Government Decentralization Research Articles

Mechanisms for ensuring public order protection at the local level in conditions of decentralization of government: EU experience for Ukraine

The aim of the article is to study the experience of the emergence and development of municipal law enforcement agencies, to analyse the current state of local police in European countries. The other aim of the article is to study the development of local police, the state of legal, economic support in Ukraine, to form suggestions for the development of municipal police in Ukraine.The initiated reform of decentralization of power in Ukraine, active development of local self-government, building civil society, creation of united territorial communities, transfer of resources, powers from the central level to local levels in the framework of decentralization and local government reform have necessitated the strengthening role of local self-government. Protection of public order should go together with strengthening of a role of local governments in the spheres of medicine and education, in rendering accessible and qualitative administrative, municipal, social services. An additional condition for the formation of local law enforcement is the connection between the development of local self-government in democracies with the development of local law enforcement.Accordingly, the urgency and need to create municipal police in Ukraine, which is a democratic state, is beyond doubt, as evidenced by the active discussion of this topic, both among officials and the public.The world experience of the emergence and current state of functioning of the municipal police in European countries with democratic political regimes has been analysed in the article. Trends in the development of municipal police in European countries have been identified. The existing world models of financial support of the municipal police have been determined.Domestic approaches to the creation of municipal police have been considered. The current state of development of projects of municipal law enforcement forces, the state of adoption of the regulatory framework for the implementation of the functioning of the municipal guard has been studied. An analysis of problematic aspects of the functioning of the National Police of Ukraine, the state of corruption in Ukraine as a way for possible abuse and use of law enforcement agencies for the interests of certain classes has been made. Based on the experience of European EU member states, recommendations on the organization and definition of sources of funding for municipal law enforcement agencies have been made.

Community Leaders and Decentralised Governance: Tales from the SEWA Field

The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in India resulted in women informal economy workers being out of jobs and with no social security blanket to rely on. Women community leaders therefore worked with the state to reach out to the most vulnerable and marginalised populations. This resulted in decentralised units where decisions are made at the community level in a collective fashion including critical and diverse stakeholders, in collaboration with state authorities. This model works best where locally developed networks with high levels of community trust exist that enable community leaders to reach communities in distress quickly and effectively, ensuring that relief and aid is delivered to those who need it the most. Additionally, women coming together to advocate for themselves as women workers allows for us to build back better with a key focus on marginal populations such as women at the bottom of the pyramid.

ANALISIS KINERJA KEUANGAN PEMERINTAH DAERAH KABUPATEN SLEMAN TAHUN 2015-2019

The financial performance of local governments is a picture of the financial condition of the local government in an accounting period or cycle, in which the sources of revenue or the collection of funds and distribution or use of funds are listed. Financial performance analysis carried out by public sector institutions is different from that carried out by the private sector, this is because the accounting standards used by public sector institutions are not the same as those carried out by the private sector. The performance of public sector institutions is assessed based on the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of public funds as well as assessing the capacity of the regions in terms of achieving regional independence. Based on the results of the analysis of the financial performance of the Sleman district government, the ratio of the degree of decentralization of the Sleman district government is still low, therefore the government must increase this ratio in order to carry out development activities properly. The regional independence ratio of Sleman regency is also not optimal because it is still in the range of 30% - 50%. Meanwhile, the ratio of Income Growth in 2015-2019 is still very low. The sources of local government revenue need to be explored more optimally so that the Original Regional Revenue can increase so that the regional independence of the Sleman district government can also increase. Keywords: Financial Performance Analysis; Public Sector Institutions; Regional Independence; Income Growth; Degree of Decentralization

Neo‐Endogenous Rural Development: A Path Toward Reviving Rural Europe*

AbstractThe 2008 fiscal crisis, inflamed by austerity measures, has prompted rural marginalization and societal segmentation across the European Union (EU). The current article investigates how a European rural revival can be materialized, without losing sight of the national and local conditions. Within the contemporary EU governance framework—in which a European institution cannot be categorized as endogenous or exogenous to a sub‐state nation—the concept of neo‐endogenous rural development seems more topical than ever. The term describes a new perspective of governance that reconciles the endogenous to the exogenous dynamics. Along these lines, the present article dwells on the question of how can the neo‐endogenous rural development agenda be disseminated across the EU. By identifying the lack of international comparative research in the field of rural development, the current study explores different European, rural development trajectories and draws meaningful comparisons. A comparative qualitative research was conducted in three rural regions, stratified in terms of economic and governance decentralization: Mühlviertel in Austria, Baixo Alentejo in Portugal, and Phthiotis in Greece. The comparative research indicated the importance of interregional networking and socially innovative governance for the embeddedness of a neo‐endogenous rural development agenda.

