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Local Governments (local + government)
Kinds of Local Governments Terms modified by Local Governments Selected AbstractsPRINCIPLES AND THEORIES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2006Peter A. Watt The role of local government is viewed in the context of the overall role of government per se. A particular advantage of local government lies in its ability to arrange for the provision of local public goods in line with local tastes and preferences. A number of arguments suggest that local governments should be assigned adequate powers of local taxation to finance their expenditure responsibilities rather than having to rely on central government grant. [source] FACILITATING CHOICE IN ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENTECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2006Stephen J. Bailey This paper examines recent policies to enhance the scope for choice by the users of local government services in England. It questions whether they can offset the progressively increasing restriction of local democratic choices that have resulted from the trend towards increasing centralisation of local finance and statutory controls over service standards. [source] SHARED SERVICES IN AUSTRALIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE QUEENSLAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION MODELECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 4 2008BRIAN 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] EXPLAINING THE UTILIZATION OF RELATIVE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A MULTI-THEORETICAL STUDY USING DATA FROM SWEDENFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009Tobias Johansson One of the more lasting imprints that New Public Management (NPM) has made in the public sector is an increase in the popularity of performance measurement. In Sweden, performance measurement has gained popularity in the public sector, not least at the local government level with the use of relative performance evaluation (RPE). Because utilization of RPE is a decentralized and optional mode of governance, a somewhat heterogeneous practice has evolved. The aim of this paper is to examine the causes of this differentiated practice. We jointly examine economic, political and institutional/cultural explanations in order to account for the utilization of RPE. The empirical material consists of archival data and a questionnaire sent to all Swedish municipalities in late 2005. We show that RPE adoption and use partly has different antecedents and that the institutional/cultural perspective appears to have greater explanatory power than economic and political, not least as a consequence of the potential to explain decoupling and the importance of change facilitating capabilities. The investigation contributes specifically to the literature on the utilization of RPE in local governments and more generally to the literature on why and to what extent management accounting practices are utilized. [source] MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING CHANGE AND NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A REASSESSMENT OF AMBITIONS AND RESULTS , AN INSTITUTIONALIST APPROACH TO ACCOUNTING CHANGE IN THE DUTCH PUBLIC SECTORFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008Henk J. Ter Bogt Dutch municipalities and provinces, denoted here as local government, have seen a succession of changes in their management accounting systems and have also introduced other changes related to New Public Management (NPM) in the last twenty years. This paper examines accounting changes, such as the introduction of accrual accounting, output and outcome budgets and performance measurement, from an institutionalist point of view. The paper presents experiences of 23 politicians and professional managers with the various changes over a period of fifteen to twenty years. The interviewees, just like various researchers in the field of NPM, were critical of the accounting changes and their effects. However, several of them also made clear that, seen over the long run, the changes did have some effects that they liked and seem to be in line with the ,ideals' presented in NPM literature. The paper suggests that an institutionalist perspective is helpful for studying change processes in organizations and for observing factors and developments that might not be noticed when a more functional and short-term perspective is adopted. [source] MUNICIPAL CONTRACTING OUT: GOVERNANCE CHOICES, MISALIGNMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN SWEDISH LOCAL GOVERNMENTFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008Tobias Johansson In this paper we apply a Transaction Cost Theory framework to analyse the use and effects of contracting out in Swedish local government. During the last decade Swedish local authorities, like in many other countries, have, to a larger extent, started to contract external subcontractors to fulfil their responsibilities towards its citizens. It is not only in the traditional subcontracting sectors such as housing, infrastructure, and technical services that this trend is evident, but also in policy areas like education, social care, and elderly care. In fact, very little is known about the overall effects of, and the mechanisms underlying, governance choices. The overall results corroborate transaction cost reasoning. Supplier competition and specificity have anticipated effects on municipal de-integration. Too little, but not too much, use of contracting out, in relation to theoretical predictions, worsens performance. The latter aspect is not fully in accordance with TCE-propositions. [source] RECENT AND FUTURE MANAGEMENT CHANGES IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: CONTINUING FOCUS ON RATIONALITY AND EFFICIENCY?FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2008Henk J. Ter Bogt Dutch municipalities and provinces have recently introduced many changes relating to management control. This paper explores the role of economic and social rationality in the introduction of reforms, and the nature of possible future reforms. Based on interviews with politicians and professional managers and on documents, the paper examines experiences with recent management changes. In addition, it discusses ,change initiating factors'. Budget cuts and trends seem to be such change initiating factors. However, particularly more demanding citizens, increases in voters' volatility and politicians' uncertainty seemed to initiate changes. The paper speculates that in the near future, too, it could be a rational survival strategy for politicians and managers to focus on initiatives that are intended