Administrative Tiers Research Articles

Judicial Appeal of Due Process Hearing Rulings: The Extent and Direction of Decisional Change

Extending the scope of two exploratory single-state studies, this empirical analysis determined the extent and direction of the outcome change from the impartial hearing officer (IHO) decision to the final court decision for a national sample of cases under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. Based on a random sample of 116 published court decisions from 1998 through 2016, the authors identified the rulings for “issue categories,” such as eligibility, free appropriate public education, and tuition reimbursement, in the final court decision and, via its published opinion, the preceding adjudicative levels down to the IHO. The primary finding for the 183 issue category rulings was that 70% had only slight or no change from the IHO to the final court level. Other findings included the following: (a) the net change was higher for states with a second administrative tier, which is a review officer, than for those with only the single tier of an IHO; (b) the net change was also higher for cases reaching the appellate rather than only the trial court level; and (c) the most frequent issue categories were free appropriate public education (55%) and tuition reimbursement (18%), both with a slight net outcome change in the district’s direction.

E-Governance, Accountability, and Leakage in Public Programs: Experimental Evidence from a Financial Management Reform in India

In collaboration with the Government of Bihar, India, we conducted a large-scale experiment to evaluate whether transparency in fiscal transfer systems can increase accountability and reduce corruption in the implementation of a workfare program. The reforms introduced electronic fund-flow, cut out administrative tiers, and switched the basis of transfer amounts from forecasts to documented expenditures. Treatment reduced leakages along three measures: expenditures and hours claimed dropped while an independent household survey found no impact on actual employment and wages received; a matching exercise reveals a reduction in fake households on payrolls; and local program officials’ self-reported median personal assets fell.

Decentralising to Villages in Indonesia: Money (and Other) Mistakes

Summary Nearly 15 years after embarking on its large-scale decentralisation programme, Indonesia has decided to extend its efforts to the village level. Decentralising to villages is intended to improve service delivery performance at the lowest administrative tier and reduce social inequality and poverty. A number of potential difficulties with the design of Indonesia's nascent village decentralisation initiative have already become apparent. Methods used to allocate funds to villages are particularly problematic. Oddly, fund distribution procedures insist to a large extent on equal per village allocations, despite the significant heterogeneity of villages. And they ignore other sources of revenue to which villages have access. In the event, village revenues will be very inequitably distributed: villages with high levels of poverty will receive less money than they need and villages with access to significant funding from oil and gas revenues will receive more than required. Also, village service responsibilities are unclearly defined, village financial management systems are inadequately prepared to handle large increases in funding, and mechanisms to monitor and control village spending are underdeveloped. These difficulties will severely constrain the achievement of official objectives and create further challenges for reformers in their attempts to combat corruption at the subnational level. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Insights Into Commune Council Leadership: Case of Decentralization Reform in Choueng Prey District, Cambodia

Decentralization reform has been adopted by the Cambodian government since 2001, bringing the government and services closest to the people through the commune council, the lowest tier of subnational administration. The reform has contested local leadership to the premise of decentralization and local democracy based on good governance. To look into such a contest of a two-decade-long decentralization reform, this research aims to examine in-depth insights into the leadership capacity of the commune council in Cambodia upon the case of Choueng Prey district, Kampong Cham province. With the adoption of qualitative methodology along with score-based assessments, the results of this research uncovered the perspectives on local leadership. The results suggested that the current decentralization reforms need further reforms with stronger and more genuine political commitment of the government in return for local sustainable development and effective public service delivery. Evidentially, the leadership of the commune council has been identified to be relatively deficient due to the durable existence of a low education standard for the council candidates, the meagre structure of commune council management, and the privation of procedures for selecting and recruiting the council candidates. These are key focuses to results and discussion because they are believed to be fundamental drivers in shaping the quality of commune council leadership which is a cornerstone of this research.

