Creating institutional advantage: local government co-production with community groups

Abstract

Japanese local government faces formidable problems, not least of which are severe financial constraints and rapidly ageing populations. These problems are acute in the Tohoku region of northern Honshu, with its lower incomes and declining population. Public policies designed to assist local authorities in addressing these problems include fostering greater collaboration between local communities and local governments through co-production in local service provision. In this article, we examine two leading examples of local co-production in Tohoku through the lens of case studies in Sendai City and Hirosaki City, the former focused on the development of evacuation centre manuals and the latter on the competitive sponsorship of community projects by local authorities. Drawing on the theory of comparative institutional advantage, we argue that these approaches are not only efficacious in leveraging the relative strengths of local councils and community groups, but are also readily applicable in other countries.