Intergovernmental Coordination Research Articles

Research on the Mode and Optimization Path of Local Government Cooperative Governance in Sudden Public Crisis

This paper analyzes the problems in the governance of the novel coronavirus epidemic, and finds that there are still problems in collaborative governance, such as difficulties in inter-governmental coordination, lack of institutional guarantee, and insufficient role of social organizations. On this basis, this paper attempts to build a public crisis collaborative governance model, further explains the model, and puts forward specific action directions and countermeasures for the three types of subjects involved in this model, including government, social organizations and citizens, to participate in the public crisis collaborative governance.

Economic And Trade Cooperation Between China And Belarus In The Context Of The “One Belt And One Road“ Initiative

The article analyzes economic and trade opportunities and cooperation between China and Belarus in the context of the One Belt and One Road program. Both countries have great potential for economic and trade cooperation, and their industries largely complement each other. The Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park, a key project of China-Belarusian cooperation, plays the role of an intergovernmental coordination mechanism. However, there are some that hamper cooperation between the two countries, such as the risk of inflation, unstable economic development and business conditions in Belarus.

Can inter-governmental coordination inhibit cross-border illegal water pollution? A test based on cross-border ecological compensation policy.

Cross-border illegal water pollution discharge (CIPD) occurs much frequently due to weak environmental supervision and unclear environmental rights. This paper attempts to explore the impact of cross-border ecological compensation policy (CBEC) on CIPD. By using day-night difference of pollution data at administrative boundary monitoring station, illegal water pollution discharge is calculated. Difference-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) model is used to estimate the impact of CBEC on CIPD. First, DDD results show that CBEC can effectively curb CIPD. Second, environmental regulatory effect, environmental governance effect and environmental awareness effect produced by CBEC are tested. CBEC inhibits CIPD by strengthening media supervision and public pollution reporting in environmental regulatory effect, and reduces CIPD by increasing environmental protection investment and environmental law enforcement efficiency in environmental governance effect, and curbs CIPD by promoting environmental information disclosure and reducing environmental corruption in environmental awareness effect. Third, by further analyzing different stages of CBEC, CIPD generated by environmental action coordination and environmental governance mechanism coordination is highly inhibited. Fourth, CBEC has a stronger inhibition effect on CIPD as upstream region is economically underdeveloped and downstream is economically developed. The conclusion provides policy implications from inter-government coordination for restraining CIPD.

Local Government Response in Corona Pandemic: An Overview of Karnali Province

The world was completely locked down for the first time in the world by the devastating pandemic of coronavirus in 2020. To overview its impacts on service delivery of local governments of Karnali province of Nepal, the study has been conducted. the paper attempts to explore the local government initiatives and inter-governmental coordination toward the COVID-19 response during the first wave. The study is based on a descriptive qualitative research design to reach the set objectives. Three local governments of Karnali Province were selected purposively as samples. Questionnaire and telephonic interviews were the tools adopted for the data collection. The field-level information and data were presented as per the objectives in a descriptive way. The study has been made to draw conclusions based on the practical experience and information gained from all three local levels. Local governments have been seen to be at the forefront of coping with the uncomfortable situation created by the Novel Corona Virus pandemic. Similarly, the local government seems to have performed important tasks such as manpower mobilization, procurement of health-related materials, test kits and machines, swab collection and test, and awareness rising toward covid-19 response and rescue of returnees from abroad. The local governments have found utilized the available resources for creating, managing the quarantine, and isolation at the community level to control the Covid-19. The local governments have learned the lessons from the field-level experiences in the pandemic management process in such types of crises. The study would be helpful to share the pandemic management knowledge among the local governments in the future.

