Intergovernmental Relations Research Articles

Introducing the Concept ‘Intra-Local Governmental Relations’ for Proper and Future Usage in Public Administration Research and Education: A Possible Case for Bathos

Usage of the phrase ‘conceptual bathos’ in this paper is simply to engender curiosity of the readership but above that, it is used to caution emerging researchers [especially in the field of public administration] against overlooking or demeaning important subjects or concepts to simple or ordinary ones. Specifically, the paper refers to ‘Intra-local governmental relations’ as a concept that has suffered the same cause of negation to argue for its proper usage in future. This concept is found within the orbit of intergovernmental relations (IGR) and is a term of reference for various internal municipality relations. However, it is suspected that because of the inherent similarities and motherhood relationship between IGR and ILGR researchers have failed to draw differences thereby causing confusion. The extent of this confusion may lead to a suggestion that these concepts are inseparable and therefore can be used to explain each one’s context. The current paper characterises such acts as tangential and generalist conceptual approach which is often not aware of the important groupings (classifications) of governmental relations. By collecting and unpacking data from the existing research outputs, books, journal articles and government publications, the current paper finally realised its objective, which was to re-introduce ILGR into the academic discourse and the anticipation is that emerging Public Administration researchers and scholars will use the concept properly and correctly.

District government as a policy entrepreneur: Understanding policy experimentation in China’s Wujin District

ABSTRACT Inconsistent policy implementation has been widely observed in Chinese institutional reforms. The central government has experimented with policymaking in a strategic way against tensions between inherited regulatory deficiencies and ongoing development. And, despite the central government’s authority over local governments, the latter operate with a remarkable degree of discretion. By synthesizing policy experimentation theories and policy entrepreneurship, we consider the Wujin District government, as a policy entrepreneur that identified and acted within a “policy window” and explore how it interpreted and actualized policy tasks set by the central government in relation to the rural land reform. The central government designated 33 county-level administrations as testbeds for removing institutional obstacles to coordinated urban-rural land governance. The Wujin District was granted greater administrative autonomy pertinent to local reform initiatives. Further, the Wujin District reorganized its inter-governmental relations by delegating power downward to forge a reform coalition. Critically, Wujin succeeded in aligning local development priorities with central policy goals. Taking an agent-centric perspective, we also examine historical and contextual factors relevant for behavioral changes. The findings indicate that the Wujin District government acted as an effective policy entrepreneur and on this basis made crucial contributions to policy innovation.

Policy reinvention in diffusion: Evidence from municipal solid waste classification policy in China

AbstractWhile research on policy diffusion has gained significant interest among scholars worldwide, little attention has been given to policy reinvention in diffusion. This study aims to investigate the influencing factors and combination paths of policy reinvention in the Municipal Solid Waste Classification Policy (MSWCP). To achieve this, a theoretical framework encompassing internal factors, intergovernmental relations, and external influence has been constructed. Empirical analysis has been conducted on the MSWCP of 31 large‐ and medium‐sized cities in China using Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Through this analysis, several combination paths that prompted local governments to reinvent policies have been identified. Furthermore, the study has clarified the various roles of six conditions—financial resources, government attention, policy experience, peer competition, organizational learning, and social demand—in achieving policy reinvention. These findings are expected to provide new theoretical and practical insights into the field of policy reinvention research.

A city profile of Macau—The rise and fall of a casino city

Macau, one of China's two special administrative regions (SARs), is an island city famous for its flourishing gambling industry. As Macau is the only place in Greater China where gambling is legal, it initially experienced explosive economic growth with the rapid expansion of its gambling sector. Although the meteoric rise of Macau's gambling industry gave the city a glamorous reputation, it also created a homogeneous and fragile industrial structure, which has begun to pose serious problems for Macau. In recent years, Macau has faced increasing political and economic pressure due to dramatic changes in the external environment. In particular, the tremendous impact of COVID-19 and Beijing's expectation of Macau's deeper involvement in China's development agenda, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area, have made it untenable for Macau to maintain a slow pace of economic reform. This city profile examines the continuous decentralization of China's political authority since its reform and opening up and considers the unique central–local relationship between Beijing and Macau from the perspective of intergovernmental relations theory. As an exploratory case study, we focus on how Macau, a SAR with a “high degree of autonomy” promised and claimed by Beijing, has responded to concerns about its industrial restructuring, administrative reform, and sustainable urban development in the face of interventions from Beijing and scrutiny from residents. We argue that Macau's current form of local autonomy is insufficient, and that the Macau government should use an optimal mix of localization strategies to address the concerns of all parties while also complying with Beijing's assertive planning and guidance. We close by analyzing future economic opportunities and political challenges, extracting lessons from history, and offering practical suggestions for enhancing Macau's governance capacity, improving its tourism destination image, and hedging against major risks to the city in the rapidly changing global environment.