Decentralization and Feedback Effects

This article discusses the historical most relevant types of decentralization that helped usher in the age of decentralization. Key components of decentralization that are discussed herein include: decentralization of science, technological decentralization, organizational decentralization, market decentralization, governmental decentralization, and societal decentralization. The author discusses the feedback effects that exist between the respective types of decentralization.

Local Governance as a Creature of the Statute: Decentralization and Local Governance in Zimbabwe

Local Governance as a Creature of the Statute: Decentralization and Local Governance in Zimbabwe

When research met policy: a history of innovation and a complicated relationship in three Swedish development projects in mathematics education, 1960\u20132018

This paper concerns the relationship between research and governance policy in three Swedish major development projects in mathematics education: the New Math project (1960–1975), the PUMP project (1970–1980), and the Boost for Mathematics project in (2012–2016). All three projects were driven or financed by the Swedish central school authorities. Using a historical comparative method, this study deepens the understanding of how research co-exists with governance policy when preparing innovations in mathematics education. The main historical sources are official reports and governmental decisions concerning the three projects. The analysis is focused on the nature of the innovations of each project and the role of researchers in the process of creating the innovations. The analysis highlights the theories and the methods involved in those processes. The three projects are also positioned in a context of school governance policy. In Sweden, the prevailing school governing policy changed from a highly centralised governance in the 1960s to a highly decentralised governance in the 2010s. The paper concludes by discussing to what degree the researchers adhered to principles of research or school governance; in particular, the Boost for Mathematics project is considered in this regard. The relevance of the paper in relation to the emerging field of implementation research in mathematics education concerns how historical studies can give new insights about contemporary development projects in mathematics education.

МЕХАНІЗМИ ФІНАНСУВАННЯ ПРОГРАМ ІНКЛЮЗИВНОГО РОЗВИТКУ ЗА УМОВ ДЕЦЕНТРАЛІЗАЦІЇ

Introduction. The concept of inclusive growth is one of the most effective modern theories of socio-economic development. Given the problems in the Ukrainian economy and the lack of financial resources, in-depth research is needed to find mechanisms for financing projects and programs for inclusive growth, to adapt them to the conditions of decentralization and practical use in local government. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the feasibility of implementing the concept of inclusive development and to reveal the features of mechanisms for financing inclusive development programs to intensify the processes of socio-economic growth in Ukraine under decentralization. Results. The essence of the inclusive type of development is revealed and the necessity of its introduction in Ukraine is substantiated. The legislative bases of inclusive development in Ukraine are analysed. It is determined that the search for financial resources for the implementation of programs and projects aimed at achieving certain goals remains a problematic issue. Four main mechanisms for financing inclusive development projects and programs have been identified and characterized: budgetary; investment; credit; grant. The analysis of the financing of development programs for the period of decentralization is carried out. The structure of revenues of local budgets of Ukraine was assessed and it was established that tax revenues were of the greatest fiscal importance among own revenues. In order to create additional sources of attracting resources to local budgets, it is proposed to adopt the practice of self-taxation of residents of territorial communities. Conclusions. In order to ensure sufficient funding for inclusive development programs and projects, it is necessary to use all possible mechanisms to attract funds from local and state budgets, business entities, and international organizations. The main mechanisms for financing local socio-economic development programs are budget, investment, credit, and grant. The practice of self-taxation of residents of territorial communities can be an important source of additional resources for financing inclusive development programs. Keywords: inclusive development, financing, local budgets, inclusive development projects, financing mechanisms.

The Implementation of Good Governance with a View to Improving the Competence of State Civil Apparatus in the Regional Government

For more than twenty years, reforms that have been going on have mandated the existence of autonomy and decentralization of government to manage their areas and give the broadest possible power to self-determination. The granting of this authority is intended to improve. As one indicator to measure regional autonomy's success, the government will better serve its citizens and guide them towards a better life. The provincial government's performance has not matched the expectations, yet it has not done the community optimally. Increasing the competence of the apparatus to improve the quality of work is a determining factor in local government activities' success. The result of local government officials towards quality performance leads to the development of education, competence, and abilities because of the times' face. The competence that local government officials are expected to have is analyzing and addressing issues within the city under a realistic framework of local government.

