Central Government Authorities Research Articles

Addressing the asymmetry between central and local air protection policies: Insights from Poland

Purpose: This paper examines the asymmetry between the air protection policies of the central government and local authorities in Poland, using the city of Kraków as a case study. Methodology: The study employs a comparative method to contrast the Polish state's coal policy with the air protection efforts of the Kraków local government. A systems analysis approach is used to identify the causes and effects of the divergent policies. Results: The analysis reveals a lack of alignment between the central government's focus on maintaining coal extraction and the local government's efforts to reduce air pollution. Kraków authorities have taken significant measures to improve air quality, but face challenges due to insufficient support from the central government and neighboring municipalities. Theoretical contribution: The paper highlights the importance of policy symmetry and coordination between different levels of government in addressing complex environmental issues like air pollution. It contributes to understanding multi-level governance dynamics in the context of air protection. Practical implications: The findings underscore the need for a collaborative model of air protection policy that engages central authorities, local governments, private sector entities, and civil society. Establishing air protection councils at the voivodship, county and municipal levels is proposed as a mechanism to facilitate this coordination. Integrating air quality considerations into local governments' management control systems is also recommended.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT AS THE BASIS FOR THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE AGRARIAN POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

The development of modern democratic states implies respect for the principle of subsidiarity, which means bringing down decisions and their execution to the local level. The decisions regarding the use of agrarian potential in the Republic of Serbia are still under the jurisdiction of the central government authorities, which contributes inadequately to the overall stability and development of agriculture in modern geopolitical correlations. The goal of this paper is to point out to the necessity of understanding the need to enable as much as possible the authorities at the local self-government level of the Republic of Serbia to implement the strategic goals of agrarian policy while improving permanently their agricultural capacities. Based on the research on the opinions of relevant state and local authorities and on empirical and theoretical arguments, the authors support this claim and provide a new perspective for the content of agrarian policy, as well as the development of the rich agricultural potential that the Republic of Serbia has at its disposal.

Legal Framework of Micro and Small Businesses in Indonesia for Achieving Empowerment and Legal Protection

<em>This research aims to identify, analyze, and discover efforts to facilitate business ease, empowerment, and protection for micro and small business operators in the Maluku Province through effective local legal regulations. Micro and small businesses play a vital role in supporting national development and enhancing the country's economy. Therefore, micro and small businesses need to be continuously developed to remain viable and competitive in the global trade arena. One of the measures to ensure the sustainability of micro and small businesses is through effective legal regulations that address various challenges faced by them. These legal regulations encompass not only national legal aspects but also local legal frameworks, including those in the Maluku Province. This research constitutes sociolegal research using primary and secondary data obtained through literature review and interviews. Based on the research findings, it is evident that the legal regulations for micro and small businesses in Maluku, both at the provincial and municipal levels, are not sufficiently effective in realizing ease of doing business, empowerment, and protection for micro and small business operators. The ineffectiveness of local legal provisions in Maluku is attributed to various issues in their content. These issues include discrepancies in regulations compared to other legal provisions, overlapping jurisdiction between the provincial and municipal governments, and even the central government's authority in regulating medium-sized businesses. Furthermore, legal gaps and unclear content lead to normative ambiguity, ultimately affecting the implementation of micro-business development and empowerment, which does not proceed smoothly.</em>

Changes in the Revenue Autonomy of the Local Government Subsector of the European Union Countries as a Result of the Pandemic Crisis