Crisis management in federal states: the role of peak intergovernmental councils in Germany and Switzerland during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In federal states, intergovernmental councils were the main institutions through which the federal government and the constituent units coordinated their responses to COVID-19. To examine whether peak councils assumed a leading role during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure cross-sectoral as well as intergovernmental coordination, this article compares the role of two “peak councils”—the Conference of Premiers (MPK) in Germany and the Conference of Cantonal Governments (KdK) in Switzerland—with sectoral councils in normal times and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis relies on an original database of more than 900 council outputs based on which we compare the level of activity, the publicity, the direction of action, and the bindingness of outputs. The findings show that MPK took a leading role during the pandemic, a role that was indeed unusual when compared to normal times, while KdK, which likewise does not play a leading role in normal times, did not during the pandemic either.

Decarbonization roadmaps for ASEAN and their implications

The objective of this paper is to derive, for the first time, decarbonization roadmaps for the ten nations of ASEAN. This study first presents a regional view of ASEAN’s fossil and renewable energy usage and energy-related CO2 emission. Results show that renewable energies have been losing ground to fossil energies in the last two decades and fossil fuels will likely continue to be an important part of ASEAN’s energy mix for the next few decades. Therefore, decarbonizing efforts should focus not only on increasing the share of renewable energies in electricity generation, but also on technologies to reduce CO2 emission from fossil power and industrial plants. This study next performs a technology mapping exercise for all ten ASEAN countries to determine decarbonization technologies that have high impact and high readiness for individual countries. Besides installing more sustainable renewable energies, common themes coming from these roadmaps include switching from coal to gas for power generation, using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to decarbonize fossil and industrial plants, replacing internal combustion vehicles by electric vehicles, and for countries that have coal and natural gas resources, upgrading them to blue hydrogen by chemical processes and using CCS to mitigate the emitted CO2. Blue hydrogen can be used to decarbonize hard-to-decarbonize industries. Policy implications of these roadmaps include imposing a credible carbon tax, establishing a national hydrogen strategy, intergovernmental coordination to establish regional CCS corridors, funding research and development to improve carbon capture efficiency on a plant level and resolving sustainability issues of hydropower and bioenergy in ASEAN.

KOERI’s Tsunami Warning System in the Eastern Mediterranean and Its Connected Seas: A Decade of Achievements and Challenges

A tsunami warning system providing services in the Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black Seas under the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)—Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas (NEAMTWS) framework was established in Turkey by the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) (Özel et al., 2011). KOERI’s Regional Earthquake and Tsunami Monitoring Center (RETMC) was established on the foundations of the legacy KOERI National Earthquake Monitoring Center (NEMC) by adding observation, analysis and operational capability related to tsunami early warnings after an extensive preparatory period during 2009 and 2011. The center initiated its test-mode 7/24 operational status as a national tsunami warning center in 2011, and after a one year period it became operational as a candidate tsunami warning center for NEAMTWS on 1 July 2012, together with CENALT (Centre d’Alerte aux Tsunamis—France) and followed by the NOA (National Observatory of Athens—Greece) on 28 August 2012, INGV (Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia—Italy) on 1 October 2014 and IPMA (Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera—Portugal) on 1 February 2018, completing full coverage of the tsunami-prone regions monitored by NEAMTWS. In this paper, an overview of the progress and continuous improvement of KOERI’s tsunami early warning system will be presented, together with lessons learned from important tsunamigenic events, such as the 20 July 2017 Bodrum–Kos Mw 6.6 and 30 October 2020 Samos–Izmir Mw 6.9 earthquakes. Gaps preventing the completion of an effective tsunami warning cycle and areas for future improvement are also addressed.

Unleashing the potential of local governments in pandemic response

ABSTRACT All disasters are local with important repercussions for national and sometimes for international levels. An effective emergency response requires mobilising local government resources in the fight against disasters, including pandemics. Local governments, being closer to people, are well-positioned to identify local vulnerabilities and design appropriate response actions. This paper reviews relevant literature on the role of local government in the fight against pandemics and identifies two important prerequisites in deploying local governments effectively in fighting against pandemics: the existence of an intergovernmental coordination mechanism, and local government capacity. The research methodology includes a content analysis of qualitative and quantitative information through a literature review and available data in the public domain.