Financial and legal basis of the activities of the united territorial communities

Problems of legal regulation of local finances are considered in the works of lawyers, economists, sociologists, public administration specialists, from different positions of their formation, distribution and use in public relations, but in modern conditions of budgetary relations, namely – formation of budgets of united territorial communities, introduction of decentralization in regional governance, administrative reform, orientation of Ukraine to European standards and values of life, the concept of legal regulation of local finances, in particular, budget relations needs to be updated. Scientific publications investigate the problems of defining local finances as a basic basis for local government, which ensures the reproduction of the budget process and the development of regions, their constituent elements and purpose. However, at present the scientific discussion on the legal significance of local finances, their constituent elements, sources of formation and use continues, because in the modern economy a significant part of financial resources is formed and redistributed through budgets, which include budgets of united territorial communities. which, finally, as a legal institution is not defined. The development of local self-government from the standpoint of the government’s proposed decentralization of power provides for the purpose of creating high-quality living conditions for citizens, providing them with the necessary public services, development of material and social base of the region.
 These tasks are implemented in the presence of appropriate economic development of the territory, its financial support, which depends on the sources of budget and extrabudgetary funds and areas of their use.

From “decentralization of governance” to “governance of decentralization”: Reassessing income inequality in periurban China

Grassroots village organizations are crucial for understanding the interplay between the decentralization of state power and growing income inequality in periurban China. Based on a study of 380 shareholding cooperatives and 43 administrative villages in Guangdong, we examine how state policy has interacted with village institutions to determine the management and distribution of collective income among villagers. Our findings suggest that the decentralization of power over collective asset management and distribution to these grassroots organizations did not cause a retreat in the state’s capacity for strategic intervention and local regulatory controls. Rather, the state made continued attempts to regain power over village governance through institutional formalization. Such interventions enhanced the access of villagers to state welfare. However, they worsened income disparities among villagers by undermining the village redistributive mechanism based on informal rules.

Does decentralization of governance promote urban diversity? Evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT The worldwide trend to decentralize the responsibilities and budgets of governments impacts regional economies in various ways. We use the example of Spain to test empirically whether the decentralization of governance is an important determinant of the sectoral composition of cities in an urban system. Our regression results, exploiting unique firm-level and time-varying transport-cost data, support the hypothesis that governance decentralization and the establishment of regional government headquarters in specific cities have been conducive to a more diverse urban economic structure and a more even city-size distribution in the Spanish urban system during a period of continuous reductions in transport costs.

Does Devolution Alter the Choice of Public Versus Private Health Care?

Government decentralisation (GD) can provide an alternative to the ‘build in’ accountability mechanism of markets by influencing the choice of and preference for public versus private health care. To test this hypothesis, this paper exploits the gradual decentralisation of the political stewardship of the Spanish National Health System (NHS) to study the effect of GD on the individual choice of public (NHS) and private health care drawing on a difference-in-differences design. We find that ‘turning on’ the decentralization treatment (abandoning centralised governance) increases the preference for public health care (NHS) compared to control regions that did not exhibit any major change in the health care governance in the least a decade. Specifically, we find that GD increases the perceptions of, satisfaction with, and preference for the NHS. Consistently, we also find that the GD reduces the uptake of private health insurance among higher income and education groups. The effects are mainly driven by improvements in health care quality as well as policy innovation and diffusion.

Decentralization and District-Level Decentralization in Amhara Region

This paper examines the process of decentralization and district level decentralization programs in the Amhara region. It addresses the decentralization processes in Imperial, Derg, and EPRDF regimes. The depth and degree of decentralization in the three consecutive regimes were different as the process of decentralization in the current government meant to be deeper and extensive and pushed powers, functions, and roles into the local government. The process of decentralization in the current government has transferred powers and functions to the districts. However, the district level decentralization process has faced many challenges. The paper revealed that unclear assignments of powers and functions, executive dominations, upward accountabilities, top-down planning, lack of skilled manpower, lack participatory systems, failure of the councils in holding the executive accountable, lack of adequate budget, lack of revenue mobilization capacity, lack of responsiveness, and accountability among councils were the main challenges that impede in the process of the DLD process.