Theoretical background: Intergovernmental relations are a key area of research on fiscal federalism. The extent and strength of central government’s influence on local governments determines the degree of autonomy of local authorities. The prevailing view in the literature is that a higher degree of local government autonomy is a factor that stimulates economic growth, fiscal stability, and efficient delivery of public goods. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic period forced the need for coordination between central government and subnational authorities. Under such conditions, significant changes occurred in the size and structure of local government budgets, which were the result of greater interconnection of local government finances with transfers from central government. These changes meant pressure to reduce the revenue autonomy of local governments. In view of this, the article formulates a research hypothesis that the degree of revenue autonomy of local governments decreased during the pandemic period. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to determine the direction and strength of changes in the level of local government subsector revenue autonomy in European Union countries. Research methods: The research used data for 2012–2022 from the Government Finance Statistics Database published by Eurostat. The values of three indicators for European Union countries determining the degree of revenue autonomy of local governments were compared: 1) the share of local governments’ transfer revenues in their total revenues; 2) the share of local governments’ own (non-transfer) revenues in general government sector revenues; 3) the share of local tax revenues in total taxation. In addition, the statistical significance of the differences in the studied indicators between the individual years of the study period was tested using a paired sample t-test (for the first indicator) and a non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank test (of the other two indicators). Main findings: It was shown that the COVID-19 pandemic period was only to some extent a factor in changing the revenue structure of the local government. The biggest influence on the changes in this structure came from transfers received from the central government, the importance of which did increase in the years preceding the pandemic period, but the increase from year to year was small and statistically insignificant. Indeed, it was only the pandemic crisis that caused significant statistical changes in this regard. In the case of the ratio of the share of local own revenue in general government revenue, it turned out that only to a small extent was the pandemic crisis the source of the reduction in the role of local revenue in the general government sector. No significant changes in the role of local government taxes in the tax revenues of the sector as a whole were also seen. For this indicator, there was no evidence of statistically significant differences in the values of this indicator during the COVID-19 pandemic period relative to the pandemic period. Similarities were also found in the direction of change of the first two indicators relative to the average for European Union states.

State-building and internal colonialism: A case study of the separatism in Aceh and West Papua, Indonesia

Adaptation to the norms of nation-states has always been one of the most important issues for Southeast Asian countries. This paper takes Aceh and Western Papua as examples to explore their interaction with the central government of Indonesia and try to answer why local authorities have different responses after implementing the indirect rule. This study mainly uses process tracking methods to test the interaction between the central and local governments in Indonesia. This study believes that trust is the fundamental factor that determines whether the local authorities and the central government can have a positive interaction. This reason will change the central government in the process of State-building. The study found that Aceh and Western Papua had different feedback to the central government. The key lies in whether they form a “trust” interaction, rather than whether they adopt an inclusive system (democratic system). This study concluded the feedback difference between Aceh and Western Papua as a classic case shows that, as a country, it is not only represented by the central government but also needs the “trust” of the central government and local authorities to form good governance, as well as national development effective.

The Return of Tūtaepatu Lagoon

Tūtaepatu lagoon has been an important Ngāi Tahu mahinga kai/food gathering site for over 300 years. Following the formal colonisation that began in 1840, Ngāi Tahu meant to reserve the lagoon from the 1848 Kemp’s Deed purchase but this was not done. This article sets out the ways in which control of this mahinga kai was wrested from the control of Ngāi Tūāhuriri hapū in the mid-nineteenth century and managed by Pākehā local and central government authorities throughout the twentieth century until it was finally returned as a part of the Ngāi Tahu Treaty settlement in the 1990s. The importance of political power at both the local and central government level was fundamental to its eventual return.

Planning Of The Main Distribution Network Of Gerokgak Distribution Reservoir In The Burana Drinking Water Supply System (Spam), Buleleng Regency

The increasing population growth rate in Bali Province has led to the depletion of water sources, while the demand for providing clean drinking water continues to rise each year. To improve water supply, the Central Government, Provincial Government, and Local Authorities are undertaking an effort to construct the Titab Dam with an associated water supply system called the Burana Drinking Water Supply System (SPAM Burana) with a flow rate of 350 liters per second. Considering this situation, a research study is needed to analyze the water demand over the next 15 years based on the projected population using Arithmetic, Geometric, and Least Square Methods in five service areas: Penyabangan Village, Musi Village, Sanggalangit Village, Gerokgak Village, and Patas Village. According to the analysis results, the Geometric Method was used for population projection, with the smallest standard deviation of 185.368 and the coefficient of correlation (r) closest to 1, with a value of 0.877. The water demand for the next 15 years was found to be 82.39 liters per second in the five service areas. To optimize the provision of clean drinking water, the analysis recommends using GIP (Galvanized Iron Pipe) with diameters of 40cm, 20cm, and 25cm, starting from the Gerokgak Reservoir to Patas Village, with a total distribution pipeline length of 15,438 meters. WaterNet, a computer program, is required for simulating water flow in the distribution network with minimal relative errors. The WaterNet analysis results showed that the criteria for flow velocity (0.3 – 1 m/s), headloss (< 10 m/km), and pressure (15 – 100 m for GIP) were all met. The required capacity of the Gerokgak Reservoir for the water supply service is 1400m3.