Promoting a place-based approach in the configuration of local development policies in Spain: The Catalan experience

Incongruences generated since the democratic transition period have hindered local development actors and policies establishing a subsidiary relationship between the different tiers of Spanish administration. The economic crisis in Spain has further aggravated issues concerning funding and organisation directly affecting service provision and generating a negative correlation between services provided by local governments and financing received. This article discusses the experience through the Treball als barris ( Employment in the neighbourhoods) and Treball a les 7 Comarques ( Employment in the 7 Comarques) local development projects deployed in Catalonia which are geared towards shifting from the traditional sector-based implementation of employment promotion and economic development policies to a more territory and case-specific design. The adoption of a specific methodology, establishing a Charter of Services as an action framework, has been a step forward in recognising the pivotal role of local governments and communities not only through execution and implementation of projects, but also in the design and coordination of place-based development strategies.

Effective Policy Implementation in China’s Local State

Effective policy implementation is a core component of the Chinese political system’s adaptability and stability. A thorough investigation of local implementation mechanisms, however, is often hindered by an almost exclusive concentration on implementation efficiency. This article introduces a new analytical framework and suggests focusing on the interactions between the different administrative tiers—counties, townships, and villages—to understand local policy implementation in terms of procedural and outcome effectiveness. It argues that the triangle of central policy design, institutional constraints, and strategic agency of local implementers explains cases of effective policy implementation that can be observed throughout China. By way of studying the “Building of a New Socialist Countryside” in four cases, this article shows how effective policy implementation can be the result of what students of local governance have so far rather treated as obstructive factors, namely performance and cadre evaluation, financial scarcity, limited public participation, and the focus on models.

Solidarity as Political Strategy

A heatwave in 2003 caused 15,000 deaths in France. This article examines the impact of the public health crisis on French public management, considering how government actors across various state institutions, including central and decentralized tiers of public administration, have been engaged in reform. It studies how these actors in the post-crisis reform process established responsibility and drew lessons. The paper shows that solidarity was used discursively in a game of political blameshifting and experimentation. It also points to the politics behind the framing of crisis enquiries.

Society, education and the state: Gender perspectives on an old debate

An examination of recent gender scholarship demonstrates how a gendered lens has contributed to the debates on society, the state and education. Using local and international examples mostly from about 1880 to 1930, this paper will investigate how gendered perceptions coloured the provision of education, what we mean by “the state” and how much and what type of education it and other bodies have provided for females in different contexts. Following this, it will examine the growth of women in teaching, the challenges and limitations which beset them, the opportunities that were opened up to them and how far they and other women achieved authority and/or expertise in education in schools, colleges, educational administration and management, or as leaders and thinkers. This will illustrate the gendered thinking underlying much state education, but also show women as agents, building up networks and communities of women involved in education in multifarious ways, including transnational education. At the same time it can be seen that this has often belied imperialistic imperatives and ethnic condescension. Moving between local examples from Birmingham and Britain and international examples principally from English-speaking scholarship, the importance of gender history is argued because it reveals educational experiences and tiers of educational initiatives, practice and administration often neglected yet significant in education, while at the same time raising new questions. It does not just bring females into history, but understands history in a different and deeper way.

Integrated Rapid Mapping of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Three States of South Sudan: Survey Findings and Treatment Needs