ПЕРЕРОЗПОДІЛ ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ ПОВНОВАЖЕНЬ В СИСТЕМІ ТЕРИТОРІАЛЬНОЇ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ ВЛАДИ В УКРАЇНІ В УМОВАХ ДЕЦЕНТРАЛІЗАЦІЇ

Territorial organization of power in the author’s version is a scientifically sound system of public relations, based on legislation and designed to exercise managerial influence on the development of society, covering the national, regional, district and base levels. The article analyzes the impact of horizontal decentralization of public power and governance, the essence of which is the transfer of financial, economic and power levers from central government to united territorial communities (UTC), on the redistribution of economic levers in the system of organization of power in Ukraine. The key importance of the redistributed economic powers of the UTC, new districts, and large towns of regional importance for political and administrative decentralization has been identified. The performance of new functions of these subjects of power is monitored, proposals on optimization of the system of territorial organization of power are given taking into account the changes that have taken place at the subregional and basic levels of administrative-territorial units of Ukraine. It is conclusions that the implementation of the reform of decentralization of public power and governance will in some way affect the formation of a new model of the pyramid of power. So, the central executive bodies, focusing on defense and security, budgetary, social and control functions, will at the same time try to provide appropriate institutional conditions for public authorities and management at the regional, subregional and basic levels; The power influence of regional state administrations and regional councils on social processes taking place in the regions will be somewhat weakened due to the strengthening of economic powers of districts, cities of regional significance, UTCs, and business structures. The scientific novelty and practical significance of the study lies in substantiating the consequences of redistribution of economic powers on political and administrative levers of influence on social processes of central executive bodies, regional state administrations, regional councils, new districts, large cities of regional significance, UTC. Proposals are made to prevent centrifugal tendencies, the emergence of local “princes”, ethnic enclave socio-spatial formations in certain regions of Ukraine. It is noted that the improvement of the territorial organization of power requires the intensification of scientific research on the reform of the administrative-territorial system at the regional level.

Information Technology and Government Decentralization: Experimental Evidence From Paraguay

Standard models of hierarchy assume that agents and middle managers are better informed than principals. We estimate the value of the informational advantage held by supervisors—middle managers—when ministerial leadership—the principal—introduced a new monitoring technology aimed at improving the performance of agricultural extension agents (AEAs) in rural Paraguay. Our approach employs a novel experimental design that elicited treatment‐priority rankings from supervisors before randomization of treatment. We find that supervisors have valuable information—they prioritize AEAs who would be more responsive to the monitoring treatment. We develop a model of monitoring under different scales of treatment roll‐out and different treatment allocation rules. We semiparametrically estimate marginal treatment effects (MTEs) to demonstrate that the value of information and the benefits to decentralizing treatment decisions depend crucially on the sophistication of the principal and on the scale of roll‐out.

Making Decentralisation Work: A Comparative Ethnographic Analysis of Forest Conservation and Village Governance in West Bengal, India

The literature on forest conservation lacks comparative analyses of decentralisation across different sectors to understand their relative advantages and limitations. This article adopts an ethnographic approach to compare the functioning of two decentralised village-level institutions in the state of West Bengal, India: the forest protection committees created under joint forest management and the gram panchayat, the lowest tier of the panchayati raj institution. The comparative analysis shows that despite their decentralised structure, the village forest protection committees have very little discretionary power relative to the powers exercised by gram panchayats. Gram panchayats have been effective in developing an inclusive and transparent decentralised governance system which retains the support of diverse interest groups within communities and other layers of the state. The study shows that style of decentralisation under joint forest management in West Bengal has been alienating forest-based communities from conservation because their voices remain symbolic in local, state, and national-level policy decisions. The study provides new theoretical and methodological insights for analysing decentralisation by underscoring the importance of criteria such as discretionary power for local decision-making and accountability; local bureaucratic and infrastructure support; and designated physical space in the everyday working of decentralised governance at the village level.

Informational Technologies as a Tool for Local Level Sustainable Development Goals Implementation

The research represents the interdisciplinary approach for sustainable development of local communities through the implementation latest innovative approaches and closing the gaps by modern technological possibilities. The paper proposes methodological approaches for informational and analytical support for decision-making on sustainable development of local territorial entities (for example, united territorial communities, BTSEE). It is emphasized that the climate change forecast must be implemented to local, territorial development strategies. The central hypothesis of this research is that the competitiveness and efficiency of economic development local communities can be reached in the framework of combating climate changes with the implementation of information technologies on all steps – from planning until realization. It emphasized that the climate change forecast must be implemented to local, territorial development strategies. The way of implementation is that the territorial development strategies take into account changes in the functional purpose of the territories and determine the directions of prospective activity, taking into account changes in agro-climatic and infrastructural conditions of development. For this purpose, it is proposed to create a complex of information and analytical support for the sustainable development of local, territorial entities. The permissible value of the reverse subsidy, according to our calculations, should be no more than 25 %. It was demonstrated that it is possible to enable the sustainable development of financially capable communities if a flexible, financially based approach is used to determine the reverse subsidy's amount. Implementing the proposed mechanisms for the sustainable development of the BTSEE involves active consultation with local leaders and government representatives in charge of government decentralization.

