Incentivos fiscais e equilíbrio fiscal nos municípios da microrregião de Governador Valadares

Germany enjoys relatively even standards of living throughout most of its territory; yet levelling the existing gradients between the federal states and between urban and rural areas is a key issue in national development and regional planning even codified in the German Basic Law. In the post-war period, the postulate was primarily applied to the development of rural areas. With the intensification of the German division the focus was extended to the area adjacent to the Soviet Zone, which suffered from de-industrialisation and out-migration. After re-unification regional inequalities between the western and eastern states and within Eastern Germany became a key issue of national concern. Today demographic change, especially ageing, and outmigration from rural regions of Eastern Germany and gradually also from the more remote parts in the West, is increasingly considered a very serious challenge to the principle of safeguarding regional equality and providing equivalent standards in the provision of public services. Three national financial policy schemes are in place to reduce regional inequalities between the federal states. The Federal Financial Equalisation Scheme was designed as a constituent part of the federal system to provide each state with adequate financial resources. The Solidarity Surcharge has been levied since 1991 in order to reduce inequalities between the western and eastern federal states. The Solidarity Pact was instituted in 1993 and re-launched in 2005 to fund reconstruction in the eastern states directly. In Germany spatial planning for equivalent standards of living is backed by a well-developed system of central places which is supported by all state planning acts. Especially in rural areas it is being complemented by non-statutory planning approaches which support private participation (e.g. neighbourhood or communal shops), inter-municipal regional cooperation (e.g. based on target agreements), and flexibilisation (e.g. multiple use of service facilities). The federal government is supporting these non-statutory planning approaches for the provision of essential public services within its urban development promotion programme with the aim of mobilising regional potentials.

This study investigates COVID-19 related budget revenue losses in US local governments, and their effects on funding and provision of essential public services such as EMS, healthcare, firefighters, police, welfare and public housing services. A survey was sent to county and city governments to learn about their revenue losses for fiscal year 2020 and their effects on funding and service provision. Results show budget revenue loss significantly impacts funding cuts for essential services and is most impactful on welfare and public housing services. Additionally, although funding cuts significantly influence levels of services provided, aid from federal government restrains the extent of funding cuts and the influence of cuts on EMS and healthcare. The findings imply intergovernmental transfers play a pivotal role in averting deep cuts that could be detrimental to saving lives during a crisis. Furthermore, funding availability is key to maintaining appropriate levels of services to help care for the sick and protect the vulnerable in society.

Discussions on the design of intergovernmental fiscal relations often revolve around the premise that intergovernmental grants – especially earmarked grants – should be minimised. It is also often argued that intergovernmental grants imply a vertical fiscal imbalance between central and subnational governments. These arguments are based on the “benefit principle”, and emphasise the importance of establishing a clear linkage between expenditure and revenue decisions of subnational governments. But in reality, almost all local governments worldwide provide, at least to some extent, essential (redistributive) public services such as health, education, and social services, which require substantial revenues. The four country cases examined in this chapter show the importance of intergovernmental relations in the role of co-ordinating across levels of government for the efficient and equitable provision of essential public services. They also show that, in many countries, earmarked grants play an important role in the provision of these services.

Desert nomad societies have recently attracted the attention of policy makers within the context of arid zone and sparseland development schemes. In general, these schemes have been aimed at major changes in the nomads’ genre de vie, not just towards sedentarization, but also towards upgrading their standard of living. A major element of such development schemes, sometimes the crucial one, has been the provision of essential public services, primarily health and education. While from a Western society perspective, the provision of such public services is viewed as a social development axiom, this is not the case with nomads, who are characterized as unique Third World societies. Their views and attitudes toward development in general and provision of modernized public services in particular are often in conflict with those of national authorities and international aid organizations. Consequently, the process of delivering these services to nomads has become problematical and its success (economic, social and cultural) rather mixed.

Different governmental arrangements have varying impacts on the equity of provision of public services. But these impacts are modified by the cultural‐political traditions of nations. In this paper we compare central‐local relations in Sweden and Australia in broad qualitative terms. We explore the concept of ‘territorial equity’ and employ a resource model of government power to describe central‐local relations in the two countries. In any society the relative emphasis given to the opposing distributive principles of the governmental and market spheres—equity and efficiency—will greatly affect outcomes. We discuss the different significant variables contributing to a degree of equality in service provision in the two countries and foreshadow changes ahead, with varying capacity in the two countries to resist moves towards greater inequality in the provision of essential public services.