to enhance performance and efficiency. [source] TRADITIONS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2009KEVIN 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] EXPERTISE AND POLICY-MAKING: LEGAL PROFESSIONALS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2006ELLA BATTEN Professional influence in policy-making is generally believed to rest on professionals successfully laying claim to access to expertise , knowledge, understanding or experience , not available to others, above all politicians. On the basis of a 2005 survey of nearly 800 lawyers serving in local authorities in England and Wales, this article explores the relationship between specialization and political influence. Lawyers who shape policy use conventional routes for political influence, establish contacts with political officeholders, tend to identify less with the profession at large and are less likely to see themselves as specialists in any field of law. This means that the relationship between expertise and political power is complex and that the notion that professionals use their expertise to shape policy should be treated with some caution. [source] LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, UNEXPECTED DEPRECIATION AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE ADJUSTMENTFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2010Robyn Pilcher Prior management and manipulation of financial accounting information research has overwhelmingly been focused within a private sector setting. This study adopts a public sector focus in empirically examining the use of a specific discretionary accrual (i.e., depreciation) to adjust the financial performance of New South Wales (Australia) local governments. Findings indicate a significant positive association between absolute unexpected depreciation and absolute local government income before capital contributions, and a significant positive association between absolute unexpected depreciation and capital contributions. Overall, the results make significant contributions to various literature streams with implications for various stakeholders interested in local governmental financial performance. [source] IS E-GOVERNMENT LEADING TO MORE ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS?FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2010AN OVERALL VIEW This paper seeks to assess to what extent e-government enables accountability and transparency in EU local governments. It also provides an overall view about how local governments are implementing ICTs initiatives to bring citizens closer to governments. Although the mere capacity of the Internet for the dissemination of information improves accountability and makes benchmarking easier, our results show that the expected benefits are far from being achieved because e-government projects are still in the early stages. The results also show that, at present, ICTs have not had a dramatic impact on EU local government accountability. [source] NGOs, Local Government, and Agrarian Civil Society: A Case of Evolving Collaboration from Southern PeruCULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FOOD & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 1 2001Assistant Professor Lisa Markowitz First page of article [source] Financing Decentralized Development in a Low-Income Country: Raising Revenue for Local Government in UgandaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2001Ian Livingstone Uganda has been engaged for a number of years in an ambitious programme of political and financial decentralization involving significantly expanded expenditure and service delivery responsibilities for local governments in what are now forty-five districts. Fiscal decentralization has involved allocation of block grants from the centre to complement increased local tax revenue-raising efforts by districts and municipalities. This article is concerned with the financial side of decentralization and in particular with an examination of district government efforts to raise revenue with the tax instruments which have been assigned to them. These are found to be deficient in a number of ways and their tax raising potential not to be commensurate with the responsibilities being devolved. Achievement of the decentralization aims laid down, therefore, must depend either on the identification of new or modified methods of raising revenue locally, or increased commitment to transfer of financial resources from the centre, or both. [source] Accounting and NPM in UK Local Government , Contributions Towards Governance and AccountabilityFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2005Andrew Goddard Despite its size and economic importance, accounting in UK local government is still relatively under-researched. Two important developments which have emerged in recent years across the whole public sector are governance and New Public Management. It is timely to study the contribution which local government accounting makes in this changing context. Governance has proved a particularly contentious concept to define. This study has attempted to understand governance from the participants' perspective and consequently a grounded theory methodology has been used. The empirical research comprised four UK local authority case studies over a twelve month period. The grounded theory developed makes two important contributions to our knowledge of accounting and NPM in relation to governance and accountability in local government. These are the relative importance of accountability rather than governance per se to participants, and the more significant contribution to accountability made by budgeting practices rather than NPM practices such as performance indicators, contracting out of services and Best Value studies. The reasons for these findings are explored and theorised in the paper, using Bourdieu's concept of habitus. [source] New Labour and the Modernisation of British Local Government: A CritiqueFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2001Arthur Midwinter The modernisation agenda for local government is based on questionable political assumptions. It has the attributes of a theological concept. This paper examines the concept of modernisation of local government by focusing on three dimensions (1) governance, (2) management and (3) finance. This analysis suggests the modernisation agenda is limited in scope and vision. [source] Benchmarking as a Tool for the Modernisation of Local GovernmentFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2001Mary Bowerman This paper examines benchmarking as a tool of the modernisation process in local government and the contradictory tensions in the Best Value scheme are