Local Government Reform Research Articles

THE PROBLEM OF THE POLITICAL AND FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN 2012-2019

The article contains a concept about Political and fiscal decentralization problem in Georgia during “2012-2019” For each democratic state strong local government and its political and fiscal decentralization is a fundamental principle of democracy. A local government is a form of public administration which, in a majority of contexts, exists as the lowest tier of administration within a given state. It contains political, fiscal and administration decentralization which means to transfer power from central government to municipality. In the way of Democracy and European integration as a still democracy development county, Local Government development and its Political and fiscal decentralization is an important and key issues for Georgia. Aim of the Article: To analyze the process and the problem of Political and Fiscal decentralization of Local Government in Georgia during 2012-2019. What type of problem we have and what is the main problem for Political and Fiscal decentralization of Local Government in Georgia. Despite all of reforms from independence to nowadays, political and fiscal decentralization of local Government is a problem for all governments in Georgia. The main reason for all of them was political control under the Local governments. After 2012, the hope that the new Government can implement real political da fiscal decentralization of local government was big. But reality is different. Despite two reforms of Local Government during 2012-2019, until now the problem of political and fiscal decentralization in Georgia is the same: no formal control of Local Governments, Most of Financial resources still have central Government, Local Governmnts have no possibility to implement their power independently, they have no own property and sufficient financial resources. In this article we give a recommendations how to improve political and fiscal decentralization aspects in Geogria and what the main problem is.

Legislative Oversight and Policy-Reforms in “Unsettled” Political Contexts of Public Administration

ABSTRACTThe interface between legislative oversight and policy-implementation processes in “unsettled” contexts of political-administrative reforms is rarely studied. By integrating organizational and legislative oversight approaches, this article explore the effectiveness of legislative oversight during implementation of structural-devolution reforms and policies for output democracy in local governments. Data involved interviews with administrative executives in local governments and documentary analysis of statutory reports and surveys in Kenya. It was found that collective-action problems to legislative oversight lend to equivocal institutional relationships, poor role conception of legislative activities, political tensions between the central and local governments, and parochial rather than institutional interpretations of policy processes and political representation. These factors posed critical constrains to effective policy implementation and structural working relations between legislatures and administrators in local government. Moreover, priorities for political profitability of legislative oversight and patronizing structures of political parties positively correlated to unsettled nature of reform-implementation outputs in local government. In sum, overreliance on political stewardship to enhance implementation of local-governance reforms can sophisticate legislative oversight and policy-reform outputs in public administration.

Decentralization of Authorities and Local Government Reform in Ukraine: Their Impact on the Efficiency of Public Law, Power and Strengthening of Democracy

Decentralization of Authorities and Local Government Reform in Ukraine: Their Impact on the Efficiency of Public Law, Power and Strengthening of Democracy

Leading the combined authorities in England: a new future for elected mayors?

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the initial experience of directly-elected mayors in the new combined authorities established in England. Do they have an innovative strategic leadership role for sub-national areas and provide a vehicle for effective public engagement, representing a new start for the hitherto faltering progress of the elected mayoral initiative? Alternatively, are the combined authority mayors just another policy failure in the uneven process of local government reform?

From Receding to Reseeding: Industrial Policy, Governance Strategies and Neoliberal Resilience in Post-crisis Britain

ABSTRACTIndustrial policy has been on the agenda of British policy elites since the 2008 financial crisis, particularly since Theresa May became Prime Minister in 2016. This has been seen as a challenge to pre-crisis norms of economic governance associated with neoliberalism. This article explores key aspects of industrial policy development in post-crisis Britain – new forms of vertical support for industry, local government reform, and the public financing of private sector R&D – in order to sketch a new understanding of political and ideological change. It focuses on the institutional mechanisms through which industrial strategy will ostensibly be implemented, including subnational and private spheres of governance. The article argues that recent industrial policy developments do not represent the receding of neoliberalism, but rather have provided opportunities for the reseeding of neoliberal norms in British economic statecraft. The strategy has reinforced forms of state machinery through which pre-crisis elite practice can be maintained and legitimated. By demonstrating that the apparent revival of state intervention in the wake of capitalist crises must not be assumed automatically to challenge pre-crisis economic orders, and highlighting the crucial role of exigent political circumstances, the article makes an important contribution to the literature on neoliberal resilience.

