Local Government Websites Research Articles

The role of crisis leadership in improving organisational culture during the COVID-19 pandemic among Kwazulu-Natal Christian business leaders

The study wants to know how Christian business leaders navigated the difficult and uncertain times of COVID-19 so that their companies thrived, retained their employees, and continued to operate successfully during a global economic crisis. This study employs an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methodology is used to gather demographic data about study participants, a qualitative methodology is used since the goal of the study is to explore the range of opinions. The findings of this study ascertained that Christian leaders who demonstrated high levels of resilience were able to survive and, in some cases, thrive during the COVID-19 crisis. Leaders who demonstrated resilience and a positive outlook could increase the level of resilience in their followers, allowing them to survive the crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought attention to the necessity of situational analysis in dealing with and resolving a crisis. Conscious of the COVID-19 situation and guided by the contingency theory, Christian business leadership had to unlearn old habits and adjust to new ways of operating. This research is a new investigation into the ability of Christian business leaders to navigate through the turbulent times of COVID-19 so that their businesses and their followers can survive and prosper.

Compatibility of local government's websites with the government of Nepal’s websites standards

E-government generally refers to utilizing IT, ICTs, and other web-based communication technologies to improve and develop the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector. It is the utilization of IT, ICTs, and other web-based communication technologies to improve and develop the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector. E-government generally refers to the utilization of IT, ICTs, and other web-based communication technologies to improve and develop the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector. Most of the government organizations in Nepal have their own websites and their website has been used as a tool for making information easy to find, for ease of obtaining services, designed with mobile in mind, notify citizens about their recent activities and notices, gather feedback, inter- and intra-organizational information exchange and many more. Since Local Government have started to use their websites as an information center, effective website design and functionality is very important for providing services to the citizens. Developing countries like Nepal are lagging behind in e-government adoption compared to developed countries. During the last 10-15 years, governments from all over the world have tried to take advantage of IT and the Internet to improve governmental administration and communication with their people. Also, Nepal has tried its best to achieve this. As IT offers the opportunity for the government to better deliver information and services and to interact with citizens, businesses, and other government stakeholders in an effective manner. The discrepancy in e-government implementation between regions in Nepal is huge due to a number of reasons, including management, infrastructure, and human factors that vary across this heterogeneous country.

IDENTIFICATION DIGITAL TOURIST PREFERENCES USING SENTIMENT ANALYSIS: DEALING IN POST-PANDEMIC COVID-19

This aims to determine the post-pandemic impact on tourism in Rembang based on the results of community study using social media review. To achieve this goal, this study conducted a sentiment analysis of public comments/reviews regarding travel preferences after the COVID-19 pandemic using the support vector machine (SVM) classification method for digital tourism. Digital tourism is one of the innovations used to maintain the existence of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. At present the Covid-19 cases are starting to tilt, the number of tourist visitors has increased because the Indonesian government has begun to relax policies regarding the prevention of COVID-19. This also happened in Rembang Regency. Based on the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Regulation Number 9 of 2021 concerning Guidelines for Sustainable Tourism Destinations, digital tourism will boost the regional economy. To measure people's views, the sentiment analysis method is used to see people's preferences. The results accuracy value of 83% and an AUC value of 82.3% show the level of confidence on community reviews/comments using several digital platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and the Rembang local government website in the good category. The classification of community preferences is stated in 2 groups, the first is the people says post-pandemic digital tourism must be developed, and the second states that they have decided to come directly to tourist attractions after Covid-19 in Rembang regency. Research suggestions for local governments to continue to develop digital tourism and continue to improve real tourism facilities and infrastructure in Rembang regencyt, where the pathway will increase tourist visits and the economy of the community around tourist attractions.

Comparing environmental policy: Observational case of government website of Surakarta, Indonesia and Pingtung, Taiwan

Environmental policy practices in various countries and governments certainly differ, as one country may prioritize it, while others do not. Several factors including economic welfare, the human development index, and even the awareness of sustainable development may contribute to the variation. Comparing government performance in utilizing technological development and the internet is significant to assess the government’s performance in ensuring environmental sustainability and the establishment of smart governance at the same time. This paper discusses how the websites of local governments can be used to socialize and apply the environmental policy in Surakarta, Indonesia, and Pingtung, Taiwan. The two cities are chosen because of their contrasting condition where the prior has a limited but growing awareness of environmental policy, and the latter has already established systematic environmental policy planning and application. This research focuses on the observational analysis of the websites and will be supported by a literature study that is available on the Internet using search engines. The projected results showed the difference between both cities in actuating their environmental policies through websites and the factors that may cause it. Further findings can be found in the article.

