Local Government Fragmentation Research Articles

Decentralisation or patronage: What determines government's allocation of development spending in a unitary country? Evidence from Bangladesh

This paper contributes to the decentralisation and distributive politics literature by empirically investigating the determinants of public expenditure at the sub-national level in Bangladesh. We argue that fragmentation in a unitary developing country may not channel higher resources to local areas. Political motives may instead play a significant role in the allocation process. Using panel data methods and a novel dataset on government's district-wise allocation of annual development expenditure in Bangladesh covering the period from 2005 to 2009, the analysis focuses on the impact of local government fragmentation and tests key political distribution models (the core voter hypothesis, the swing voter hypothesis, and the political alignment theory). The results show that local government fragmentation does not have any significant impact on public spending at the district level. However, the core vote share, local elected representative's political alignment with the ruling party, and the raw number of ministers from a district are all significantly associated with higher expenditure allocation. No evidence was found in support of the swing voter hypothesis. Overall, the findings suggest that political motives matter and that the allocation of developing spending is significantly influenced by political patronage. This may be a signficant obstacle to SDGs progress, as development spending may not be governed by resource delivery mechanisms that effectively target the poor.

Along the path to metropolitan cooperation via metropolitan unit establishment: Case of Brno Metropolitan Area, Czech Republic

Former socialist countries still suffer from the absence of planning at a higher administrative level. To develop a metropolitan governance model, strengthen the partner-ship between the hinterland and core cities, and eliminate obstacles stemming from the local government fragmentation, the paper aims to introduce the steps for the institu-tionalization of metropolitan cooperation in the Czech Republic, being demonstrated by the example of the Brno Metropolitan Area (BMA), a leader in the development of in-termunicipal cooperation. The procedure is based on transferable experience from foreign countries and robust surveys among mayors in BMA (carried out in 2020, 175 municipali-ties, 96% response rate) and tens of experts on metropolitan issues. Selected results show that a mutual willingness to create an institution (metropolitan unit) responsible for har-monic metropolitan development, delegate some municipal competencies to a higher level and to contribute to a metropolitan fund was found. The participation of municipalities in the institution is proposed indirectly through voluntary association of municipalities, which would be intermediate between local and metropolitan levels. However, for imple-mentation at the national level, a valid and effective legislative regulation is needed. URL: https://www.gcass.science.upjs.sk/

Is Local Government Fragmentation Politically Motivated? An Empirical Study on Bangladesh

Is Local Government Fragmentation Politically Motivated? An Empirical Study on Bangladesh

Local Government Fragmentation: What Do We Know?

The United States is a nation of local governments. The growth in the number of local governments over the last sixty years has led many to ask whether the current fragmented arrangement is ideal or whether fewer local governments are preferred. This article explains the theoretical arguments on both sides, paying close attention to horizontal and vertical fragmentation. The empirical evidence on the effects of local government fragmentation is examined in three policy areas: public expenditures/revenues, public employment, and economic growth.

Zadluženost statutárních měst v České republice

In the Czech Republic municipalities are seen, in accordance with the Constitution, as the basic element of local government; their roles, tasks and operations governed by the relevant legal regulations. Municipalities have lower powers to raise taxes and so their incomes are largely dependent on transfers from the state budget. The aim of this text is to investigate the possible dependence of indebtedness (expressed as debt per capita) on the size of the municipality (according to the number of inhabitants) and the fragmentation of local government (measured with the aid of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index). We examined this dependence in data on the statutory cities of the Czech Republic, using the methods of correlation analysis and the chi-squared test. However on the basis of the results we can state that the only statistically significant correlations are between debt per capita and the size of the city, while all the other results were statistically insignificant.