Does variation in residents’ spatial mobility affect their preferences concerning local governance?

The geographic scope of people's mobility behaviour has generally increased over recent decades. Yet, many policies continue to be enacted and implemented at the local level (e.g. in municipalities), leading to a mismatch in geographical scope. Our research thus speaks to the debate on how residents' increased spatial mobility has prompted a disjunction between residents' preferences in terms of governance and how governance is organized in reality. This conjectures that residents with a larger mobility space are more likely to prefer local governance reforms creating larger units for the sake of greater efficiency. In this study, we examine how variation in spatial mobility, mediated by place attachment, affects residents' preferences concerning municipal reforms, in particular upscaling of jurisdictional territories. Moreover, we assess these claims with an empirical focus on Switzerland, a particularly interesting case due to its strong tradition of political decentralization and local governance. The analysis is based on data from a two-stage survey with a representative sample of 1506 adult residents from the Canton of Zurich, the most populous Swiss subnational unit. We measured individuals' spatial mobility by calculating the individual social (network) geography for each of the study participants and examined how it relates to preferences concerning municipal reforms. Altogether, our results provide support for a negative correlation between service satisfaction and spatial mobility, but a positive correlation between spatial mobility and municipal attachment. Contrary to our theoretical expectations, larger social network geographies do not lead to more support for municipal reforms.

Identity in the conditions of the united communities

Based on the theoretical basis and empirical data, the article discusses from the sociological point of view the problem of identity development within the framework of the reform of local government, namely within the process of creating the united territorial communities.Understanding identity as a person’s property to feel belonging to a group, the author focuses on the issues of its change in rural communities that have joined the process of reforming local self-government.Based on the analysis of information on the first elections in the united communities of Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions, a general social portrait of the current head of the united territorial community was developed.The author analyzes the recent results of community association and expressed the opinion that the structural process of construction of territorial units is characterized in general by the same regional trends, caused by more or less equivalent community consciousness of the entire rural population of the country.At the same time, there are differences in the results of the restructuring of power in different parts of the country, namely the spread of tendencies of ignorance and the opposition to decentralization in the West and the success of the restructuring of local authorities in the East of Ukraine.This is due, according to the author, to a greater degree of traditionalist identity in the western regions and an increase in the modern identity component in the eastern regions.Attention is drawn to the fact that decentralization, which is accompanied by the transformation of the boundaries of the rural community, raises problems of identity change.There is a problem of forming the perception of the new community of the united community as an ident for the rural man.It is revealed that decentralization in Ukraine, in particular the creation of united territorial communities, will have as a result of the destruction of the traditionalist identity of a person living in rural areas, the erosion of the communal content of interpersonal relations through the weakening of communal ties, which, in turn, the question of the future effectiveness of the system of local self-government, the mechanism of which is being built, since the essence of such a model of management is the collective solution of problems of local importance on the basis of a single identity .In this context, the author proposes to distinguish between the traditional community and the modernized community.The study focuses on the specific features of a modernized community, which, on the one hand, relate it in some respects to the urban community, and on the other hand, characterize it as a hybrid of the community and the urban community.At the same time, members of the united community will in the future form a new identity that is not inherited, but constructed on the basis of formal principles, rather than cultural attributes.The researcher concludes that it is problematic to achieve the goal of decentralization reform, which was declared by the authorities, to create a capable local government that will address all local issues and bear responsibility for it, because the community of unions as a means of transformation does not take into account the complexities of identity.

The Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions' Accounting and Reporting in Building Public Confidence and Legitimacyan Empirical Study

“Indian independence must begin at the rural place. Every village should be a republic or a Panchayat having full powers” -Mahatma Gandhi The strength and success of panchayat raj institutions mainly depend on the reliability and accuracy of its financial administration. Financial administration is the backbone of the panchayat institutions. It is a fact that success or otherwise depends mainly this variables, finance and financial administration with transparency. Hence, ever since the inception local government reform, whether it is fiscal administration, resource mobilization, revenue and expenditure planning, budgeting and auditing and accounting transparency residing a significant place. Financial management is concerned with the proper management of the funds of the related institutions or organization. This present research is to explore the perception of panchyat officials against budget preparation and maintenance of accounts ie., books of account, registrars and records. The study also details about the efficiency in managing budgeting and auditing activities in Gram panchyats, Taluk panchayats and Zilla panchayat with respect to shivamogga district. The study concludes through offering appropriate strategy need to draw through policies for both governments as well as to panchayat’s officials to improve the performance of institutions to fulfill the need of rural mass.

