Revisiting the Historical Evolution of Central-Local Government Relations: Legacies, Transformations and Future Trajectories in Türkiye’s Urban Politics

PART 1: LOCAL GOVERNMENT: THE BASICS - Introduction - Our Aims and Approach - Themes and Issues in Local Government - Why Elected Local Government? - The Development of Local Government - Current Structures - Changing Functions: From Government to Governance - Central-Local Government Relations - The National Local Government System - Finance - The Nuts and Bolts - Finance - The Recent Story - PART 2: THE POLITICS AND PEOPLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT - Local Elections - Councillors - The Voice of Choice - The Local Government Workforce - Political Parties - Who Makes Policy? - Local Pressure Groups: The Exercise of Influence - PART 3: AN AGENDA OF CHANGE - Developments in Internal Management -

Water pollution is a significant environmental problem. Success or failure of water pollution control policy depends primarily on effluent standards, monitoring systems, and central–local government relations. This paper focuses on the relationship between the central government and the Kanagawa Prefecture government in Japan concerning the history of water pollution control policy from the 1950s to the early 1970s. Kanagawa Prefecture is next to Tokyo, and the Kanagawa Prefecture government has been a leader regarding environmental policy at the local level in Japan. This paper examines two aspects of water pollution control history in Japan. The first is the reason behind the implementation of a unique water pollution control policy by the Kanagawa Prefecture government against the central government, although two of its governors were conservatives. In other words, this paper examines what other historical factors exist to promote or formulate water pollution control policy, other than ideology. The second aspect involves examining what central–local government relations mean, how they change, when and how national policy change affects local policy change, and vice versa.

The study of central-local government relations presents a dynamic discourse into understanding political and administrative power dimensions and distribution between central government and local government. Central-local government relations reflects the horizontal and vertical power dynamics between central and local government and related consequences on autonomy and the degree of discretion that local government enjoy from central government control and direction. Zimbabwe being a unitary state have one source of state authority underpinned by a local government system decentralized (devolution in particular) to provide affordable services to a heterogeneous citizenry in geographically defined and demarcated areas of jurisdiction. Local authorities are creatures of statutes/Acts of parliament and therefore operate within the legislative framework enacted and promulgated by central government (legislature) as the primary legislative authority section 32 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, but also enjoy subsidiary or secondary legislative authority as provided in section 32 (2) of the constitution of Zimbabwe, section 228 of the Urban Councils Act, Chapter 29.15 for urban local authorities and section 88 of the Rural District Councils Act, Chapter 29.13. Local governance in Zimbabwe is a much contested discipline bringing diversity and controversy and the conduct of central government in dealing with local authorities have of late been shrouded by criticism from the independent media houses. Independent media houses and the opposition political parties blamed the minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development (MLGRUD) and central government’s intervention, legally though, as interference with local authorities’ affairs to the detriment of good governance in the latter institutions. This paper attempts therefore to evaluate the objectivity and rationality of such interventions.

The concern of this paper is to examine the central-local government relations and the extent and the manner in which this relation undermines or promoted the local government autonomy in Tanzania. Nevertheless, the knowledge about the effect of central-local government relation on local government autonomy and education service management is sparse. The central government is responsible for provision of public services such as education and healthcare because the central government cannot perform each function given the wide jurisdiction. This work was guided by the following research objectives: A) to examine the extent in which central-local government relations undermine local government autonomy. B) to explore the power of the local councils to hire and fire staff under central-local relation management. C) to explore the effect of central-local relations on service delivery management in Local Government authorities. The paper used a case study design with a sample of 40 respondents elected using purposive sampling. The method of data collection was interview and documentary review and the data were analyzed using thematic data analysis and descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that the failure of Local Governments Authorities in Tanzania in provision of services depends partly on the central-local relations in terms of central government interference which undermine local government autonomy, the structure of local government revenue is weak, institutional capacity of the Local Government Authorities, and modalities in place for the public services that the central government directly provides at the local level. The paper recommends that local government finance and administrative autonomy should be strengthened by Enshrining Decentralization by Devolution (D by D) in National Constitution.

Part 1 Control and in central-local government relations: introduction - the context of intergovernmental relations, summary of events some myths in central-local relations - the conventional wisdom, the conventional critique, the conventional critique revisited, some recent developments, the forgotten dimensions of central-local relations, conclusions interorganizational analysis - the nature of the environment the unit of analysis, organizational goals, and exchange, consequences, conclusions intergovernmental relations - from federalism to intergovernmental relations, bargaining, diplomacy and topocrats, conclusions a framework for analysis - figure - the analysis of interactions, ground - the distribution of power, rules, interests and values, concluding discussion - the rationality of ambiguous confusion. Part 2 From institutions to policy to individuals: power dependence theories of central-local relations - a critical assessment - critical appraisal, towards a theoretical reconstruction, conclusions -what has been achieved? new directions in the study of policy networks - a typology of policy networks, key issues, conclusions - new directions analyzing networks - from typologies of institutions to narratives of beliefs - developments in the study of policy networks, deconstructing networks, reconstructing networks, conclusions.