Concessionary federalism in a dominant party system? Indirect tax reforms and subnational acquiescence in India

ABSTRACT What accounts for subnational assent to policies that seek to reduce their fiscal autonomy and increase fiscal centralization? Since subnational actors with access to veto capabilities can block such reforms, the key to this theoretical puzzle lies in the identification of those conditions that create weak veto possibilities. This article seeks to solve this puzzle by analysing the case of India which has amended the constitution to introduce a ‘dual GST’ system. The combined logic of a market economy paradigm – within which the realization of a common economic market was an important policy goal – and the logic of a ‘dominant party equilibrium’ – which reduced the number and impact of veto players – created the right conditions for intergovernmental coordination. However, even under these conditions, the coordination dilemma, which had plagued the indirect tax reform process since 1991, could not have been resolved without making compromises as midpoints of competing claims. Thus, even under a dominant party system, the institutional condition of federalism cannot be ignored entirely. Overall, India’s transition to a goods and services tax (GST) regime is a classic case of the centre and the states pooling sovereignty over the taxes assigned to them. This has strengthened the ‘shared rule’ dimension of Indian fiscal federalism.

Explaining Intergovernmental Coordination during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Responses in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland

The COVID-19 pandemic required prompt action from governments all over the world. In federal systems, it can be important or beneficial to coordinate crisis management between the various governments. The extent to which intergovernmental coordination occurred and the form it took (vertical or horizontal) varied across countries and regarding the measures taken. By examining the introduction and the subsequent easing of containment measures and the procurement of medical supplies in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, this article identifies the circumstances under which intergovernmental coordination occurs. Surprisingly, the existence of strong intergovernmental councils did not lead to closer intergovernmental coordination. Governments coordinated more intensively when jurisdiction was shared, problem pressure was high, and measures were(re-)distributive in nature. Vertical coordination was more likely when vertical intergovernmental councils existed and powers were shared.

The Administrative Capability of The Barangay Governments in The Municipality of Jolo, Philippines

This research aims to: 1. Assess the administrative capability of the barangay governments in the Municipality of Jolo, 2. Find out factors adversely affecting the capability of these barangays, and 3. Propose alternative capability-building approach suitable for the subject barangays.This study utilized a descriptive method which involved one hundred nineteen (119) study samples determined through Purposive sampling. The administrative strength of the barangay governments in Jolo is mainly confined on the construction of rock-caused-ways and foot bridges. Other pressing problems in the community remained poorly addressed to the dismay of their respective constituents. Their capability of discharging the devolved function as required in the LGC of 1991 is minimal. By and large, the barangay governments in Jolo failed to fully realize the expectations of the code and to address the daily concerns of their constituents with utmost efficiency and effectiveness. Their capability is adversely affected factors such as: scarcity of resources, inadequate training, insufficient political support, poor inter-governmental coordination, and lack of accountability. The administration of most of these units is characterized by gross inefficiency, nepotism, and patronage system. The proposed alternative approach of enhancing the administrative capability of these units focused on the internal value reformation which is mainly anchored on the Islamic system of leadership which are suitable due to the fact that all barangay officials in Jolo are Muslims. Besides, any approach towards improving administrative capability will be doomed to fail if the local officials do not have the proper moral values. Local units possess different level of administrative capability. Hence, decentralization has to match with local capability and endowments. Thus, there is a need to revisit the code should the benefits of local autonomy is to be fully reaped.