explored. Benchmarking is shown to encapsulate the dichotomous nature of a modernising philosophy which espouses innovation and local solutions alongside the government's centralising tendencies. One consequence is the advancement of ,compulsory' and ,defensive' modes of benchmarking with local authorities benchmarking for external accountability reasons; issues of tangible improvement are secondary concerns. These tensions are viewed as irreconcilable, the implication is that local government will need to carefully manage and evaluate its benchmarking activities. [source] Is Financial Stress an Incentive for the Adoption of Businesslike Planning and Control in Local Government?FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2000A Comparative Study of Eight Dutch Municipalities Hood has formulated the hypothesis that financial stress is a motive for the adoption of New Public Management (NPM), and particularly of businesslike instruments and styles in government. He has illustrated this hypothesis on a macro-level by comparing different OECD countries. The aim of this paper is to make a start with a micro-level test of this hypothesis by studying individual governmental organization, i.e. eight municipalities in the Netherlands. The financial stress hypothesis has been operationalised by assuming a negative relationship between the financial position of a municipality and the existence of businesslike planning and control instruments. The research shows that there is no evidence for the existence of this relationship. However, a conclusive judgement about the financial stress hypothesis seems to be impossible due to the fact that non-technical aspects of NPM were not taken into account, and also because of an , on average , upward bias in the financial position of the municipalities in the empirical investigation. [source] Decentralization, Local Government, and the Welfare StateGOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2007JEFFEREY M. SELLERS Despite growing interest in decentralized governance, the local government systems that comprise the most common element of decentralization around the world have received little systematic attention. This article, drawing on the first systematic index of decentralization to local government in 21 countries, demonstrates a close relation between Social Democratic welfare states and an intergovernmental infrastructure that in important respects ranks as the most decentralized among advanced industrial countries. This empowerment of local government in these countries was less an outgrowth of Social Democratic welfare state development than a preexisting condition that helped make this type of welfare state possible. [source] Local Government Reform In Britain 1997,2001: National Forces and International TrendsGOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION, Issue 2 2003Michael Cole This article considers the origins of the local government reform agenda of the 1997 to 2001 Labour government. The analysis identifies a wide range of factors including recurring themes in the debate about local government, market mechanisms, Labour Party politics, the traditions of the British state, the constitutional reform agenda and the international context. This study also develops the notion of shifting constraints to explain this process and the agenda of the current Labour administration. [source] Governance from Below in Bolivia: A Theory of Local Government with Two Empirical TestsLATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 4 2009Jean-Paul Faguet ABSTRACT This article examines decentralization through the lens of the local dynamics it unleashed in the much-noted case of Bolivia. It argues that the national effects of decentralization are largely the sum of its local-level effects. To understand decentralization, therefore, we must first understand how local government works. The article explores the deep economic and institutional determinants of government quality in two extremes of municipal performance. From this it derives a model of local government responsiveness as the product of political openness and substantive competition. The quality of local politics, in turn, emerges endogenously as the joint product of the lobbying and political engagement of local firms and interests and the organizational density and ability of civil society. The analysis tests the theory's predictions on a database containing all Bolivian municipalities. The theory proves robust. The combined methodology provides a higher-order empirical rigor than either approach can alone. [source] Steering, Supporting, Enabling: The Role of Law in Local Government ReformsLAW & POLICY, Issue 2 2006VEITH MEHDE Reforms in local government often follow decisions that are taken by central governments. To initiate these changes, law is the most important mechanism. This article analyzes the different regulative strategies legislators can apply in this context. Since local governments have a variety of options at hand to resist orders for change, a strict steering approach is not necessarily the most promising mechanism. Contrariwise, to play a purely enabling role might not be a satisfactory option for central governments that want to express their commitment to a multilevel reform agenda. [source] Whither Local Government Reform?NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2001The Case of Wisconsin [source] Path Dependency and the Reform of English Local GovernmentPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2005Francesca Gains This paper uses the concept of path dependency to examine the changes to the political management structures of English local government. We note how the possible experience of decreasing returns among some local authority actors combined with the powerful intervention of politicians within New Labour at the national level led to a significant break from past policy and the imposition of measures to establish a separate executive that was claimed as a radical step forward for local democracy. Using survey data from the Evaluating Local Governance research team (http://www.elgnce.org.uk), we explore the establishment of a separate political executive in all major local authorities and map out the style of decision-making that is emerging. We find that some established institutional patterns reasserted themselves in the process of implementation, but that increasing returns are not as great as some theorists of path dependency would suggest and they may be a force for system change as well as for stability. [source] Contingent and Non-Contingent Working in Local Government: Contrasting Psychological ContractsPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2002Jacqueline