Local Government Fragmentation, Finance, and Accountability

Local governments are important to the provision of public goods. Budgetary initiatives at the state level often trap local governments in a fiscal vise, squeezed on one side by the desires of their citizens for public and club goods and on the other side by declining state revenue sharing. As a result, many municipalities have turned to alternative methods of financing, such as implementing special taxing districts at neighborhood levels. These special taxing districts have unique democratic features, such as first mover agenda setting and weighted voting and their implementing legislation often allows governments to act as perfect price discriminating monopolists when setting tax levels. In the end, these changes have enabled savvy political actors to fracture cities into many mutable and often overlapping districts by taxing individuals to maximum allowable levels and jury-rigging elections to ensure that these districts are passed through popular vote. This results in gentrification and differentiation in demographics and a general increase in the provision of select public and club goods for certain affluent subsections of the population.

The politics of municipal fragmentation in Ghana

The scholarly debate over the rival merits of local government consolidation and fragmentation is an old but enduring one. However, in this debate very little attention has been focused on the political dimension of council amalgamation and fragmentation – yet political considerations play a central role in both the formulation and outcomes of de-concentration policy. The purpose of this article is to fill a gap in the literature by examining local government fragmentation in Ghana from 1988 to 2014. The article does this by identifying the key players and analysing their interests and gains, as well as the tensions arising from the fragmentation exercise. The implications from the Ghanaian case for more general theories of fragmentation are drawn out.

An Assessment of the Impact of Local Government Fragmentation in Ghana

In theory fragmentation: yields lower per capita service cost; decentralizes service delivery; promotes local democracy; and protects identity and community of interest. This article assessed whether prediction matched the Ghanaian fragmentation evidence. The paper’s findings are: poverty reduction is a more important performance indicator than the overemphasis on efficiency in public provision; procedures and opportunities for participation are inadequate and irregular; attention is on public expenditure assignments without due consideration for significant financial devolution; and the consequences of the politics of fragmentation have been ignored. The paper concludes that unless these minutiae are incorporated into fragmentation policy, achieving predicted outcomes will remain difficult.

Externalities in the Fragmented Metropolis

A highly fragmented system of local governance represents a market-like arrangement in which competition among service providers benefits citizen-consumers by improving the efficiency of local public service delivery. Yet, the local public market can also fail, producing negative outcomes for some communities and their residents. Because fragmentation can have differential impacts on the welfare of different groups of citizens—benefiting others and harming some—the organization of the local public sector raises important equity questions. This research focuses on the negative outcomes or externalities generated by local government fragmentation, specifically urban sprawl and spatial economic segregation. The results of the empirical analysis suggest that the design of the local public sector structure involves a trade-off between efficiency and equity.

Myths and Legends: Exploring Differences in Regional Governance and Collective Action in the North American City

In their 1986 book Goldberg and Mercer find institutional and structural differences between Canadian and American cities attributable to the different ways that political culture has affected the evolution of urban regions. The American preference for individualism and competition, for limited government intervention and for local autonomy have all contributed to a political climate that encourages local government fragmentation and renders formal metropolitan restructuring difficult. This phenomenon is institutionalized in the principle of home rule. These features of the American system are widely cited to explain the relative rarity of metropolitan forms of government. But what of metropolitan governance? New regionalism emerged in response to the challenges of formal government reorganization and is based on the principle that metropolitan coalitions are easier to establish and more flexible than metropolitan reform. This form of regional coordination is more compatible with local autonomy. However, in theory metropolitan collective action may also be more difficult to establish in the American context that privileges individualism and competition. This article is structured around a series of questions: First, is metropolitan governance more difficult to establish in the American context? Second, are certain forms of metropolitan governance more common in each country, reflective of their political cultural and institutional differences? Finally, what do these findings suggest for theory building? Is one theory about the sources and determinants of metropolitan collective action sufficient? This article hypothesizes that despite important differences it is possible to explain the emergence and form of metropolitan governance with a single theoretical framework.

Local Government Fragmentation and the Local Public Sector

This study analyzes the influence of fragmentation and concentration variables on per capita direct expenditures for all counties in the United States from 1982 to 2002. Building on recent research, fragmentation and concentration variables are developed to incorporate the horizontal as well as the vertical dimensions. This analysis explicitly takes into account the potential simultaneity between individual preferences for the spatial arrangement of local governments and the size of the local public sector using the element of time. The findings suggest that increased levels of fragmentation lead to an enlargement of the local public sector; however, the results are more complex than expected. Similarly, the concentration of service delivery responsibilities into counties and single purpose districts tends to increase the size of the local public sector.

