in actors' commitment during the transition from escalation to de-escalation in information technology projects. De-escalation is potentially a more important issue than escalation because de-escalation provides remedies for the ills of escalation. Therefore, it is important to understand how stakeholders may bias facts in the direction of previously accepted beliefs and thus prevent an organization from de-escalating. Here, we adopt Lewin's change theory to examine the commitment transformation during the transition from escalation to de-escalation of an e-government project in a local council in the United Kingdom. By conceiving actors' commitment transformation as an ,unfreezing,changing,refreezing' process, researchers may develop a deeper understanding of how actors may give up previous failing course of action and accept an alternative course of action. Practitioners can also utilize the framework in post-mortem analyses of projects which have faced escalation to devise useful de-escalation strategies for future project development.1 [source]

Program Budgeting and Accountability in Local Government

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2001
Ron Kluvers
Much has been written about program budgeting and its relevance to improved efficiency and effectiveness. However, there is little discussion about the relationship between the use of program budgeting and accountability. While, organisations using program budgeting focus on the issues of performance, the accountability of management to an elected body, such as a local council has been given little attention. In this article three questions are posed: (1) Is the performance information available to enable councillors to form a judgment about management's performance?; (2) Is management involved in determining issues of policy, such as objectives, programs and performance measurement?; and (3) Are councillors confronted by a greater volume of budgetary documentation but with no increase in time to consider it? The results show that program budgeting does not always enhance accountability in local government. [source]

Accounting for suburban tree information systems

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2006
Alistair M. Brown
Abstract Suburban trees are things of wonder and of utility, yet accounting has systematically failed to account for them despite the availability of information technologies that could assist in trees' measurement. Taking a utilitarian view of the value of trees, this paper posits a way of accounting for suburban tree information systems, which not only follows the traditional accounting practices of the Australian Standards Setting Board, but also encompasses the idea of sharing ideas from the disciplines of the environmental sciences and computerized informational systems. By using information technologies, local councils and business entities may be able to account for suburban trees as non-current assets, and thereby improve the lot of conscripted investors who seek information for decision-making and accountability. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

The Failure of Popular Justice in Uganda: Local Councils and Women's Property Rights

A community development approach to deal with public drug use in Box Hill

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 1 2007
NEIL ROGERS
Abstract The use of alcohol and other drugs in public space is one that generates much heat in the public discourse and in the media. Too often the responses called for to reduce the problems of public amenity involve punitive policing and other responses that aim to engineer (mostly) young people out of these public spaces. Often local retailers are a key stakeholder group calling loudest for punitive action. In this Harm Reduction Digest Rogers and Anderson describe a community development approach taken to address these problems in Box Hill in the City of Whitehorse, near Melbourne. This approach which aimed to develop ,bridging social capital' between community retailers and other stakeholders in the area appears to have been effective in reducing harm associated with public drug use. Moreover these changes have become institutionalised and the approach has been expanded to address other public amenity problems in the area. It is a very nice example of how drug related harm can be reduced by grass roots networks of local councils, business people, law enforcement and health and welfare service providers to address these issues. [source]

Responsible alcohol service: lessons from evaluations of server training and policing initiatives

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 3 2001
TIM STOCKWELL
Abstract Responsible alcohol service programmes have evolved in many countries alongside a general increase in the availability of alcohol and a greater focus on the prevention of alcohol-related road crashes. They also recognize the reality that a great deal of high-risk drinking and preventable harm occurs in and around licensed premises or as drinkers make their way home. Early US efficacy studies of programmes which trained managers and barstaff to limit customers' levels of intoxication and prevent drink driving showed promise. Studies of effectiveness of these programmes in the wider community, and in the absence of the enforcement of liquor laws, found little benefit. The data will be interpreted as suggesting that, in reality, skills deficits in the serving of alcohol are not a significant problem compared with the motivational issue for a commercial operation of abiding by laws that are rarely enforced and which are perceived as risking the goodwill of their best customers. Australian, UK and US experiences with liquor law enforcement by police will be discussed along with outcomes from the Australian invention of Alcohol Accords, informal agreements between police, licensees and local councils to trade responsibly. It will be concluded that the major task involved in lifting standards of service and preventing harm is to institutionalize legal and regulatory procedures which impact most on licensed premises. A number of strategies are suggested also for creating a political and social climate which supports the responsible service of alcohol and thereby supports the enactment and enforcement of appropriate liquor laws. [source]