A framework for analyzing the implementation of climate adaptation policies in the agriculture sector at the subnational level

This study presents a new framework for assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of climate adaptation policies for the agriculture sector at the subnational level. The role of the subnational level in climate policy is highly relevant, especially on the heels of the Paris Agreement (PA) of 2015. However, there is limited literature on climate adaptation policy implementation at the subnational level in the agricultural sector. Climate adaptation policy in agriculture is generally discussed at the national level, and subnational climate adaptation policies rarely address agriculture. Thus, this study was conducted to fill this gap by establishing an analytical framework based on the two existing literatures, which are not connected: climate adaptation policies at the subnational level and adaptation policies in the agricultural sector. The core components of the framework are (i) locally driven initiatives, (ii) locally capable institutions, (iii) legally implementable measures, and (iv) effective intergovernmental relations. The framework is then applied to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Punjab, two provinces in Pakistan, a country highly dependent on the agricultural sector and one of the most vulnerable to climatic changes. We found that both provinces have locally driven policies and have made efforts to build capabilities in their public administrations to adapt to climate change in the agriculture sector. Punjab has advanced in several indicators of the components of the framework but still is weak in others, such as local monitoring and evaluation efforts. KPK has interesting efforts in the dissemination of farmers’ adaptation innovative initiatives (hidden adaptation), but still lags behind in the legal base for the policies. Finally, both provinces lack strong institutions for intergovernmental relations.

The Diffusion of Performance-Based Budgeting Reforms: Cross-Provincial Evidence from China

Extant literature has extensively examined the diffusion of performance-based budgeting (PBB) from the standpoint of central governments, with a special focus on European and American countries. However, how PBB reforms diffuse within a unitary state, especially among mid-level governments, still remains elusive. To better understand the mechanism of PBB diffusion, this research use Event History Analysis to investigate how leadership characteristics, intergovernmental relations, financial standing, and organizational culture affect provincial PBB diffusion in China. The findings suggest that (1) the reasons for PBB adoption vary across different types of public leaders; (2) PBB reforms are primarily diffused through the bottom-up inducement, with central advocacy and horizontal competition playing an insignificant role; (3) provinces with a greater financial standing are more likely to adopt PBB reforms; (4) a culture that values reforms and transparency of information can drive the diffusion of PBB reforms. As a result, our research has clear implications for performance budgeting literature and practice: it provides valuable insights to policy-makers and public leaders on how to facilitate PBB reforms and policy diffusion across mid-level governments, particularly in a unitary state.

Actors, activities, and forms of authority in the IPCC

AbstractScholarship on global environmental assessments call for these organisations to become more reflexive to address challenges around participation, inclusivity of perspectives, and responsivity to the policy domains they inform. However, there has been less call for reflexivity in IPCC scholarship or closer examination of how routine concepts condition scholarly understanding by focusing on science and politics over other social dynamics. In this article, I suggest that scholarly reflexivity could advance new analytical approaches that provide practical insights for changing organisational structures. Through reflecting on my understanding of the IPCC, I develop actors, activities, and forms of authority as a new analytical framework for studying international organisations and knowledge bodies. Through its application, I describe the social order of the IPCC within and between the panel, the bureau, the technical support units, the secretariat and the authors, which is revealing of which actors, on the basis of what authority, have symbolic power over the writing of climate change. The fine-grained analysis of organisations enabled by this analytical framework reveals how dominance can and is being remade through intergovernmental relations and potentially, identifies avenues that managers of these bodies can pursue to challenge it.

Intergovernmental Relations: State and Local Challenges in the Twenty-First Century, by Jonathan M. Fisk

State and local governments take on increasingly important roles in the political process in the modern era, especially as political polarization continues to suppress momentum in the federal government to make meaningful reforms in numerous policy areas. Failure on the part of national officials to address modern-day policy problems leaves state and local governments to fight it out amongst themselves regarding what is best. Local governments have always been at the forefront of policy implementation and the first to be confronted by policy problems, particularly those related to quality of life. Local governments are closest and should be quickest to respond to resident needs, and they have historically acted as self-governing bodies in many arenas, enacting local policy agendas and often enjoying support from state governments, even in spite of having limited powers bestowed upon them by the state. However, as we face new challenges in the twenty-first century and as political polarization intensifies, states have become involved in managing local policies to a greater extent, as evidenced by the number of state preemption laws that grows each year (Riverstone-Newell 2017).