Application regularity of medicinal and dietary substances for patients during COVID-19 rehabilitation

This study focused on the application regularity of medicinal and dietary substances (MDS) of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) diet therapy during rehabilitation, in order to help patients with Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) reduce sequelae and improve their life quality. The official websites of the national and provincial health committees, the website of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the China BioMedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), and Wanfang Database were used to search the keywords, such as “coronavirus” “novel coronavirus pneumonia” “COVID-19” “protocol” “guideline” “consensus” and “rehabilitation period”. The search time was from the establishment of databases to July 31, 2022. The prevention and control protocols of various provinces and cities were manually supplemented and screened out. The information on the frequency, property, flavor, meridian tropism, and efficacy of MDS was collected for association rule analysis through the Apriori algorithm. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using the Euclidean distance and longest distance. A total of 18 protocols were screened out, including 56 lists of TCM diet therapy, and 47 kinds of MDS with a frequency of 132 times during the rehabilitation of COVID-19. Among them, six lists of diet therapy were collected from national websites, 26 from local government websites, and 24 from social and academic institution websites. The intended population can be divided into seven categories including normal recovery, lung-spleen Qi deficiency, deficiency of both Qi and Yin, spleen-stomach weakness, deficiency of Yang Qi, kidney Qi deficiency, and blood deficiency. Shanyao (Dioscoreae Rhizoma) and Lianzi (Nelumbinis Semen), followed by Dazao (Jujubae Fructus) were used most commonly in MDS, with mainly flat property, sweet flavor, and spleen and lung meridians in meridian tropism. Besides, deficiency-tonifying drugs were commonly used in MDS. Through association rule analysis, 12 groups of association MDS pairs were obtained. The pair of Yiyiren (Coicis Semen) and Chenpi (Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium) had the highest Lift value, and Yiyiren (Coicis Semen) was used most frequently in the MDS category for eliminating pathogenic factors. The results of complex network analysis showed that the core MDS were Yiyiren (Coicis Semen), Shanyao (Dioscoreae Rhizoma), Huangqi (Astragali Radix), Fuling (Poria), and Dazao (Jujubae Fructus). Three core categories were classified by cluster analysis, including the category of strengthening spleen, nourishing kidney, and grasping Qi, the category of removing phlegm, abating panting, and regulating Qi, and the category of strengthening the middle-energizer and reinforcing Qi. Based on the TCM theory, most patients during the rehabilitation of COVID-19 are in a state of lingering pathogens due to deficient vital Qi. TCM diet therapy is based on the principle of “giving both reinforcing and reducing treatment”, and the MDS combinations focus on both reinforcing the health Qi and eliminating pathogenic factors. The diet therapy mainly uses the MDS with flat property and sweet flavor, which belongs to deficiency-tonifying drugs, adding suitable MDS of pathogen-eliminating drugs according to different situations. The ultimate goal is to promote lung inflammation absorption, improve pulmonary fibrosis, increase immunity, reduce the occurrence of sequelae, and improve life quality.

Que fatores influenciam a qualidade da transparência digital em governos locais? Evidências do caso brasileiro

This article investigates the factors associated with the quality of transparency of the websites of Brazilian local governments. We also question the extent to which external control institutions have pressured municipal governments to improve their online transparency. Through multiple regression models, we discuss whether and how socio-demographic, political, and economic variables are relevant to explain the differences in e-transparency in 5,563 cities. The results show that, despite an institutionalization process of public transparency led by federal regulatory evolution, experiences at the local level remain heterogeneous. Population size, GDP per capita, education levels, and voter turnout are statistically important to explain the quality of e-transparency experiences. The main conclusion is that external regulators play a crucial role in shaping digital transparency due to the possibility of imposing legal penalties. Effective use of digital media to foster democratic practices involves pressure from external monitoring agencies willing to challenge a bureaucratic culture resistant to openness.

The Influence Of Local Content Towards The Sales Of SMEs Product Through Media Of Market Place

The transformation from traditional marketing into digital marketing brings changes to all aspects of human life, including economic aspects for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Local SMEs fail to compete because the product is not really well-known and is not marketed digitally. The digitalization era forced SMEs to use social media for promotion. On the contrary, East Kotawaringin Regency SMEs are primarily unfamiliar with digital marketing. As a consequence, many SMEs are not able to survive. This research is carried out to help SMEs survive this Covid-19 disaster by implementing Digital Marketing to see how vital the SME sector is for regional income. It is a quantitative study to know the influence of selling products through the marketplace and how the local cultural content of the product influences the sales increase. The total population is 83 SMEs aged 18 to 25 years. The population is depreciated according to age, culinary sector and education. It obtained 31 samples. Questionnaires are distributed for data collection and are analyzed with SPSS 16. The finding of this research is that there is a correlation between local content in social media toward sales increase, as the independent shown by the t-count for each item is higher < 0.05. SMEs promote their products on social media based on local culture content linked to a local government website or other businesses such as hotels and tourist attractions.

Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Kualitas Pengungkapan Laporan Keuangan dalam Website Pemerintah Daerah: Studi Empiris pada Kabupaten dan Kota di Indonesia

This study aims to determine the effect of regional expenditure, administrative age, regional wealth, per capita income, audit opinion, and local revenue on the quality of disclosure of financial statements on local government websites. This research is a causative research. The population and sample of the study are the financial statements of district and city governments in Indonesia in 2019. The sampling technique used is purposive sampling. The type of data is secondary data. The collection technique is carried out by the documentation method, namely collecting local government financial report data and reviewing each local government website. The data analysis method used is multiple regression analysis with regional expenditure, administrative age, regional wealth, per capita income, audit opinion, and local revenue as the dependent variable and the quality of disclosure of financial statements on local government websites as independent variables. The results showed that audit opinion and local revenue had an effect on the quality of disclosure of financial statements on local government websites, while regional spending, administrative age, regional wealth, per capita income did not affect the quality of disclosure of financial statements on local government websites.

