Between the quality of the environment and the quality of the performances in Israeli local government

Abstract

According to the current Local Authorities Act in Israel 2000, once the municipal government fails to function financially, the Ministry of the Interior should intervene to appoint a professional team to help the municipality recover from its crisis. This law contains no wording ordering the local authorities to provide any local services. In the absence of a clear demand from the central government to provide certain public goods at the local level, what motivates the heads of local authorities to provide such goods? Given that local environmental issues are mostly identified as local services, and that people's satisfaction with the quality of the local environmental services is an effective predictor for the re-election of an incumbent head in almost all Israeli municipalities, the way local authorities deal with these services constitutes a case study with which to examine their incentive for providing local services. This study seeks to explain the empirical nature of the major political motivations of the heads of local authorities for providing environmental services. The environmental and sustainability literature offers economic and civic motivations as an answer to this question. In contrast, this article suggests public choice theory as an alternative answer to this question.