Telemedicine services in Russia: Regulation and diversification prospects

The social significance of telemedicine services is due to their effectiveness in combating the main challenges facing national health systems. The introduction of these services into medical care opens up new opportunities for cutting its costs and increasing accessibility, as well as reducing the risks inherent in the Russian healthcare system. The study aims to formulate proposals for regulating telemedicine services in the Russian Federation and identifying promising areas for their diversification. The theoretical framework includes the theories of servitization, digitalization and public health, as well as researchers’ views on health economics. The methods of comparative, system and functional analysis were used. The empirical evidence comes from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and audit companies for the period of 2018–2022. Having analysed the global practice in forming and regulating the telemedicine market under healthcare digitalization, we emphasize the need to create a clear legislative framework, build intergovernmental relations, and exchange experience in this area. The research proposes a set of measures for developing these services, while taking into account the risks caused by the specificity of healthcare in Russia, i.e., the imperfection of national legislation, the lack of quality standards and clear rules for doctor-patient interaction. The authors’ recommendations provide for the use of economic, administrative, legal, information and communication methods for regulating telemedicine services. Realization of these recommendations will contribute to a more rational distribution of resources and effective implementation of health policy in accordance with national economic, financial and social interests.

The Theoretical and Methodological Framework of Intergovernmental Relations and the Process of Territorial Decentralization in Cuba as an Ongoing Process

The Theoretical and Methodological Framework of Intergovernmental Relations and the Process of Territorial Decentralization in Cuba as an Ongoing Process

Counting Like a State: The Politics of Intergovernmental Partnerships in the 2020 Census

Abstract State and local officials played an almost unprecedented role in the implementation of the 2020 census. Given a variety of fiscal and political challenges, subnational governments collectively invested billions of dollars to motivate participation in the count, especially among historically undercounted populations. Nevertheless, state and local investments in the census varied substantially. This article examines the roots of variation in state and local census investments, drawing on a set of 76 interviews with public officials and nonprofit leaders, as well as quantitative analyses of state and local decisions. The results indicate that census investments depend on the salience of the 2020 count to public officials, the partisan identities and incentives of governing coalitions, and the availability of subnational institutional capacity for census operations. These findings have important implications for how we think about the role of intergovernmental relations in supporting critical governance tasks in an increasingly turbulent institutional context.

Teaching Federalism: Multidimensional Approaches, by John Kincaid and J. Wesley Leckrone

At a time of big geopolitical changes to the world order, it is imperative that federalism is studied and taught in a way that prepares students for an unknown future. This means that one needs to move beyond the safety of exclusive specialisms, disciplinary blinkers, methodological narrowness, and definitional strictness. Teaching Federalism: Multidimensional Approaches takes us past the comfort zone of traditional teaching on federalism in the West by laying out its analyses in a truly global and inclusive manner. The textbook contains twenty chapters covering almost every substantive facet of federalism, ranging from fiscal federalism to intergovernmental relations, from social policymaking to political culture. Most contributions are written by political scientists—some with a pronounced philosophical bent, but a few chapters are penned by law scholars, and one was written by an economist. John Kincaid and J. Wesley Leckrone’s volume is not only multidimensional in terms of the disciplinary affiliation of its contributors but most chapters are also relevant to federations beyond the West. As an indication of this global inclusiveness, Teaching Federalism also contains in-depth case studies of India and Nigeria, in addition to other cases. All chapters are written with undergraduate and graduate teaching in mind, and thus have discussions points, essay questions, and teaching simulations. What is more, the publisher and the editors have graciously made the entire textbook Open Access—an immense gift to teachers and students in places where hardcopies of books are unavailable and institutional and personal subscription to online sources are prohibitively expensive.

The marble cake of social services in Italy and Spain: Policy capacity, social investment, and the national recovery and resilience plans

This article analyses the potential implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the infrastructure of social services in Italy and Spain. Drawing from the policy capacity framework and focusing on childcare and elderly care, we investigate how the National Recovery and Resilience Plans are likely to impact the core functions of the social investment approach. Through document analysis, the article shows that, whereas the infrastructure of the social service system remains characterised by a ‘marble cake’ type of institutional arrangement combining national and subnational responsibilities, attempts have been made by the central governments to steer the social investment policy capacity at the organisational and systemic levels. We argue that the pandemic represents a window of opportunity to rethink the overall system of intergovernmental relations in the field of social services.

Determinants of Local Civil Servants’ Perceptions of Intergovernmental Tensions: Experimental Evidence from Korea

Much research on intergovernmental tensions has focused on the central government’s perspective and concerns how to control the local government. Despite the increasing importance of the local government’s role in intergovernmental relations, the perspective of local bureaucrats has received relatively less attention, particularly outside the U.S. To better understand intergovernmental tensions from the local agents’ side, we explore several characteristics at the local level that may impact local bureaucrats’ decision making, including local bureaucrats’ perception of discretion, their commitment to the organization, and their career backgrounds. Our analysis of original data from survey experiments with over 2,200 local civil servants in Korea shows that such characteristics indeed play a role in distinguishing local bureaucrats’ perceptions of intergovernmental tensions. Our study has clear implications for public management literature and practice: local bureaucrats’ individual characteristics matter in intergovernmental relations and affect how the central government’s policies are implemented in local agencies.