The 18th Amendment: Revival of Pakistan as a Federal State

The study which uses a qualitative research approach, seeks to answer the question of how Pakistan's 18th Amendment has helped the country's parliamentary democracy advance. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan's constitution, which was drafted in 1973, achieves a reasonable balance between central government authority and local government authority. In April 2010, the Senate and National Assembly of Pakistan approved the 18th amendment to the constitution of 1973, which was welcomed as a significant step in regaining the legitimacy of the document. The findings of this study demonstrate that the 18th Amendment is regarded as the reform package with the greatest significance in the annals of Pakistan's constitutional history. The study suggested that decentralization of powers under the 18th amendment can be a good example of provincial self-government, but there must be a clear balance sheet between the center and the provinces when it comes to the distribution of economic resources.

The Relativity in the Absolute Authority of the Central Government in Religious Affairs

The legal policy of the regional government, post-political reform, puts religious affairs under the absolute administrative authority of the central government. However, the development of society requires religious affairs to also be taken care of by the regional government. We argued that there is relativity in the absolute administrative affairs of the central government authority in the scope of religion. This research aimed to analyze and identify the form of relativity in the absolute administration of the central government in religious affairs. Second, the advantages and disadvantages of the absence of certainty related to the absolute administration of the central government in religious affairs were discussed. The method used in the study was legal doctrinal research with statutory and conceptual approaches. The results of the study concluded that the implementation of absolute government administration in the field of religion turned out to be relative, with the involvement of the regional government in managing and regulating religious affairs. This occurs in the affairs of Islamic boarding schools, hajj and umrah, zakat, and the maintenance of religious harmony. Second, there are advantages and disadvantages to the involvement of regional governments in carrying out religious affairs. Among the advantages, namely the financial burden and the activities of the central government in the administration of religious affairs can be assisted by the regional government budget. The weakness was in the regulation and implementation of the absolute government administration in religious affairs by regional governments due to a lack of understanding of the development of government affairs.
 Keywords: Relativity, Government Administration, Central Government, Religion

Citizen energy lost in sustainability transitions: Knowledge co-production in a complex governance context

Countries are moving towards renewable energy systems, which creates new requirements and pressures for the established energy policy frameworks. One emerging issue is citizen energy production in community level that has been given a central role also in recent policy reforms in the EU. However, one understudied topic is how the decision-making and action in the existing and potential citizen energy communities connects to broader energy governance. In this paper, we focus on one such type of actor, housing companies in Finland, in which mobilising collective energy action has become a policy priority. We build empirically and methodologically on a facilitated knowledge co-production process utilising mid-range transition arena method to understand the main challenges in engaging citizen energy action in the Finnish policy context. The process was organised with central government authorities, and it involved a diverse mix of stakeholders from housing companies, business, knowledge production and different levels of administration. The analysis shows how different types of knowledge from system knowledge to target knowledge and transformative knowledge are generated in transition arena process, and how the shared production of knowledge increases on each step, which is necessary for drawing systemic lessons in sustainability transitions context. Therefore, we learn that the enhanced role of citizen energy communities requires active and simultaneous coordination of multiple policy pathways, illustrated as digital information, policy coordination, energy service and neighbourhood collaboration pathways. We also conclude that the traditional roles given to citizen energy agency become transformed and require more nuanced conceptualisation.

Why Did State-Building Policy Fail in Afghanistan?