The Efficacy of Section 2(4)(l) of the National Environmental Management Act in the Context of Cooperative Environmental Governance

Wetlands are regulated by a plethora of specific environmental management Acts (SEMAs). The mandate of these Acts sits within various environmental affairs departments. Thus, the same resource is regulated and managed by a series of different legislation and environmental administrators. The National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA) is the national environmental framework Act and stresses in its purpose the need for cooperative environmental governance (CEG) which, arguably, raises no concern for the way wetlands are currently regulated and managed, as long as this is done in a manner that promotes CEG. Section 2 of NEMA sets out a series of sustainable development principles that all organs of state must apply in all matters relating to the environment; “environment” is read throughout to include wetlands. Section 2(4)(l) is dubbed the “co-operative governance principle” and mandates the “intergovernmental co-ordination and harmonisation of policies, legislation and actions relating to the environment”. With this in mind, this note, by way of a document analysis, seeks to ascertain whether legislation and policies and action relating to the wetlands regulation and management are in fact coordinated. The presented findings indicate that coordination is lacking, which consequently adversely affects the management, conservation and protection of wetlands in South Africa. The recommendations aim to bring about law reform to improve coordination that bolsters wetlands management as well as their conservation and protection, while simultaneously promoting the objectives of section 41 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (the Constitution).

Los efectos de la pandemia en el federalismo mexicano y en la redefinición del papel de los gobiernos locales

The pandemic affecting the global community since the early 2020, has had deep repercussions. Most of the world’s governments have been unable to manage the problem successfully, while subnational governments have tried to meet the immediate demands of their communities facing the crisis. The responses have been as diverse as the results, but it is possible to distinguish important coincidences in the Latin American federations. Among them is the ineffectiveness of intergovernmental coordination mechanisms to generate a well-organized response. In this situation, subnational governments have taken actions that have trespassed on the powers of the national government or even ignored its dispositions. In the case of Mexico, is compounded by the economic stagnation that existed prior to the pandemic, as well as an important political current, coming from various state governments, which had been demanding a revision of the federal arrangement in the face of the intensification of the recentralization process adopted by the current federal administration. This paper analyses the way in which all these factors have affected local management and the implications this has for the country’s development.

Transformative Energy Policy in Federal Systems

Transforming the energy system towards an increasing share of renewables requires a significant change of a policy to redirect the path-dependent evolution of a highly complex technical system. Moreover, a new path of development towards energy provision from renewables has to be stabilized to assure sustainability. The federal systems in Canada and Germany diverge in the institutional conditions relevant for policy change and stability. Canadian federalism separates powers in energy policy and allows the federal and provincial governments to change policies on their own. In contrast, German federalism requires co-operation between federal and Länder governments which favors policy stability but renders significant change unlikely.
 However, energy transformation started in the 1990s in Germany under conditions that allowed the federal government to avoid the usual mode of joint decision-making. In Canada, provincial governments took the lead in energy transformation, when the conservative federal government showed no interest in intergovernmental coordination. The article explains these shifts in power within the institutional framework. It also discusses the consequences, considering the stability of transformative energy policy. In Germany, policy change from the center undermined the stabilizing structures of intergovernmental coordination, in Canada, institutional conditions favoring continuity never existed. Hence in both countries, governments changed policies but failed to reform institutions of governance.

Evolution and Human Activity

Socio-biology has become popular with Wilson and Dawkins. How to theorize human evolution and selfishness? One must recognize the frequent occurrence of war in human civilization. Hobbes and Spinoza were realist recognizing selfishness. Now, mankind faces both climate change and nuclear confrontation. The only remedy is intergovernmental coordination. But it is slow characterized by myopia and opportunism as well as egoism. Tocqueville stated that Napoleon “democratized” war arriving with 10 times as many soldiers as feudal kings, increasing human misery even more. Could human evolution come to an end?

A implementação do Programa Bolsa Família: revisão de literatura

The objective is to review studies that addressed the implementation of the Bolsa Família Program (PBF), categorizing the main elements of its management. A qualitative research was carried out, with a bibliographic survey based on the databases Cochrane Library, LILACS, Medline, SciELO, Thesis Bank and Dissertation of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Public Domain Directory and the Periodicals Capes. With a criterion for choosing works that deal with the program's management processes, 27 studies were selected, classifying them in two groups: theoretical essays (n = 10) and empirical studies (n = 17) to evaluate the implementation of the PBF. Among the theoretical studies, three categories of studies stand out: intergovernmental coordination, intersectoral coordination and evaluation and monitoring, while in the empirical studies: the categories of intersectoral articulation, effectiveness in the implementation by the municipalities and monitoring / evaluation by the Decentralized Management Index. We conclude that, despite the fact that the PBF is one of the most relevant programs of Brazilian social policy, academic production regarding its implementation has gaps, such as research on management in the Northeast region and the performance of state governments.