METHODICAL APPROACHES TO THE REFORMING OF ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICTS IN UKRAINE

Topicality. The need to reform subregional (district) level of administrative and territorial division of Ukraine is urgent as the result of forming of consolidated territorial communities and the change of liabilities division between the basic and district levels. Transition of the majority of liabilities from local governments to consolidated territorial communities has changed the nature and direction of communication links between the residents and authorities at the district level and contributes to reinforcement of district level of administrative and territorial units. Due to reforming of the system of administrative and territorial structure of Ukraine, a district becomes the territory of localization and functioning of state authorities. The major list of administrative, educational, medical, cultural and other public services will be provided at the basic rather than district levels.Aim and tasks. The paper aims to substantiate and outline the suggestions regarding the methodical approaches to reforming of the system of administrative and territorial units at subregional level in the context of local governance reform and authorities’ territorial organization reform conducted in Ukraine.Research results. The author analyzes the use of the concept of “district” in the context of administrative and territorial division and suggests its definition as administrative and territorial unit that is included into the higher-level units (Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblasts, cities with special status) and is the territorial foundation for organization of activity of state authorities and local governments at subregional levels. District should include all administrative and territorial units of basic level located within its boundaries. Major principles, criteria and requirements to apply while forming the districts are suggested. Among those criteria and requirements, we outline the following: demographic capacity of a territory – usually between 150 and 800 thous. residents; transport accessibility of administrative center of the district from the most remote settlement – up to 1.5 hours (not exceeding 50-60km); the network of districts is reorganized without the change of oblasts’ boundaries; administrative center of a district is usually located closest to geographic (transport-geographical) center of district’s territory; administrative center of a district is usually the settlement with the highest economic and demographic capacity and developed infrastructure, which performed, performs or can perform the functions of subregional administrative center.An algorithm of modeling of new administrative districts is presented as the consequence of steps: 1) finding subregional centers – perspective centers of administrative districts (usually out of oblast significance cities); 2) zone of gravitation to oblast center with the radius up to 60km is considered as the territory of administrative district; 3) outside its boundaries the other districts are allocated according to gravitation zones of other perspective centers of districts; 4) there are also factors that substantially impact their functionality and efficiency of relevant authorities: natural-geographical, transport, economical, managemental, historical, demographic, infrastructural, etc.Conclusion. In author’s opinion, approaches to forming of administrative districts contribute to optimization of their network taking into account the changes in the functions of a district in the system of public authority division. Testing of these methodological approaches in the process of modeling of the new network of administrative regions shows an opportunity and reasonability of their reduction in Lvivska oblast from 20 to 7, in Ivano-Frankivska oblast from 14 to 4, in Ternopilska oblast from 15 to 4.

Revitalizing Local Government Performance Management: Further Dissecting the Role of Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobilization Policy

ABSTRACTThis article examines how socio-economic status and social mobilisation are linked to local government performance management in Nepal. As part of local government reform, Nepal adopted a social mobilisation policy in selected local governments to empower communities for their effective participation. Our results show that socio-economic status and social mobilisation have a significant relationship with performance management. Female literacy, for example, is strongly and significantly associated with performance management, while area has a significant positive relationship but population has only a weak positive relationship. In contrast, poverty has a significant negative correlation. More importantly, mobilisation has a significant, though modest, positive association with performance management particularly in participatory planning and budgeting, fiscal discipline, and administrative management. This indicates that improving the socio-economic status of citizens and their mobilisation for empowered collective action can be one important strategy to improve the performance capacity of local government.

Who Knows Better What the City Should Be?

The Local Government Reform in Northern Ireland in 2015 returned decision-making powers on territorial development to the local level. Sabine Kalke, who worked in the department before and after the reform, spoke in her interview about the changes they faced and what additional powers were transferred to local government. The changes mostly affected interactions with stakeholders and the actual development strategy of Belfast. Today, the city determines the priorities and development goals at the local level, and negotiations with major developers are based on these goals. As a result, the interaction has become more meaningful and mutually beneficial.
 The reform provides the City Council with a certain flexibility in decision-making: its position remains strong, but with the ability to adjust the plans. After all, the urban development process benefits both the private and the public sector. In this sense, the readiness of each of the parties to an open dialogue becomes key.
 The experience of Belfast is becoming particularly important regarding changes in the Russian local government system, which has lost much authority in recent years.