SHARED SERVICES IN AUSTRALIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE QUEENSLAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION MODEL

ECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 4 2008
BRIAN DOLLERY Professor of Economics, Director
A host of recent public inquiries into Australian local government have recommended increased use of shared services and resource-sharing models between groups of local councils. While little is known about the extent and consequences of service sharing, emphasis has been fixed on ,horizontal' shared service models between different local councils in the same municipal jurisdictions. However, other models of shared services and resource sharing are possible. This paper considers the Queensland Local Government Association (LGAQ) model as a case study of a resource sharing between all councils in a given system of local government. This form of shared service and resource sharing seems to offer excellent prospects for cost savings and capacity enhancement. [source]

Party politicisation of local councils: Cultural or institutional explanations for trends in Denmark, 1966,2005

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010
ULRIK KJAER
Local government party systems are not necessarily copies of the national party system. In many countries, local party systems have come to resemble the national one more and more , a process Rokkan termed ,party politicisation'. The traditional expectation has been that the take-over of local politics by political parties, through a gradual process of societal modernisation, would eventually be complete. More recently, however, it has been suggested that reorganisations of the institutional set-up , that is, amalgamations of municipalities , could entail developments in the degree of local party system nationalisation. This article investigates cultural and institutional explanations for party politicisation by analysing the Danish case from 1966 to 2005 , a period that witnessed both major amalgamation reforms and periods of stability in the local government structure. The data suggest that dramatic party politicisation does not lend itself to cultural explanations, but originates exclusively from changes in the institutional set-up. Party politicisation is not a gradual process, but comes , at least in Denmark , in leaps coinciding with major reorganisations of the local government structure. [source]

TRADITIONS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2009
KEVIN ORR
This article explores local government traditions in the UK. This task is an important one for scholars who wish to understand and appreciate the rich cultural complexity of local government organizations. In local government settings, traditions can be used in the study and evaluation of political and managerial practices. They provide lenses through which the routines, structures and processes of management and politics may be viewed. The delineation of multiple traditions heightens the sense that local government is not a unified homogeneous organizational entity, but rather a melange of voices, interests and assumptions about how to organize, prioritize and mobilize action. They can be used to engage practitioners with the idea that different traditions inform political and managerial practices and processes in local councils. The approach embraces the significance of participants' constitutive stories about local government rather than the search for essential truths about the politics and management of the public sector. [source]

Economic or Political Development: The Evolution of "Native" Local Government Policy in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, 1945,1963

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 2 2002
Huntley Wright
In 1969, Speaker of the House Assembly of Papua and New Guinea John Guise, spoke of a "quiet decision" to limit the activities of "Native" Local Government Councils in the Territory, so that "they seem to be much more like those of Australian Shire Councils". The present essay suggests that this "quiet decision", contrary to conventional wisdom, was not simply part of a colonial policy designed to serve "assimilationist purposes". Rather, the restricted role finally accorded to local councils was a corollary of the enhanced, post-war capacity of the metropolitan state. Early local government policy never envisaged councils as a first step toward self-government. Rather, councils were to be vehicles for securing the "systematic development of native agricultural potential". The decision to limit the scope of local government policy reflected not a rejection of this initial intent, but rather agrarian reform after 1956 was re-constituted as an object of direct government control. The legacy of local government in Papua New Guinea is not so much one of ,white' colonialism, but of ,development' entrapped in trusteeship. [source]

New Labour's Third Way: pragmatism and governance

BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2000
Michael Temple
The article critically examines New Labour's development of the concept of the Third Way. Despite the apparent centrality of ,social democracy' to the Third Way, it is proposed that a more pragmatic approach dominates, in that outputs and not ideology are driving the new agenda of governance under New Labour. This is seen to have its roots in the new ways of working the party has embraced in local governance, where public?,private partnerships have become the norm and a new ethos of public service has emerged. In contrast with the top-down approach to setting output targets favoured by Tony Blair, the Third Way offers the possibility of a more experimental, pragmatic and decentralised decision-making process,and the local governance network (with elected local councils as pivotal and legitimising actors) is presented as the ideal agent to deliver this. [source]