Local Government Fragmentation & the Local Public Sector: A Public Employment Approach

This study analyzes the influence of fragmentation and concentration variables on the per capita size of the local public workforce for all counties in the United States from 1982 to 2002. Consistent with recent research, this analysis incorporates measures of fragmentation and concentration in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Additionally, this analysis explicitly takes into account the potential simultaneity between individual preferences for the spatial arrangement of local governments and the size of the local public workforce using the element of time. The result suggest that increased levels of fragmentation lead to a decrease in the size of the local public workforce; however, the results are complex. Concentration of the local public workforce into counties and special purpose governments tend to increase the overall local public workforce.

Local Government Fragmentation & the Local Public Sector: A Panel Data Analysis

This study analyzes the influence of multiple fragmentation and concentration variables on per capita expenditures for all counties in the United States from 1982 to 2002. Fragmentation and concentration variables are grouped along total, horizontal and vertical lines as identi ed in the literature. The results of this analyses suggest that increases in overall fragmentation leads to higher per capita expenditures; however, supplemental analyses demonstrate this result is being driven by the proliferation of single purpose governments. The analyses also shows that concentration of spending in school districts leads to lower per capita expenditures on average. Results are somewhat sensitive to disaggregation into MSA and non-MSA components. This analyses demonstrates that time is an important consideration and the relationship between fragmentation and the size of the local public sector is not straightforward.

Does Local Government Fragmentation Reduce Local Spending?

This study uses multiple measures of fragmentation and decentralization to assess the effects of these conditions on total local spending in 126 metropolitan regions and 538 counties in the same regions in 2002. The measures are derived from a recognized scheme that distinguishes among total, horizontal, and vertical dimensions of these conditions, and the models control for other causes of total local spending, including sprawl and interlocal spending. The study finds support for the claim that total spending by local governments is higher in regions and counties with more single purpose governments (vertical fragmentation), but also jurisdictions where a greater percentage of spending is done by counties (centralization). Findings also vary by unit of analysis and type of special purpose government, which suggests that the effects of governing structure are not as straightforward as theory suggests.

Is Government Consolidation the Answer?

The Great Recession that started in late 2007 is threatening to alter the local government landscape in the United States. With the steep decline in property and sales taxes, a number of state governments are now reviewing how their local government systems can be restructured to improve service delivery. Scholars from two camps—the advocacy of regional versus multiple centers of local government—have proposed contrasting visions of how the local public sector should be organized. The century-old debate between regionalists and localists has generated a considerable body of theoretical and empirical literature from which state governments can draw as they consider the most effective way of organizing their local governments. This essay discusses the different arguments for local government fragmentation versus consolidation, reviews the empirical evidence, and identifies future areas of research. It focuses on the impacts of the local public sector structure on service delivery, social class and racial segregation, and urban sprawl.

Modernising Local Government by Fragmentation: Lessons From The Portmore Municipal Experiment - Jamaica

Modernization of local government leads inevitably to the vexed question of how to structure local government to meet the changed circumstances in which it operates. This acknowledgement is no less so for the Caribbean in general and Jamaica in particular, where forces such as increased suburbanization and higher level of citizen demands on local government have prompted policy to respond to the changing world of local government. The recalibration of local government structure serves key objectives – to achieve economies of scale; to assure organisational viability and to reinvigorate local democracy. The Portmore Municipal Council (PMC) in Jamaica, enacted by the Municipalities Act of 2003 is representative of fragmentation of local government and innovates local policy and administration in two ways: (a) popular election of Mayor; and (b) construction of local/community self-management institutional arrangements. This paper reviews the experience of the PMC during its formative years of operation to determine the extent to which the philosophy and practice of local/community self-management norms are being institutionalised into the operations of the municipality and identify lessons for the broader adoption of a process of municipalisation.