Fiscal decentralization is a tool to achieve maximum public welfare and the provision of essential public services. The essence of fiscal decentralization is the provision of transfer funds to local governments. In addition, through transfer funds, it is hoped that there will be equity and fiscal balance vertically and horizontally. However, the existence of transfer funds caused a response that the central government responded to as the main fund for regional spending. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the flypaper effect on the balance fund and local revenue on education spending, health spending, and infrastructure spending. Using data from 2019-2023 in municipalities and cities on the island of Java and regression using a fixed effect model, it shows the occurrence of a flypaper effect on education and infrastructure spending through DAK. As a result, every increase in DAK will encourage an increase in education and infrastructure spending. Meanwhile, different results are shown in health spending, that every increase in DAU decreases health spending. Different tests were carried out using dummy variables in the year before and after the implementation of the latest policy. As a result, the regulation of the DAU Specific Grant was able to increase health spending, but not as much as the influence of PAD.

The development of smart cities through the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) has accelerated the growth of Southeast Asia’s capital and important cities. However, a growing concern has been how much the intention of Southeast Asian cities to achieve a ‘smart city status’ considers the basic elements of human rights and the provisions of essential and basic public services. The first policy recommendation is the acknowledgment of the vulnerability of the under-privileged, personal security, and social inclusion for governing smart cities to counter the possible derailing of democratic progress from taking place in the region. The second recommendation is to have fellow ASEAN member states assist in the provision of essential public services to avoid a ‘development’ model imposed by external funding stakeholders. The policy brief utilizes secondary data between 2018 and 2024 on the ASEAN Smart Cities Network projects and identifies the civic and social concerns arising within the specified time

The years following the end of martial law and the democratization of Taiwan have been marked by sizable political and social reform. In the interests of increasing social participation and decreasing direct state control of economic and social development programs, public–private partnerships (PPP) have been emphasized as the primary means to provide public services. Through an investigation into the functioning of a landmark project in the newest wave of educational reform orientated toward the localization and indigenization of elementary school educational materials, this paper will investigate the role that private entities have taken in the provision of education services. The extent that the privatization of education services serves to meet the goals and standards of Indigenous education will be discussed using a theoretical framework developed through the application of Tribal Critical Race Theory and Culturally Responsive Schooling. Semi-structured interviews with administrators, teachers, artists, and editors tasked with developing Indigenous centered learning materials problematize and question the procedural norms, conflicts of interest, and structural bias exacerbated by the increased presence of private entities. Through the experiences and counter narratives of participants, the issues of local alienation, limited consultation, and restricted Indigenous participation are revealed to be core issues in promoting Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, tackling racism, and engaging with Indigenous epistemologies. This rare evaluation of the means by which multicultural education projects are realized by market-based forces acts to highlight the obstacles and practical limitations of PPP in the provision of essential public services in Indigenous areas.

The performance of county governments plays a pivotal role in ensuring the provision of essential public services, effective financial management, successful policy implementation, and public satisfaction. Strategic leadership, which encompasses long-term vision, informed decision-making, resource allocation, and the management of change and innovation, is crucial for addressing the complex challenges faced by county governments. Although the importance of strategic leadership is widely acknowledged, there remains a gap in understanding its specific impact at the county government level, as most existing research focuses on private sector or national-level governance. This review aims to address this gap by examining the roles of strategic leadership in enhancing the performance of county governments in Kenya. The study utilizes a desk research design, reviewing relevant literature on the influence of strategic leadership on the performance of county governments in Kenya. It focuses on identifying key strategic leadership practices and evaluating their impact on various performance areas, including service delivery, financial management, and public trust.The findings suggest that incorporating strategic leadership elements, such as vision and mission development, strategic planning, decision-making, and change management, significantly improves the performance of county governments in Kenya. The evidence gathered from recent studies demonstrates that these components collectively contribute to enhanced operational efficiency, better resource management, and improved service delivery. As county governments face ongoing challenges, the emphasis on strategic leadership practices will be essential for achieving successful outcomes and fostering effective governance.

Population Dynamics, Housing Economics, and the Future of the American Habitat

In 2024, Lebanon entered the fifth year of a crippling economic crisis that has decimated the value of the Lebanese pound, crippled its medical and education systems, and limited the state provision of essential public services- such as electricity, which is not available for more than a few hours a day by state provision. While all those living in Lebanon feel the effects of these dire circumstances, those from marginalized communities such as migrant and domestic workers, the elderly, children, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities or poor health, etc. have been disproportionately affected. To add fuel to the fire, the already dire refugee situation in Lebanon has been exasperated by one national crisis after another from the Beirut Blast of August 4, 2020 to the COVID-19 Pandemic to government collapse and finally the rapid devaluation of the Lebanese Pound (LBP). There have been many effects, among the most dire is the migration of the highly educated Lebanese citizenry from Lebanon to third countries. The substantial brain drain from Lebanon is likely to have a significant impact on the country's future for generations to come.The Fragility of the Lebanese Stateexplores the causes and potential solutions of this crisis.