Competition and Local Government's Choice Between Informal and Formal Collaborative Mechanisms: Measuring Dyadic Intercity Competition Through the Lens of Business Trade-Offs

Informal and formal collaborative mechanisms are distinctive self-governing strategies that local governments use to mitigate intergovernmental collaboration risks. Studies on local governance have long argued that both mechanisms tend to co-occur and appear mutually complementary. However, extant research drawing on the transaction cost perspective provides a more nuanced and different explanation that as intergovernmental competition increases, local governments lean toward the choice of a formal mechanism over an informal mechanism to effectively address higher collaboration risks. Through a network lens, this study empirically tests the latter view. Using the Orlando metropolitan area as a testbed, Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure tests reveal that the use of both collaborative mechanisms is positively associated with the level of intergovernmental competition. However, different from the initial expectation, local governments are more likely to engage in the informal mechanism rather than the formal mechanism as the competition level increases. In doing so, this study developed a new measurement strategy for intergovernmental competition to test the dyadic network-related research hypotheses. The measurement strategy and the research findings should inform future research on intergovernmental relations and local government network management.

Governmental and local government relations in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sudden change not only in societal behaviour but also in terms of forms and scale how public administration was running. The aim of this paper is to present intergovernmental relation (IGR) during the first and second wave of COVID-19. In order to do this Central and Self-Government Common Commission (CSGCC) and national local government associations were taken into consideration. In conclusion it is said that during the first wave centralize approach towards the IGR was apparent, however, in the second wave it evolved toward more multilevel relations.

Intergovernmental Interaction in Federal Nepal and Challenges in the Transitional Period

Federalism is a power-sharing political system, which designates power through various layers of government. Powers are delegated and decentralized by the constitution over the different layers of government. In federalism, intergovernmental or inter-province relations are very crucial for better delivery of the federal system. The provinces in Nepal are at loggerheads and as they are facing internal conflicts, and the inter-governmental relations are not so smooth. The provinces are attempting to make their internal cooperation better but this is not achieved due to political transition. Given this complex context, poor intergovernmental relations and conflicts between the three layers of government in Nepal have become one of the key challenges for the successful implementation of federalism. Limited knowledge, short experience with federalism and lack of legal and policy issues have created these gaps. The contexts have further jeopardized inter-governmental relations. Weak intergovernmental relations in federalism would ultimately pose a challenge to federalism and result in political instability in Nepal.

Accountability, governance, and institutional change in intergovernmental relations: A theoretical framework

AbstractThis article develops an explanatory framework of institutional change in intergovernmental relations. Using new institutionalism, we focus on a main explanatory factor—the players' perceptions of their own accountability and that of others. Integrating the concepts of multiple accountability and felt accountability, we develop the concept of an accountability gap, meaning differences between the perceptions of players in the central government about their responsibility to provide local services and the perceptions of players at the local level about their responsibilities. Our claim is that perceptual gaps concerning accountability in a two‐tiered or multi‐tiered system may influence their interests, strategies, and behavior and hence determine the timing and pace of specific institutional changes. We illustrate the theoretical framework by examining how Spain managed the COVID‐19 pandemic.Related ArticlesAguado, N. Alexander. 2018. “Mayor‐Council Form of Government and Policy Responses in Times of Economic Travail.”Politics & Policy46(5): 714–30.https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12273.French, Edward P., and Doug Goodman. 2011. “Local Government Human Resource Management Past, Present, and Future: Revisiting Hays and Kearney's Anticipated Changes a Decade Later.”Politics & Policy39(5): 761–85.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00312.x.Kwon, Sung‐Wook, and Sylvia Gonzalez‐Gorman. 2019. “Influence of Local Political Institutions on Policy Punctuation in Three Policy Areas.”Politics & Policy47(2): 300–25.https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12295.

Intergovernmental relations in climate change governance: A Pakistani case

Intergovernmental relations in climate change governance: A Pakistani case

How do municipal mayors and councillors communicate with other levels of government? Evidence from a multi‐level survey of Canadian elected officials

AbstractWhile past research suggests that informal processes of dialogue play an important role in municipal intergovernmental relations in Canada, we currently know very little about their character and frequency. Who do local elected officials communicate with, and through which channels? And which municipal voices carry the most weight in these conversations? This article answers these questions from the perspective of elected politicians themselves, using a pan‐Canadian survey of municipal, provincial, and federal elected representatives. Our findings confirm that municipal intergovernmental relations depend heavily on informal institutions and personal relationships and highlight the key role of municipal mayors as spokespersons and advocates for municipalities in Canadian federalism.