BackgroundIntegrated rapid mapping to target interventions for schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) and lymphatic filariasis (LF) is ongoing in South Sudan. From May to September 2010, three states – Unity, Eastern Equatoria and Central Equatoria – were surveyed with the aim of identifying which administrative areas are eligible for mass drug administration (MDA) of preventive chemotherapy (PCT).Methods and Principal FindingsPayams (third administrative tier) were surveyed for Schistosoma mansoni, S. haematobium and STH infections while counties (second administrative tier) were surveyed for LF. Overall, 12,742 children from 193 sites were tested for schistosome and STH infection and, at a subset of 50 sites, 3,980 adults were tested for LF. Either S. mansoni or S. haematobium or both species were endemic throughout Unity State and occurred in foci in Central and Eastern Equatoria. STH infection was endemic throughout Central Equatoria and the western counties of Eastern Equatoria, while LF was endemic over most of Central- and Eastern Equatoria, but only in selected foci in Unity. All areas identified as STH endemic were co-endemic for schistosomiasis and/or LF.ConclusionsThe distribution and prevalence of major NTDs, particularly schistosomiasis, varies considerably throughout South Sudan. Rapid mapping is therefore important in identifying (co)-endemic areas. The present survey established that across the three surveyed states between 1.2 and 1.4 million individuals are estimated to be eligible for regular MDA with PCT to treat STH and schistosomiasis, respectively, while approximately 1.3 million individuals residing in Central- and Eastern Equatoria are estimated to require MDA for LF.

Show me the money

The mid-July press is dominated by the release of the coalition government’s health white paper, outlining their plans for the most radical shake up of the NHS since its conception in 1948. Empowering GPs to commission for patients without going through an intermediary regulatory body, promises the public better care and (reportedly) £20 billion budgetary savings. GPs have advised caution over the speed of introduction and the growth of private delivery models. What remains unclear in the early stages is the position of dental service commissioning which, in the rumourdriven world of primary dental care, may raise the spectre of medical practitioners being responsible for commissioning dental services as well? The Labour party shadow health secretary forecasts that the proposed reforms will ‘signal the end of the NHS as we know it’ and will herald a descent into chaos dominated by market forces and private sector interests. Well it appears he has understood the reform aims but he forgets to mention the country could save significant sums of money by removing tiers of administration.

The local courts, decentralisation and good governance: the case of the English speaking provinces of Cameroon

This paper examines governance in Cameroon and does so in the context of the attempt by the Francophone dominated central government to curtail the common law system which the two minority English speaking provinces inherited from Britain. It is observed that although the country's constitution made provisions for decentralized structures of governance at local levels since 1996, the continued non-implementation of these provisions has made it impossible for local peoples to be effectively involved in the management of their own affairs. The article also reviews the Cameroonian idea of devolution of powers to local tiers of administration but queries it for being incapable of leading to accountability by administrators and good governance. Citing section 40 of the constitution which vests powers of judicial review of the acts of state officials in the Supreme Court which sits only in Yaoundé, the paper argues that this cannot lead to a climate of good governance. The author concludes that the existence of nationwide local courts with powers of acting as a restraint to executive powers is imperative for the emergence of constitutionalism in Cameroon.

National sovereignty through decentralization

PurposeThe suggested utility of decentralized development in Iraq and the Palestinian occupied territories is meant to provide policymakers new alternatives to managing and resolving these conflicts. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe overall paradigm of decentralization is presented and how participatory development relates within it is described. As the conditions in Iraq and Palestine are then discussed, cited qualities and results of decentralized participatory development are shown to directly address the fundamental issues that perpetuate these conflicts.FindingsThe paper finds that decentralization to local communities of development planning and management reinforces national sovereignty when national governments actively support its implementation. The productive partnerships among government, civil organizations and private groups that can result from decentralization – both vertically and horizontally along administrative tiers – strengthen both local community and national autonomy.Practical implicationsThe decentralization strategy presented – participatory development – has been shown in cases around the world to also generate vital economic, social, and environmental benefits in a more expeditious and at a lower cost than typical development assistance programs. These outcomes, among others, are what is needed to help resolve conflicts in Iraq and between the Israelis and Palestinians – conflicts rooted in matters of sovereignty, development and reconciliation. In Iraq, decentralization of development will give the national government legitimacy, the Iraqis ownership of their own reconstruction, and the opportunity to incorporate reconciliation as part of the process. In the Palestinian occupied territories, decentralized development will bring immediate relief and build socio‐economic self‐reliance in a way that restructures their economy to be less dependent on Israel and help reduce tensions and violence.Originality/valueThere are important theoretical and applied values of this analysis. By explaining how different ideological perspectives (socialism, neo‐liberalism, alternative development and others) relate to the various organizational arrangements of decentralization, a detailed description of the decentralization paradigm is provided. Then by presenting participatory development as a strategy of decentralization and showing how it can be implemented in Iraq and Palestine, it is shown to be a practical tool with outcomes that correspond fittingly to the fundamental requirements for resolving these destabilizing conflicts. The analysis contributes to both the theoretical and applied knowledge of decentralization.