Performance of Decentralized Local Service Delivery in Developed Countries: Case Study of Japan

Many countries decentralize the administrative, fiscal, and political functions of the central government to lower-level governments. In many developing and developed countries, governments and their policymakers have used decentralization as a means of improving the delivery of local service. Accordingly, this study is based on the delivery of local services to the people by the local governments of Japan as a developed country. The overall objective of this article is to review the performance of decentralized local service delivery in developed countries and based on a case study of Japan. The study also aims to examine the correlation between the revenue and expenditure of local governments of Japan and its trends. Basically, this article has been written based on secondary data materials. This data consists of qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Hence, a qualitative and quantitative descriptive method has been applied to analyse the performance of local government decentralization in Japan, and descriptive statistical methods are used to analyse the data and the correlation between revenue and expenditure. The problem in this research is how the functional political institutions created for local service delivery at the sub-national governments in Japan affects the success of decentralization. This research revealed several findings. The local governments of Japan have a sound institutional system and several powers recognized by the constitution. Japanese local governments monitor over 70% of national works, but a majority of the standard public services are the responsibility of local governments. Karl Pearson’s correlation value of revenue and expenditure is 0.979, and there is a strong positive relationship between revenues and expenditure. In Japan, the highest value of local government spending is on public welfare. It is followed by education, civil engineering works, and general administration, second, third, and fourth, respectively. Also, its central and local administrative institutions are maintained in a mutually dependent and mutually complementary relationship. Most of the local governments are collaborating with the private sector in Japan. As a result, the efficiency of service delivery has improved at the local level. In this way, waste management, which is a major local problem in Japan, is being dealt with closely by the central government and the local governments.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND MANAGEMENT WORK OF SCIENTISTTEACHER P SHEVCHENKO

The importance of taking into account the positive achievements of domestic pedagogy for the development of modern education, especially in the context of intensification of the process of decentralization of local government. The purpose of the article was to highlight the pedagogical experience of P I Shevchenko, former rector of Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, as head of the city (Kryvyi Rih) Department of Public Education from August 1965 to October 1979, to study the longevity of previous management ideas and theories as a methodological guide for modern education managers. Leading research methods: analysis and generalization of archival material, problem and retrospective analysis. The study of documentary sources of the Dnieper Regional State Archive (Kryvyi Rih City Executive Committee Department), which contains material from P I Shevchenko’s reports at city meetings of Kryvyi Rih school principals, identified a range of issues that were of priority importance in the organizational and managerial work of the scientist-teacher. It was revealed that during his work P. Shevchenko solved the issues of development of educational infrastructure of the whole city and adjacent districts, ensuring sustainable functioning of schools, preschool, out-of-school, vocational educational institutions of the city and adjacent districts.Within his official powers, P. Shevchenko also took care of preschool institutions, demanded to pay attention to the caloric content and variety of baby food, compliance with sanitary and hygienic norms in the institution, timely repairs in kindergartens, improvement of playgrounds and more. The regional peculiarities of the city, which were characterized by the rapid development of metallurgical production, required systematic career guidance work, to which, first of all, the lessons of labor training were directed. The articulation of these issues before the educators of the city was leading in the activities of P. Shevchenko in the late 70’s of the twentieth century.The appeal to the documents that left the imprint of P. Shevchenko’s organizational and managerial work as the head of the city department of public education proves the consistent implementation in his managerial activity of the idea of combining study and work, the idea that is now called dual education. In his work, P. Shevchenko was guided by the then decisions of party institutions, but the priority in his work was a personal interest in solving the problems of that time, which was manifested in his ability to form strategic goals and determine the algorithm of priority actions for their implementation. It is proved that P. Shevchenko’s activity was concentrated around the problems of the educational branch of the city, pedagogical collectives, apprentices, which were considered as a guarantee of successful social and economic development of the state.