Irrespective of whether one adheres to the premise that human rights is an area of international law that is characterised by its own telos-oriented legal rules or not, the undeniable fact is that the protection of human rights was, and remains, one of the cornerstones of international legal regulation, and its content is one that constantly evolves. In such an ever-shifting normative landscape, the present book aims to examine the role of human rights in regulating adequate provision of essential public services. These services include, among others, access to water, electricity and healthcare services. Within that context, the goal of this chapter will be to shed some inquisitive light on the question of whether access to electricity,1 as one manifestation of access to energy, although not yet a recognised human right, may nonetheless be protected under existing human rights instruments.2 Essentially, the question can be stripped down to whether until (or if) access to energy and electricity becomes a recognised and regulated human right, its nucleus can in the meantime be found by virtue of interpretative methods to fall within the scope ratione materiae of existing human rights instruments.3

Local councils in every part of Cameroon are playing an extremely significant role in the provision of essential public services. However, the local development authorities face tremendous challenges to adequately generate finances to meet community needs. The aim of this paper is to find out whether the councils in the Fako Division have access to all the sources of finance as stipulated by statute and to determine the difficulties they face in exploiting the sources to finance their developmental plans. The exploratory and descriptive designs were adopted for the study. 4 out of the 6 councils in the Fako Division were conveniently selected. The Finance and General Affaires Officers were purposely designated as the respondents for the study. Data were collected with the aid of semi-structured questionnaires and a checklist. The collected data were descriptively analysed with the use of tables and bar charts. Mean and the Relative Important index were used to rank in terms of importance the challenges faced by the councils in the revenue generation process and the options available to them to exploit. The findings reveal that the councils have access to internal sources such as; local taxes; fees, fines, and penalties; service charges, patents and business licenses; Gifts and donations. The external sources were mostly Intergovernmental transfers and Council Development Funds from FEICOM and PNDP. The study equally found out that the most exploited options of finance by the councils are INTERCOM (M =4.25, RII = 0.85, ranked 1st) and service charge adjustment (M = 4.13, RII = 0.82, ranked 2nd) while the least utilized options were tax adjustment (Mean = 1.00, RII = 0.02, ranked 10th) and the usage of saved up profit from investments and businesses (M = 1.75, RII = 0.35, ranked 9th). The study further uncovered that the challenges with the highest mean scores are infringement by the central government on means of internal revenue generation of the municipality (M = 3.85, SD = 1.214) and lack of power to make finance bi laws (M = 3.85, SD = 1.214), while inadequate sources of revenue (M = 3.42, SD = 1.306) and narrow local tax base (M = 3.42, SD = 1.306) had the least mean scores. The study recommends among others that the framework in place needs clarification to clear off conflicting and confusing goals. It should include legislative clarification of the responsibilities of each level of government and the identification of the appropriate funding resources. These will reduce vertical imbalances and increase fiscal responsibility. Also, a transfer system should be defined that encourages local governments to collect own revenue and manage their roles efficiently, while imposing strict budget constraints to foster fiscal discipline. This will minimize conflicting responsibilities and enable the local governments to discharge their functions.

This study on “President Mohamed Bazoum’s Political Leadership and Military Intervention in Niger Republic” aimed at explaining how President Mohamed Bazoum’s political leadership triggered military intervention in Niger Republic. Ex Post Facto design that depended on the judgmental sampling technique was adopted in the study. Secondary sources (books, journal articles, conference papers, monographs and internet materials) of data collection were sourced from Nigerian libraries and the internet. These documentary data were subjected to content validity before being analyzed qualitatively into the study. Notwithstanding the fact that environmental theory has deepened knowledge on the fundamentals for military intervention in Niger Republic, the study identified corruption, economic hardship, insecurity, self-interest and infrastructural deficit as factors that were responsible for the forceful removal of President Mohamed Bazoum on 26th July, 2023. The coup d’état has resulted in food insecurity, inflation, termination of infrastructural projects, border closure as well as sanctions by the Economic Community of West African States. France recalled its Ambassador and withdrew all military assistance including troops from Niger Republic. The United States and the European Union have stopped budgetary and development assistance to the Niger Republic. The military junta has entered into a security partnership with Mali, Burkina Faso and Wagner Group. The possibility of a future coup d’état is undoubted, according to findings. In order to avert counter coup, the study recommends the adoption of a non-military approach to insecurity in Niger Republic, provision of essential public services, establishment of anti-graft agencies, as well as entrenchment of constitutional order. These measures should receive immediate attention if the present military government hopes to survive.

The provision of essential public services is an important element in an overall strategy designed to enable everyone to meet their basic needs, enjoy a minimum standard of living, and possess the health, nutrition and education necessary to lead a full and productive life. Experience has shown that even in countries with a low level of per capita income it is possible to provide public services to all the people of a standard sufficiently high to make a significant impact on the quality of their lives.KeywordsPrimary Health CareHealth AssistantCommunity ContributionRural HousingExternal AssistanceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.