Afghan state collapse in August 2021 once again put discussion about state-building strategies in post-conflict scenarios. This article explores fundamental causes of state-building failure in Afghanistan and proposes an explanation based, for one side, on policy inability to generate internal legitimacy and local ownership necessary for State consolidation and sustainability born from military intervention in 2001; and for the other, in how war on terror interest vitiated Afghan transition course by subordinating democratic governance and economic reconstruction goals to security considerations. In this sense, article focuses its attention on three fundamental issues that ultimately doomed 20-year effort of state-building to failure: the way in which new state foundations were distorted to turn it into a neo-patrimonial pseudo-democracy, dependent and corrupt, and controlled it by an old and new warlords elite; the absence of a national reconstruction effective strategy for helping Afghan people to rebuild a country devastated by years of war, that would allow socializing peace benefits and strengthen central government authority in a traditionally fragmented and centrifugal society; and lastly, the geopolitical environment also generated by war on terror, which was not contribute to peace and stability in Afghanistan and increased state-building shortcomings and failure chances.

An Institutional Explanation of the Role of Legislature Accountability in Local Government Budgetary Decision-Making

Legislature plays an important role to ensure accountability in the budgetary decision-making of the Indonesian local government. The legislature's accountability role in budgetary decision-making concerns the Indonesian local government. Thus, this research investigated the legislature’s accountability role in the budgeting process and institution's budgetary decision-making. It also examined the planning and budgeting documents in the budget policy-making by the legislature from the Institutional perspective. This research used a qualitative approach and selected three (3) local governments in Indonesia as case study sites. The three case study sites selected represented local governments with high, medium and low fiscal capacity. Data were collected using interviews with 19 budget actors from the three case study sites. The findings revealed institutional weaknesses in the form of norms and rules about legislature in their regional decisions. The regional decision-making and discussions or forums on budget spending and financing among the legislature were found to be politically driven and lacked focus on technical matters such as value for money. The findings of this research provide some basis for strengthening the regulation by central government authorities regarding the role of the legislature in decision-making based on the principles of transparency and accountability. Keywords: legislature, local government, budgetary decision

STATUS DARURAT KESEHATAN AKIBAT PANDEMI COVID-19 DALAM PERSPEKTIF HUKUM TATA NEGARA DARURAT DI INDONESIA

The COVID-19 pandemic which hit Indonesia has caused problems about the national emergency status that was announced on March, 31st 2020. Several local governments has requested to grant permission for doing own lockdown. The President also opened the option to declare the civil emergency for the worst-case scenario. This research analyzes the health emergency in the Indonesian legal system and the concept of lockdown and civil emergency that caused by such outbreak. This research is a doctrinal research using conceptual, legal and statutes approach. The result shows that the health emergency has been regulated on Law number 6 of 2018 on Health Quarantine. However, due to the vacuum of norm of its technical regulations in early pandemic, policies in order to handle COVID-19 was based on BNPB degree. The lockdown concept in Indonesian Law also had two means according to Health Quarantine Law namely Regional Quarantine and Large-scale Social Restrictions. Both are the authority of central government. Besides, it is concluded that The Civil Emergency is not appropriate if it is based on a disease outbreak such as COVID-19.

The Instrumentalization of CSR by Rent-Seeking Governments: Lessons From Tanzania

This article examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) can serve as an external source of rents for governments that depend on foreign financing for state-building and development. The strategic, instrumental use of CSR has been overlooked in previous research on governments and CSR, especially in the Global South. To understand how CSR can serve as a lever for rents, the concept of “extraversion” is introduced to describe the way in which rent-seeking African governments instrumentalize their asymmetric external relations for political and private benefit. The connection between CSR and rent-seeking is analyzed through a case study of large gas investments in Tanzania. The article finds that the government has set up regulation that enables local and central government authorities to appropriate, mediate, reclaim, or possibly trick CSR practices to gain rents. Based on the study, two contributions are made to the literature on CSR and governments. First, the instrumental use of CSR in the Global South is added to the variety of perspectives that can be taken when studying government agency. Second, CSR is conceptualized as a potential stream of rents for governments to exploit. The article ends with discussing that the outcome of CSR in a rent-seeking environment depends on whether the leveraged resources are managed well to support peaceful and locally beneficial economic development or whether they serve private accumulation through corruption.