Challenges of the Implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Finnish Legislation

In this article, we focus on the challenges for local self-government in Finland. Finnish legislation follows the Articles of the European Charter of Local self-government rather closely. We illustrate how the role of local government as service provider has led to a situation where municipalities are strictly steered by and financially dependent on the national government. Besides this, the burden of public services exposes local government to reforms. Current local government reform by national government challenges local self-government by establishing a regional level of governance. However, it can also bring opportunities for municipalities to focus more on local tasks and decrease the need for strict steering by the state.

Reputation reform strategies in local government: investigating Denmark and Norway

ABSTRACTThis article investigates reputation reform in Norwegian and Danish local government and whether they have the same strategy content depending on the degree of administrative involvement and municipality size. Political and administrative actors are likely to cultivate different types of reputation strategies (place or organisational reputation), which explicitly embrace the potentially diverging interests cultivated by the two types of actors. We use a comparative design and quantitative method with an empirical ambition to explore local government reputation strategies in two national contexts. We find that local government responses to reputation reform depend on the size of the municipality and the type of actors involved; the larger the municipality, the more the administration is involved. And the more that administrative actors are involved, the more the strategies target organisational reputation. The country-specific factors do not appear to be the most important determinants for reputation reform strategies.

Determinants of successful public organisational outcomes: a case of a Vietnamese local government

This paper analyses antecedent behaviour impacting successful organisational outcomes of public sector reform in local government by applying structural equation modelling to 410 observations from civil servants in public agencies in Dong Nai province, Vietnam. The findings demonstrate that flexibility to change, transformational leadership, and innovation-driven culture positively impact public sector outcomes. In addition, managers' leadership capacity in transformative periods motivates their followers to behave creatively and innovatively. The results also imply that innovation culture is positively enhanced by flexible work practices, creative civil servants, and transformational leadership. Lastly, the paper presents dimensions of employee creativity and provides recommendations to supervisors for enriching a creative and innovative environment during the reform of local government.

Public Health of United Territorial Communities in Ukraine

The article highlights basic principles of state and public administration of individual health care and public health care of united territorial communities, which are the basis for public community in Ukraine. With the adaptation of the Law of Ukraine “On deliberate union of territorial communities”, a new stage of decentralization of state power, reforms of local government as well as administrative and territorial reforms started in Ukraine. Distribution of budget for health care between district budget and budget of united territorial communities required organizational and structural division of health care system, which provided medical care for individuals of corresponding residential areas. Depending on the health group and the diagnosis, a complex of rehabilitating and restorative curative measures is developed for the formation, preservation and strengthening health of the healthy and for restoration of health of the sick people in the following year. The integrative function of family doctors of the united territorial communities allows to provide: the unified process of formation, preservation and strengthening health of the healthy people of various age and gender groups; early disease detection, primary prevention of diseases, remedial treatment and medical and social rehabilitation of patients and injured people with high quality and efficacy.

PUBLIC HEALTH OF UNITED TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES IN UKRAINE

The article highlights basic principles of state and public administration of individual health care and public health care of united territorial communities, which are the basis for public community in Ukraine. With the adaptation of the Law of Ukraine “On deliberate union of territorial communities”, a new stage of decentralization of state power, reforms of local government as well as administrative and territorial reforms started in Ukraine. Distribution of budget for health care between district budget and budget of united territorial communities required organizational and structural division of health care system, which provided medical care for individuals of corresponding residential areas. Depending on the health group and the diagnosis, a complex of rehabilitating and restorative curative measures is developed for the formation, preservation and strengthening health of the healthy and for restoration of health of the sick people in the following year. The integrative function of family doctors of the united territorial communities allows to provide: the unified process of formation, preservation and strengthening health of the healthy people of various age and gender groups; early disease detection, primary prevention of diseases, remedial treatment and medical and social rehabilitation of patients and injured people with high quality and efficacy.