A-M. Given that the contingent worker is likely to be a familiar presence in the public service workplace of the future, this paper explores the consequences of contingent work arrangements on the attitudes and behaviour of employees using the psychological contract as a framework for analysis. Drawing upon survey evidence from a sample of permanent, fixed term and temporary staff employed in a British local authority, our results suggest that contract status plays an important role in how individuals view the exchange relationship with their employer and how they respond to the inducements received from that relationship. Specifically, contingent employees are less committed to the organization and engage in organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) to a lesser degree than their permanent counterparts. However, contrary to our hypothesis, the relationship between the inducements provided by the employer and OCB is stronger for contingent employees. Such findings have implications for the treatment of contingent and non-contingent employees in the public services. [source] Performance Management, Evaluation and Learning in ,Modern' Local GovernmentPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2001Ian Sanderson Public sector reforms throughout OECD member states are producing a new model of ,public governance' embodying a more modest role for the state and a strong emphasis on performance management. In the UK, the development of performance management in the context of the ,new public management' has been primarily ,top-down' with a dominant concern for enhancing control and ,upwards account-ability' rather than promoting learning and improvement. The development of performance management and evaluation in local government in the UK has been conditioned by external pressures, especially reforms imposed by central government, which have encouraged an ,instrumental,managerial' focus on performance measurement. The new Labour government's programme of ,modernizing local government' places considerable emphasis on performance review and evaluation as a driver of continuous improvement in promoting Best Value. However, recent research has indicated that the capacity for evaluation in local government is uneven and many obstacles to evaluation exist in organizational cultures. Local authorities need to go beyond the development of review systems and processes to ensure that the capacity for evaluation and learning is embedded as an attribute of ,culture' in order to achieve the purpose of Best Value. [source] An Analysis of Introducing Program Budgeting in Local GovernmentPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2001Ron Kluvers Program budgeting has been in use for 30 years. It has had a checkered history, being considered alternately a great advancement or an unworkable system. Little has been written about the consequences for the organization that has adopted it. This study was undertaken concerning local government across the State of Victoria, Australia. A questionnaire was sent to all municipalities. There was a 60 percent response rate. Results show that information generated by planning programming budgeting (PPB) is used for decision making but in a limited way. The proposition that PPB will have an impact on the operations of councils is only partially supported. [source] Substantive Symbols: The Attitudinal Dimension of Black Political Incorporation in Local GovernmentAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2007Melissa J. Marschall Traditional studies of minority incorporation focus on the redistribution of public resources that purportedly follows black gains in representation. The present study departs from this approach by focusing on the attitudinal effects of black leadership. Two research questions guide this study: To what extent do blacks' assessments of neighborhood services and conditions stem from black representation in local executive and legislative offices? Are these attitudinal effects rooted in policy and service delivery outcomes? Employing survey data from 3,000 blacks embedded in 52 cities and 53 school districts, this study reveals that blacks report higher levels of satisfaction with their neighborhood conditions, police services, and public schools when represented by blacks in city hall and on school boards and that these evaluations are most positive when improvements in local services are conspicuous. Overall, these findings extend conventional conceptualizations of substantive benefits and challenge more pessimistic accounts regarding the effects of black representation in local politics. [source] New Labour's PPI Reforms: Patient and Public Involvement in Healthcare Governance?THE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 2 2009Peter Vincent-Jones Following a first wave of reform at the beginning of the decade, the system of patient and public involvement in healthcare governance is being further overhauled under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 and the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The current reforms reflect a significant shift in dominant political discourse from an earlier concern with patient and public involvement towards a more exclusive focus on consumer choice and economic regulation, with collective voice and citizen participation at best playing a subordinate part in the government's NHS modernisation agenda. While there is some potential for increased responsiveness in the new arrangements, the overall effect is likely to be a weakening of the foundations of democratic decision making in the governance of healthcare in England. [source] A Conceptual Analysis of Price Setting in Australian Local GovernmentAUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Garry D. Carnegie A complex set of issues underlies the pricing of the diverse range of goods and services from which Australian local governments derive a significant portion of their revenues. Although local governments have a not-for-profit orientation, they are expected to be financially viable and embrace a broad notion of accountability. They are also expected to influence the behaviour of constituents in accordance with policy decisions, but be equitable in doing so. These and related parameters are discussed and illustrated in order to reveal and elucidate the nature of pricing decisions in local government, and to differentiate the local government context from other price-setting environments. [source] Themes in Contemporary Australian Local GovernmentAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2009Brian Dollery No abstract is available for this article. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||