Are practices of local participation sidelining the institutional participatory channels?: Reflections from Johannesburg

While public discourses emphasise the growing role of ward councillors in service delivery and urban policy implementation, as well as underline their role as mediators between local government and urban residents, local councillors are increasingly the target of mass urban protests. They are also relatively absent from the public scene as far as municipal decisions and debates are concerned. What can explain this discrepancy? This article argues that institutional channels (be it representative democracy, or various institutions and instruments set up by local government to enhance participation) are currently not working in the South African city, and the city of Johannesburg in particular. Whether in low-income or high-income areas, suburbs or townships, residents have to resort to other means, sidelining in particular their ward councillor, to be heard. The article analyses the structural and contextual constraints that may be responsible for this lack of bottom-up dialogue, and concludes that both the limited power of ward councillors in Council, and the lack of incentive for fostering their accountability to voters, lead to the development of patterns of clientelism at the local level. After examining the actual implementation of some urban projects in Johannesburg, the article argues that local government fragmentation (in different tiers, in several city agencies and utilities, and with the widespread use of contracts and consultants) is also an important factor in the failure of participatory processes.

DÉMOCRATISATION ET PARTICIPATION LOCALE À JOHANNESBURG : LA VOIX ET LES VOIES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ CIVILE FACE À DES INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATIVES DYSFONCTIONNELLES

Les mouvements sociaux urbains à Johannesburg contournent plus qu’ils n’utilisent les institutions locales participatives, et en particulier les élus locaux. L’article analyse ce dysfonctionnement institutionnel, qui tient à la centralisation des pouvoirs entre les mains du maire, et à l’importance de la loyauté partisane primant sur la responsabilité des élus devant leurs électeurs. Les groupes de citadins jouent alors sur la fragmentation institutionnelle étatique pour trouver d’autres lieux de négociation. Mais la multiplication des institutions que les résidants peuvent approcher semble consolider la compétition entre groupes locaux, plus qu’elle n’offre des moyens multiples de faire pression sur le gouvernement.

Exploring Changes in Income Clustering and Centralization during the 1990s

This article employs a new “spatial ordering index” to describe and explain changes in the degree of income clustering and centralization within U.S. metropolitan areas during the 1990s. The results suggest that while the spatial pattern of household income became more decentralized and less clustered during the 1990s, the patterns established as of 1990 were highly persistent over the decade. Factors associated with metropolitan area size and growth affected changes in both the degree of centralization and the degree of clustering. Although traditional determinants of suburbanization were associated with increases in income decentralization during the 1990s, densely developed cities with an increase in the percentage of white residents saw increases in income centralization during the decade. Furthermore, changes in the patterns observed were shaped by various policy influences, including the number of Low Income Housing Tax Credit units, urban containment policies, and the degree of local government fragmentation.

Tiebout choice and residential segregation by race in US metropolitan areas, 1980–2000

This article examines the link between local government fragmentation, or “Tiebout choice,” and segregation between black and white residents. As suggested by Tiebout [Tiebout, C., 1956. A pure theory of local public expenditures. Journal of Political Economy 64, 416–424.], fragmented local governance structures may encourage households to vote with their feet and sort into communities based on their willingness to pay for local public services. This outcome has been well documented. The nuance explored here is that, if the demand for local public services varies by race or if households have preferences for neighbors with specific racial characteristics, local government fragmentation may foster an increase in residential segregation by race across neighborhoods and jurisdictions. Results from metropolitan-level regressions suggest that increased Tiebout choice is associated with increases in black–white residential segregation within US metropolitan areas. Comparable results are obtained from household-level estimates, where the black racial composition of a household's census tract of residence is regressed on household-level controls and racially stratified measures of Tiebout choice. Results from both approaches suggest that a 10% increase in Tiebout choice would increase neighborhood segregation by no more than 1%, while segregation across jurisdictions would increase by between 4% and 7%.