До питання організаційно-правових форм діяльності органів місцевого самоврядування у землях радянської окупаційної зони ФРН.

The article explores the organizational forms of activity of local governments in the lands that were part of the GDR during their stay in the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. During their stay in the GDR, local government bodies were part of the Socialist Unified Party of Germany and did not have self-government powers. Therefore, at least at this stage, there can be no talk of any 5th organizational form of local self-government. Local authorities were subordinate to the goals of planning and managing the regime of the Socialist Unified Party of Germany. The socialist united party of Germany secured its hegemony for power at the local level.Citizens were guaranteed the right to local self-government by the Law "On SelfGovernment of Communities and Areas in the German Democratic Republic" of May 17, 1990. In addition to issues of self-government, communities were required to carry out state-delegated authorities.The modern reform of local government in Germany is analyzed. So, in general, district reforms have led to a significant reduction in counties in the new federal states. The reform of local government has not yet been completed in all federal states, so the consequences of the reform in Thuringia are still expected.It is argued that, in reality, this fifth organizational form of local self-government does not exist in the Federal Republic of Germany, because the Federal Lands that used to be part of the Soviet occupation zone, as a result of territorial and functional reforms, adopted the experience of the types of organizational forms of activity of local self-government bodies existing in the Federal Republic of Germany and, as a result, gravitate towards the South German type of local constitution.It is summarized that the analysis does not exhaust the entire list of problematic aspects related to the organizational forms of activity of local authorities in Germany, on the basis of which such aspects should become the subject of further scientific development.

The Ambition of a Half-Padishah or the Enthusiasm of a Tsarist Administrator? Konstantin von Kaufmann and the Development of Local Government in Tashkent

In 1877, Konstantin von Kaufmann, Governor-General of Turkestan, established municipal government in Tashkent, which implemented Alexander II’s reform of local government in the territories recently joined to the Russian Empire. The principles of the formation and activity of the Tashkent City Duma provoked contradictory opinions among contemporaries and later researcher. The author aims to analyse the terms of the development of local government in Tashkent, its correspondence with imperial principles and specific local features (based on centuries-old traditions of local government in Central Asia), and the evaluations of the adherents and opponents of Kaufmann’s project. In order to achieve this goal, the author studies the position of the Turkestan governorgeneral, the legal institutions of local government in the Russian Empire in general and in Turkestan in particular, and opinions of contemporaries, i. e. Russian imperial officials, representatives of the Turkestan administration, and members of the Tashkent City Duma. Additionally, the author refers to works by Soviet, Russian, and foreign scholars in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The most criticised aspects of the reform are the disproportional representation in the City Duma of “Russian” and “indigenous” parts of the Tashkent population, the active intervention of the governor-general in the activity of the Duma, and his freedom in spending municipal funds on projects outside the competence of the local government. The author establishes that von Kaufmann’s reform was a declarative imitation in Tashkent of reforms implemented in European Russia. At the same time, he considered the City Duma an additional instrument for the realisation of his own projects in Tashkent and the Turkestan region in general, which was reflected in his Regulations, an “adaptation” of the City Code of 1870 to Central Asian realities. As a result, it is not surprising that the organisation and activity of the Tashkent City Duma during Kaufmann’s rule in Turkestan was criticised not only by central officials (who reacted negatively to Kaufmann’s activity from the very beginning), but also by the representatives of the Turkestan administration who had deep respect for Kaufmann.

Determinants of successful public organisational outcomes: a case of a Vietnamese local government

This paper analyses antecedent behaviour impacting successful organisational outcomes of public sector reform in local government by applying structural equation modelling to 410 observations from civil servants in public agencies in Dong Nai province, Vietnam. The findings demonstrate that flexibility to change, transformational leadership, and innovation-driven culture positively impact public sector outcomes. In addition, managers' leadership capacity in transformative periods motivates their followers to behave creatively and innovatively. The results also imply that innovation culture is positively enhanced by flexible work practices, creative civil servants, and transformational leadership. Lastly, the paper presents dimensions of employee creativity and provides recommendations to supervisors for enriching a creative and innovative environment during the reform of local government.

Оцінка результативності реформи місцевого самоврядування та зміни адміністративно-територіального устрою в Україні

Оцінка результативності реформи місцевого самоврядування та зміни адміністративно-територіального устрою в Україні