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

Pandemic Governance

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented need for governance by a multiplicity of authorities. The nature of the pandemic—globally communicable, uncontrolled, and initially mysterious—required a coordinated response to a common problem. But the pandemic was superimposed atop our decentralized domestic and international governance structures, and the result was devastating: the United States has a death rate that is eighteenth highest in the world, and the pandemic has had dramatically unequal impacts across the country. COVID-19’s effects have been particularly destructive for communities of color, women, and intersectional populations.This Article finds order in the chaos of the pandemic response by distilling a typology for the predominant intergovernmental relationships that emerged. Two of these behaviors describe intergovernmental conflict. Governments undermined each other by destabilizing and criticizing each other’s actions. They did so at all levels: up (when local governments undermined states), down (when the federal government undermined states), and across (when the federal government undermined itself). Governments abdicated responsibility when they failed to act. Two additional behaviors describe intergovernmental coordination. Governments collaborated when they actively worked together, both vertically and horizontally, to harmonize their policies. And they engaged in bandwagoning when they avoided taking initiative in making pandemic policy, opting instead to follow the leads of others. We argue that these behaviors were the predictable result of well-worn structural and political dynamics. Structurally, pandemic policy lies uncomfortably on two poles of the federal-state division of responsibilities. Ambiguous hierarchies and overlapping roles pushed governments toward conflict rather than coordination. Politically, intense partisanship transformed nearly every governance decision into symbolic, two-sided national battles. These battles provided a default set of relationships that became organizing principles for the pandemic response. We use these insights to sketch the contours of a way forward. To address the role confusion that arose from our multi-sovereigned system of governance, we propose a federal pandemic statute that emphasizes and balances role clarity, state independence, and explicit governmental action that disrupts inequality. To lessen the pull of partisanship, we advocate for the creation of decentralized but inclusive subject-matter networks among international, federal, state, and local authorities.

Bureaucratic inertia in dealing with annual forest fires in Indonesia

Indonesia has sustained annual forest fires since the 1990s related to land clearing activities for agriculture. The Indonesian Government has made substantial efforts to resolve annual fires by improving intergovernmental coordination at national and local levels. Overall, 96 government agencies are liable for controlling forest fire. This study explores local to central government’s bureaucratic reluctance in addressing forest fires, focusing on Riau Province, the most forest fire-prone region in Indonesia. Data were collected from 2015 to 2019 using participatory observation, engaging in meetings of key players; in-depth interviews with key heads of relevant agencies, officials, and NGOs; and a questionnaire for Social Network Analysis. The results show that there are seven influential institutions for addressing land and forest fires in Riau. However, the power of the decision-making process is concentrated at the level of the President and the Governor as the regional leader, which implies that large institutions involved in fire response have less power and responsibility owing in part to bureaucratic inertia as bureaucracy is overly centralised and less responsive. In the long term, devolution of government authority from the central to the local level is required to furnish front-line institutions with the power to deal with the fires.

Policy capacity, local autonomy, and human agency: tensions in the intergovernmental coordination in Indonesia’s social welfare response amid the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The challenges of COVID-19 have particularly invited closer attention to localised impacts and the extent that intergovernmental coordination, policy capacity, and local autonomy are implicated in the effectiveness of government responses to the pandemic. Drawing on our case study of the implementation of social safety nets in Jakarta, we explore the tensions between national-local government arising from decentralisation unfold as disjunctures between mode of governance and institutional capacity. We argue that the human factor, individuals negotiating and navigating complex and problematic systems and processes, points to human agency being central for success in the implementation, execution, and delivery of services.