Europeanization and Administrative Reform: The Case of Turkey

This article aims to analyse the relationship between Europeanization and administrative reform within the context of recent developments in Turkey. While doing this, the analytical tools of sociological institutionalism and the misfit model of Europeanization are utilized together with the analysis of related legal documents and in-depth interviews conducted with the actors in various tiers of administration. The article argues that institutional change entails a change in values and discourses of the political actors and in the Turkish case, despite the EU's pressures for administrative reform and the resulting legal changes of the 2000s, because of the institutionalized powers and resistance of the actors at the central level no institutional change has occurred in Turkey regarding the administrative system.

Political decentralization and corruption: Evidence from around the world

How does political decentralization affect the frequency and costliness of bribe extraction by corrupt officials? Previous empirical studies, using subjective indexes of perceived corruption and mostly fiscal indicators of decentralization, have suggested conflicting conclusions. In search of more precise findings, we combine and explore two new data sources—an original cross-national data set on particular types of decentralization and the results of a firm level survey conducted in 80 countries about firms' concrete experiences with bribery. In countries with a larger number of government or administrative tiers and (given local revenues) a larger number of local public employees, reported bribery was more frequent. When local—or central—governments received a larger share of GDP in revenue, bribery was less frequent. Overall, the results suggest the danger of uncoordinated rent-seeking as government structures become more complex.

Port devolution revisited: the case of regional ports and the role of lower tier governments

Most models of port governance have been developed to fit the largest ports, and tend to simplify the devolution process as one involving the transfer of jurisdiction from the State to the private sector. The devolution of smaller ports has been largely ignored as have transfers involving transfers from upper levels of government to lower tiers of public administration. Yet in many countries this has been the experience of port governance, where complex structures have arisen, many of which involve public control, in contrast to the strongly privatised process covered in the literature. The objective of this paper is to examine the process and consequences of changing port governance involving small and medium size ports where lower tiers of government are involved. It examines the recent devolution process in Canada and the decentralization policy in France. It brings to light the diversity of actors, public and private, who have come into play. The paper goes on to examine the challenges that have come about as a result of devolution that face the new port administrations. The paper concludes that existing models of port governance are incomplete and that the role of public administration in port governance is greater, albeit in a different form, than claimed in the existing literature.

Does Multi-level Governance Meet Local Aspirations? The Case of Social Protection Needs in Rural India

The concept of decentralisation has often been used to study whether “decision space” is devolved to the lower tiers of administration from central government. The new tool of “multi-level governance” examines the nature of “decision space” in the context of a cauldron of political voices at the local level. The decision space of the state may be constrained by the interaction of state actors with non-state actors. Taking the issue of social protection needs in the rural areas of the Indian state of Maharashtra, this article examines how lower level bureaucrats determine the “need” of social protection for the claimants. Both the state and non-state sectors were studied through fieldwork of eight months in 2003–04 using an actor-oriented method of the sociology of development. In essence, access to public funds is conditional on people’s relationships with local elites rather than their eligibility for the funds. Local elites measure the “needs” through informal rules of the community and dominate the bureaucrats in decision-making, who insist on the interpretation of legal principles at lower levels of administration. This process excludes over 60 percent of eligible persons to gain public funds. While the responsibility of bureaucrats is diffused in different levels of administration, the local elites are able to draw loyalty solely for themselves. The effective devolution of political power, creating an extensive network of political elites, seems to constrain the devolved administrative power.