Introduction: The Nature and Challenge of Governing the U.K. in the 1990s L.Robins & R.Pyper - Prime Minister and Cabinet: An Executive in Transition? M. Burch - Ministers and Civil Servants K.Theakston - A New Civil Service? T. Butcher - Parliament's Changing Role P.Norton - Parliamentary Scrutiny M.Rush - Political Parties S.Ingle - The European Community Dimension T.Salmon - Governing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland R.Levy - Central-Local Government Relations D.Wilson - The Other Governments of Britain C.Gray - The Mass Media: Fourth Estate or Fifth Column? K.Newton - Conclusion: The Policy-Making Process in the 1990s L.Robins & R.Pyper

Central-local government relations: theory and practice

Controversy currently surrounds the relationship between central and local government as policies designed to control and curb public expenditure are viewed by local authorities as yet another attempt to erode their capacity for autonomous action. In recent years the whole issue of central–local relations has been typified by a mood of despondency and frustration as efforts to improve the situation have failed, unable to move beyond the most basic of accusations and recriminations. Perhaps research currently being undertaken will enable the various contestants in this debate to substantiate their often wild assertions but there is a danger that the differences between the two sides have become so great that restoring trust and respect will require a great deal of time. Discussion between central and local government cannot be aided, we suspect, by the fact that there appears so little agreement about the nature and purpose of local government. This surely has important implications for the way in which central government formulates policies regarding local government since the role of ideas, values and attitudes in public policy-making is crucial. The aim of this article, therefore, is to explore the historical origins and development of some ideas about central–local government relations.

ABSTRACT:This study examines Japan’s state spatial restructuring to explore the reasons behind it. By doing so, it investigates the grounds on which Japan is adopting neoliberalism. Since the early 2000s, Japan’s leaders have been pursuing a combination of state decentralization and selective urban revitalization. At the same time, leaders have abandoned Japan’s long-held goal of balanced spatial development. On the surface, this policy mix resembles the neoliberal state spatial restructuring observed in Western Europe. This study finds, however, that Japan’s state spatial restructuring has less to do with scalar adjustment to capital’s uneven spatial expansion and the supply-side economy for economic development. Rather, it has more to do with the political goal of addressing Japan’s collectivist culture and government failure. To reach this conclusion, the “locality as agent” approach to politics of scale proposed by Cox and Mair (1991) is applied to the historic analysis of the Japanese developmental state.

Using the experience of metropolitan Rio de Janeiro, this article contributes to the broader debate on development regimes, rescaling and state spatial restructuring in Brazil, and its specificities in relation to the international discussion on the transformations in Atlantic Fordism. I argue that the transition from a (peripheral) development state to a competitive and rescaled regime has been accompanied by important continuities. Legitimized through discourses around development poles and trickle‐down effects, the national‐developmental regime has systematically promoted some spaces as opposed to others, without much emphasis on the social and environmental dimensions of spatial policies. The emerging competitive state spatial regime, whether in its neoliberalized, or its more recent ‘rolled‐out’ national‐developmental version, is merely expected to aggravate the historical socio‐environmental contradictions in the production of space. Moreover, scale has proven contested and strategic‐relational, both molding and being influenced by actors that seek to use scalar politics to reach their interests. My analysis suggests that, within this scenario, neither economic growth, nor regulatory and institutional strengthening, nor financial resources are likely to produce structural transformation in the inherited spaces of Greater Rio de Janeiro.

The theme of this collection of essays is central–local government relations in comparative perspective. Specifically, each is concerned with some aspect of the policy and resource frameworks developed by central governments to regulate their relationships with local authorities. In a British context, such comparative analysis is especially timely. In the 1980s, the style of central–local relations changed, with greater emphasis on financial control; use of alternative agencies for local service delivery; and regulation, inspection and audit as mechanisms of control. Empirical studies such as this collection of essays can assist in understanding such phenomena, and are particularly appropriate given the change on political context through a New Labour government and its devolution and modernisation programmes. The volume begins with an analysis of the position within the UK. In their review, George Jones and John Stewart offer commentary and analysis of developments since the publication of the Layfield Report in the UK on Local Government Finance.

Framing energy efficiency and renewable energy policies: An international comparison between Mexico and China

How do political institutions influence crisis management? By comparing responses to COVID-19 in China and South Korea, this article argues that different political institutions affect countries’ responses to crises by shaping state capacity. First, the article proposes a state capacity-driven crisis management framework including four types of capacity: information capacity, decision-making and implementation capacity, coercive capacity, and mobilization and cooperation capacity. Second, the article contributes to the literature by making linkages between different forms of state capacity and regime type. Combinations of state capacity are different in democracies and authoritarian regimes because state capacities are shaped by two different institutional arrangements: central–local government relations and state–society relations. Additionally, the article finds that the impacts of political institutions on crisis management through different state capacities are contingent on scenarios such as the different stages of a crisis.

In Britain since the 1930s social assistance recipients have in certain circumstances been able to claim ‘exceptional expenses’ in addition to their weekly benefit income. From the 1940s these were administered by its central government. However, in April 2013 the then incarnation of such payments (the discretionary Social Fund) was partly replaced by locally administered Local Welfare Assistance. Drawing upon material held in files at Britain's National Archives and central government documents framing the development of Local Welfare Assistance, this paper examines how concerns raised in the 1980s meant it was not possible to then transfer responsibility for ‘exceptional expenses’ from central to local government. The paper explores those concerns and how in contemporary Britain they are no longer deemed to be problematic because of the Coalition government's emphasis upon localism and because of changing local government views on the possibility of delivering a mainstream social assistance function.

There has been much interest in the neo-Foucauldian framework of governmentality as a way of understanding contemporary policy processes. In this paper I examine evidence from a case study of local sustainability indicators in the light of this framework. The role of indicators as a potential governmental technology is addressed, covering issues of their ability to objectify sustainability the scope for altered subjectivities, their positioning within central–local government relations, and the construction and responsibilisation of communities, particularly in urban regeneration contexts. I conclude that the use of indicators at the community level may tell us more about central–local relations within contemporary governance than about the construction of subjects and objects to enable governance with regard to sustainable development.