Managing risk in the ‘danger zone’: Defensive infrastructure and public safety discourses on the north-east coast of England during the First World War

This article explores the development of nascent civil defence efforts during the First World War in Britain, through the use of urban case studies from the north-east coast of England. Whilst pre-war defence planning by central government and military authorities had been primarily concerned with the building of coastal gun batteries and strengthening the Royal Navy – in response to looming fears of invasion by a foreign foe – the war itself saw thousands of civilians on the ‘home front’ affected by war violence. Though they were many miles away from the conventional theatres of war, from late 1914, British civilians began to be killed and injured on their own soil by hostile battleships and aircraft. The largely improvised and dynamic multi-level response of central government, local authorities, the police and civilians indicated shifting relations between the national, local and individual. Fundamentally, early forms of civil defence were devised with pre-war notions of public safety in mind, while in the war context, these discourses were used to promote non-combatant resilience, particularly in urban coastal areas.

지방공기업 부채감축 정책의 성과 분석 및 시사점 연구

In the era of local decentralization, the role of local public enterprises will be emphasized more than ever. Through local public enterprises, local governments can respond quickly to various preferences of local residents and supply public services suitable for their conditions. It is however necessary to increase the efficiency of local public enterprises and maintain their financial healthy because it could become a potential risk to local finances. This study therefore aims to examine the cause of the increase in local public enterprises' debt through discussions on the decentralization and analyzes the performance of policy conducted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to reduce debt of local public enterprises in 2014. To this end, this study conduct the differnece-in-difference method. As a result, the fiscal soundness and productivity of those which supervised by central government are improved compared to those which do not. Through these findings, this study emphasizes that in future discussions on decentralization, it is necessary to discuss accountability for local public services and finances as well as the transfer of authority and functions of central government to local governments.

Post-conflict Urban Renewal as an Ethnocratic Regime Practice: Racialized Governance of Redevelopment in Diyarbakir, Turkey

This paper explores the governance of a state-led urban renewal project in a politically contested area in the aftermath of a major armed conflict. Building on the ethnocratic regime theory, we explore the governance of the urban renewal process in the historic district of Suriçi by focusing on the political, spatial, and governmental underpinnings of displacement and dispossession in the context of the unresolved “Kurdish Question” of Turkey. We argue that this exclusionary and state-led urban renewal project is shaped around the ethnocratic state interests with limited real estate returns that aims to sanitize and dehistoricize the historic core of Diyarbakir given its political and socioeconomic significance for the Kurdish Movement. The rhetorical formation of a “renewed” historic core epitomizes the racialized governance that intensifies the race-class realities sitting at the center of the decades-old ethnic conflict in Turkey. The central government authority's use of gentrification in practice illustrates the ethnocratic regime's spatial, political, and economic repercussions for the Kurdish population as the country's largest ethnic minority. Suriçi‘s redevelopment illustrates that ethnocratic regime practices coexist with a democratic façade and militarization activates an ethnocratic urban regime. Our findings contribute to the literature on space and power by illustrating the incompleteness and paradoxical elements of settler-colonial urbanism.

Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Cities: Global Perspectives

Immigration is a topic of enduring interest. In addition, immigrant communities, as cultural, economic and political emblems, have always existed in global cities. Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Cities: Global Perspectives, edited by Prof. Cathy Yang Liu, provides a comprehensive insight into the experiences of immigrant entrepreneurs in 13 diverse urban cities across five continents. This book employs a traditionally comparative approach to analyze the economic and development differences between the Global North and the Global South. One of its key innovations, however, is the theoretical framework used to explore emerging economies like South Africa and Brazil. By reading this book, readers can gain a panoramic and brand-new understanding of immigrant entrepreneurship in some immigrant cities. In their opening words of Part I, Lauren W. Forbes and Cathy Y. Liu introduce the connections between global cities and economic patterns using the theoretical framework of comparative analysis and transnational immigration studies. In the aftermath of WWII, Sydney, the fourth greatest immigrant city in the contemporary world, introduced large-scale settler immigration programs that saw it accept people from countries, such as Korea, Lebanon, etc., and refugees from Iraq and Syria. Unlike late immigrants (the post-1997) to Hong Kong, Sydney has witnessed several generations of family immigration who have brought distinctive lifestyles and business careers. Korean immigrants in Sydney have succeeded in building the intergenerational businesses such as restaurants, supermarkets and hotels. By contrast, indigent refugees or humanitarian immigrants from Africa have found it harder to start businesses because they are more poorly educated. By the authority of the Chinese Central Government, Hong Kong, as a global intermediary in entrepôt trade, experienced an economic boom, which motivated many local people and attracted many British, Americans and Austrians to establish their businesses since its handover in 1997. However, this boom relied upon large numbers of low-paid laborers from South Asian nations like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Comparatively speaking, on the other side of the world, European and American cities, like Barcelona, Paris, New York, El Paso and Washington, DC, reveal the varying ecology of immigration communities. Asian and African immigrants participate widely in the food service market in Barcelona and Paris. Their particular national and ethnic foodstuffs bring people together in the urban neighborhoods but can create the derisive name of ‘commercial ghettoes’ that are separate from the white mainstream but serve as a conduit for Europeans to know about the communities. On the other hand, besides trans-pacific Asian immigrants like Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Vietnamese and Filipinos to the USA, Hispanic immigration from countries, such as Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, also make up a significant share of immigration to the USA owing to their proximity to the US border. It is notable that, according to the figures of the US Census Bureau, of the 1,050,911 firms in New York City, 51 percent of them are minority-owned (p. 102). Furthermore, in New York City, successful self-employed Hispanic businesspeople are also key players in the ethnic leadership in the city, advocating for working-class immigrants and maintaining good relationship with local politicians and with mestizo elites in New York’s professional sphere (p. 104). This resonates with similar cases of Mongolians, Nepalese, Salvadorans, Ethiopians and Eritreans in Washington, DC, who have developed livelihoods as street peddlers, bakers or small restaurant owners.

Hybrid entrepreneurial urban governance in post-colonial Ghana: an analysis of Chinese funding of the Kotokuraba market project in Cape Coast

ABSTRACT Conventional forms of entrepreneurial urban governance are characterized by strong municipal urban governments, who have the autonomy to use and decide over innovative financing instruments and public–private partnerships, and whose decisions are not overly influenced by the national political interests of central government authorities. This article examines the extent to which this conceptualization applies in an African context, particularly Ghana. Drawing on a case study of Chinese funding of market infrastructural redevelopment in Cape Coast, we demonstrate that the existing conceptualization is inadequate to understand the framework and dynamics of entrepreneurial urban governance in Ghana, where mayors are appointed by Presidents, can “only” secure large-scale funding with the support of the central government, and are obliged to protect the political interests of the President and the ruling political party. Consequently, we argue that a new concept – hybrid entrepreneurial urban governance – is crucial to denote the Ghanaian variant of entrepreneurial urban governance and to analyze the multi-scalar mechanisms and local politics of urban governance in post-colonial Ghana. We argue that hybrid entrepreneurial urban governance thrives on a strong relationship between local and national politics. This article recommends that there is the need to strengthen multi-scalar collaborations not only in securing large-scale funding for capital infrastructure but also through to the subsequent stages of pricing and repayment.

Tin Mining Licensing in the Era of Local Government Reform

The dynamics of the legal politics of regulating mineral and coal licensing authorities have undergone significant changes. Initially, the authority was given by law to local governments, and now this authority is taken over by the central government. The purpose of this research is to find out the direction and philosophical basis of the legal politics behind the amendments to the Mineral and Coal Law and its implications for the mining licensing authority. The benefits obtained from research are that some significant changes in mining licensing authority can be identified and the terms and stages. The research method uses normative legal research. The research study results concluded that the centralistic paradigm of granting permits in an integrated manner also marks the shift of regional authority from attribution to delegation authority. Affirming the political direction of mining law is a priority for the central government's authority when several strategic articles have been amended and even eliminated. Amendments to the formulation in Article 4 (mineral and coal control rights) and Article 6 (mining management authority) of the 2020 Mineral and Coal Law show no longer partiality for local governments to allocate mining licensing authority.