Housing Governance in the English Regions: Emerging Structures, Limits and Potentials

The centralising tendency of successive governments left housing policy struggling to comprehend and respond effectively to increasing regional and sub-regional differentiation in housing markets in England during the 1990s. A consequence of this central-local paradox, whereby the centre has exerted increasing control over local affairs but is unable to appreciate and sensitise policy to the particulars of local housing markets, has been rising 'top-down' interest in the regional tier of housing administration. There is also evidence of 'bottom-up' impetus for the development of a regional tier of housing governance. Paying particular attention to the situation in the North of England, and taking Yorkshire and Humberside as a case study example, this paper examines this emerging regional tier of housing governance. Focusing specifically on the development, role and function of Regional Housing Forums, and situating discussion in the context of debates regarding 'New Regionalism', some preliminary conclusions are drawn regarding the potentials and limits of housing governance in the English regions.

Public and occupational health

Walter Holland's essay on public health (April 2002 JRSM1) is timely and one hopes that the Department of Health will act upon it in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Even if his suggestions were acted upon, however, an important cause of ill health will remain to be dealt with. Occupational disease is still a cause of substantial morbidity and not inconsiderable mortality2. Individuals do not transmute into other beings when they go to work; they carry with them wherever they go the conditions that are due to their occupation, their environment, their personal habits, their genes, or whatever combination of these is ultimately responsible. To separate occupational health from the mainstream of healthcare is thus not only illogical but also inefficient and ineffective. There is no remit for any of the new tiers of NHS administration to consider the role of occupation as a determinant of disease among the populations for which they are responsible and this omission urgently needs repair. To rely upon the Health and Safety Executive to provide the necessary framework within which this can be done is fanciful, not because HSE does not have excellently qualified people, but because it does not have nearly enough physicians and nurses or enough money to do so, nor does it have access to other parts of the health service. NHS Plus is heralded as a means by which occupational health services can be provided throughout the country—another fanciful notion. The occupational health services within the NHS provide a service to their own trusts and sometimes to outside bodies, but there is no guaranteed uniformity of standard; there are too few consultants and trainees, and too few nurses, to provide anything like a comprehensive service on a large scale. Moreover, there is no money to correct any of these deficiencies other than what can be raised by departments carrying out contract work—an example of a dog chasing its tail in ever decreasing circles with the result we can all imagine. Now is the time for the Department of Health to seize the opportunity to establish a health service that is truly comprehensive and which deals with all aspects of health and disease. All that is required is the will, the money and some vision. Oh dear...

Developments in Albanian Local Government

This article describes the problems associated with the establishment of decentralised local government in post-communist Albania. After presenting some relevant historical and cultural information about Albania, communist and post-communist government structures are described and compared. This is followed by a description of the status, boundaries and powers of the various tiers of local administration and their relation to central government. Analysis of this information draws attention to similarities in structure and organisational culture between the communist periods and the present. It attributes the difficulties in rebuilding state structures to the unfamiliar nature of liberal democratic institutions and the lack of resources available to the new state. The development of local government was constrained by central government policies which resulted in tangled lines of accountability, reductions in funding, restriction of ability to raise taxes and by limiting sectors of responsibility. Despite an increase in democratically elected institutions, central government sought to retain control and inhibit the devolution of power. Poor transparency, lack of accountability and restricted access to information contributed to local government being held in low regard by the general public. The article concludes that it is unproductive to focus assistance on economic stabilisation without commensurate support for the development of democratic institutions.

Perspektiven der westdeutschen Verdichtungsräume


 
 
 The development pressure on agglomerations in the western part of Germany will continue into the future. It was in order to counter the negative trends associated with this situation that the spatial order principles of settlement density, mixed uses and polycentrality were developed. However, these strategies can only be implemented through a tier of administration which covers the expanding conurbation in its entirety. Consequently, this calls for a reorganisation of the regional planning system in which strategies are developed in close co-operation with local authorities to overcome these problems and to equip it with the instruments it requires to implement these strategies.