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Local Leadership (local + leadership)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences60%

Selected Abstracts

Local Governance as Government,Business Cooperation in Western Democracies: Analysing Local and Intergovernmental Effects by Multi-Level Comparison

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2008
CLEMENTE J. NAVARRO YÁÑEZ
Abstract The internationalization of economics and politics has forced local governments to develop new context-appropriate strategies; these strategies, characterized by a greater degree of interaction with non-governmental key actors and with the business world in particular, have been termed local or urban governance. This article is intended to illustrate the impact of three factors , local leadership, local political arenas and intergovernmental relationships , on the formation of cooperative networks between local governments and business organizations as one of the basic types of urban governance model. To achieve this, a comparative multi-level analysis presenting the CEO's perpective on such issues was conducted. The results show how local and intergovernmental opportunity costs and leadership are the factors that largely determine the degree of collaboration between local government and business. Résumé L'internationalisation de l'économie et de la politique a forcé les gouvernements locaux àélaborer de nouvelles stratégies en fonction des contextes ; caractérisées par une interaction plus forte avec des acteurs-clés non gouvernementaux et avec le monde de l'entreprise en particulier, ces stratégies ont reçu l'appellation de gouvernance locale ou urbaine. L'impact de trois facteurs , autorité locale, arènes politiques locales et relations intergouvernementales , sur la formation des réseaux de coopération entre gouvernements locaux et entreprises est présenté comme l'un des types essentiels de modèle de gouvernance urbaine. Pour ce faire, une analyse comparative multi-niveaux a été menée sur la vision des directions générales d'entreprises concernant ces questions. Les résultats montrent la manière dont les autorités et les coûts d'opportunité locaux et intergouvernementaux déterminent en grande partie le degré de collaboration entre les gouvernements locaux et le monde des affaires. [source]

The Increasing Political Power of Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel: From Passive Citizenship to Active Citizenship

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2003
Tamar Horowitz
The immigrants in Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) followed a different pattern of political growth than other immigrant groups. Their increased power began on the national level and moved down to the local level, rather than from the periphery toward the centre , the pattern followed by the Oriental Jewish immigrants. We can trace three stages in the development of their political power. The first stage was during the 1992 elections when the immigrants attempted to organize their own list. Though they failed, the results of the election strengthened them because they were given credit for the left's victory, giving them a sense of political effectiveness. The second stage came during the 1996 elections. It was a defining moment for the former Soviet immigrants' political power. In this stage external factors and internal factors reinforced each other. The change in the electoral system made it possible for the immigrants to vote for their community on the one hand and for a national figure on the other, thus resolving their identity dilemma. The local elections in 1998 marked the third stage in their political strength. They found the immigrant community better organized, with an improved understanding of its local interests, the capacity to put forward a strong local leadership, and a stronger link between the immigrant political centre and the local level. [source]

The RWJF Reclaiming Futures Initiative: Improving Substance Abuse Interventions for Justice-Involved Youths

JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006
LAURA BURNEY NISSEN
ABSTRACT Juvenile justice systems in the United States do not always respond effectively to substance abuse problems among young offenders. In 2002, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched a 10-community demonstration project to address this problem. Reclaiming Futures (RF) relies on community partnerships to improve treatment quality, strengthen local leadership, expand inter-organizational collaboration, and create systems of shared performance management. The initial findings of a cross-site evaluation suggest that Reclaiming Futures is yielding important and positive change. Bi-annual surveys of key informants measure the quality and integration of juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment systems in each community. Of 13 indices measured by the surveys, 11 showed significant improvements between 2003 and 2005. [source]

Local government decision-making,citizen participation and local accountability: some evidence from Kenya and Uganda

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2003
Nick Devas
The current fashion for decentralisation is built on the assumption that it will result in decisions that reflect local needs and priorities. Yet representative democracy, through periodic elections, is a crude mechanism for establishing these needs and priorities. Most local government systems offer few other opportunities for citizens to participate, particularly for the poor, and few mechanisms of accountability. This article reviews the literature relating local level decision-making, citizen participation and accountability. It then presents the findings of a study of decision-making about the use of resources in a sample of municipal governments in Kenya and Uganda. Local governments in Kenya have traditionally offered minimal scope for citizen participation or accountability, but this is beginning to change, mainly as a result of performance conditions applied through the recently introduced Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF), together with an increasingly active civil society. In Uganda, which has undergone a radical decentralisation, there is much greater scope for citizen participation at the local level but there are still many of the same problems of local accountability as in Kenya. The article reviews some of the examples of, and reasons for, good (and bad) practice. It concludes that factors like committed local leadership, central monitoring of performance, articulate civil society organisations and the availability of information are critical. But even with these, there is no guarantee that decentralised decision-making will be inclusive of the poor. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Challenges to achieving sustainable community health development within a donor aid business model

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 3 2010
Helen Ashwell
Abstract Objective: This paper explores the paradox of donor aid being delivered through a business model through a case study in Papua New Guinea. Methods: A retrospective review of project implementation and an outcome evaluation provided an opportunity to examine the long-term results and sustainability of a large project. Analysis was informed by data collected from 175 interviews (national, provincial, district and village), 93 community discussions and observations across 10 provinces. Results: Problems with the business model of delivering aid were evident from implementation data and in an evaluation conducted two years after project completion (2006). Compounding the business model effect were challenges of over-ambitious project goals with limited flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, a donor payment system requiring short-term productivity and excessive reporting requirements. Conclusion: An overly ambitious project design, donor dominance within the business model and limited local counterpart capacity created problems in the community initiatives component of the project. Contractual pressures can negatively influence long-term outcomes that require development of local leadership and capacity. Future planning for donor project designs needs to be flexible, smaller in scope and have a longer timeframe of seven to 10 years. Implications: Donor-funded projects need to be sufficiently flexible to apply proven principles of community development, build local ownership and allow adequate time to build counterpart knowledge and skills. [source]