Local Government Websites Accessibility: Evaluation and Finding from Italy

The Internet is dramatically changing the way that governments serve their citizens. Ensuring the municipal website is accessible to all citizens needs to be a top priority on the public digital marketing to-do list. Specifically, when we are in the presence of citizens who suffer from a specific impairment or technical hindrance, local governments have to provide them with equal access to their services. Starting from an analysis of the generic theoretical and legislative framework to which each municipality website must adhere, the paper investigates accessibility issues of local government websites taking into account specifically Italy's case. The Italian federal law, which is also known as the Stanca Act, aims to support access to information technologies for the disabled and addresses accessibility considerations in Italy. For ensuring that Italian government websites meet specific accessibility requirements, in this paper, we propose an evaluation strategy defined by an analysis of two validators: AChecker and VaMolà. 7,713 homepages were evaluated against WCAG 2.0 and Stanca Law recommendations. The analysis of results reveals relatively low web accessibility of municipal websites but highlights how to solve several of them is not a complex task also for non-technical users. For this reason, we developed a web application that allows municipality personnel to change the code of the homepage of a given municipality. All this can be made possible through the implementation of textual suggestions and the correct positional identification of the error within the HTML code of the page in question. Finally, the paper gives some directions on how to adapt the presented methodology for checking accessibility issues of local government websites of other countries.

A data-driven approach to objective evaluation of urban low carbon development performance

An effective evaluation of a city's low carbon development plays an essential role in promoting low carbon development strategies for achieving the city's sustainable development. This paper proposes a data-driven approach to objectively evaluating the low carbon development level of cities. The approach formulates the low carbon development evaluation problem as a multi-criteria decision analysis problem and incorporates the merits of bibliometric analysis, text mining and optimal weighting to evaluating the urban low carbon development performance. The bibliometric analysis is applied to systematically identify evaluation criteria and associated indicators and establish an evaluation system for measuring low carbon development levels of urban cities. Equipped with an objective weighting method based on text mining, the approach determines the local weights of the evaluation criteria and indicators for each city by extracting subjective preferential information from the policy documents available on the local government's websites. Two optimal weighting models are developed to determine the optimal global weights of the indicators and criteria by maximizing the low carbon development performance of all cities. The obtained criteria weighting thus can reflect both the preferences of local city governments and the best common interest of all cities involved in the evaluation. The approach is then illustrated with a case study on three cities involved in urban agglomeration planning in China. The results compare the low carbon development performance of the cities, identify the disparities between the cities and reveal each city's obstacle factors that hinder its development. Policy recommendations are then suggested for developing effective low carbon development policies.

Do Characteristics And Political Background Of Regional Heads Influence Financial Performance Of Local Governments In Indonesia?

The present research aims at examining the influence of characteristics and political background of regional heads on financial performance of local governments in Indonesia. The population in the present research includes local governments in Indonesia. The samples are second level of local governments in Java. The total number of final samples is 112. Data comprise the APBD realization reports, data fromofficial websites of local governments, and data from official website of the Local Government Election Commission. Panel data regression was employed for data analysis. The results of the present studyindicate that educational background and level of education exert an influence on financial performance of local governments. Meanwhile, tenure, age, and political background do not have a significant influence on financial performance of local governments. The present research was only conducted at second level of local governments in Java in 2016—2018. The present research gives contribution to the literature of local government performance, especially from the perspectives of financial performance of second level local governments in Java Island. Research on the use of political background has rarely been conducted to assess financial performance of local governments.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT (WEBSITE) IN SUPPORTING GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION IN DEPOK CITY, WEST JAVA PROVINCE

The focus of this research is the development of information technology in supporting government communication in the city of Depok, West Java Province, more specifically regarding the website of the Government of Depok City, West Java Province.
 There have been several researches on the websites of regional governments, including; 1. Evaluation of E-Government Implementation on Local Government Websites in Indonesia: Content and Management Perspective by Edwin Arief Sosiawan Fisip UPN Yogyakarta in 2008, 2. Quality Evaluation of Local Government Websites Using the Webqual Method (Case Study in Ogan Ilir District) by Candra Irawan UGM Faculty of Engineering Thesis in 2011, 3. Website Representation of Lampung Provincial Government as a Communication and Public Service Media in the Framework of E-Government By Arlyandi Satya Djauhari Fisip Unila in 2016, and 4. Website usability level on the Banten Province Public Relations Bureau website by M. Ervin Kurniawan Fisip Untirta Banten in 2016, which distinguishes this research when compared to the above research are: 1. This research focuses on the development of information technology in this case the website for public services at the City level, Depok City, 2. This research uses the Alvaro Rocha study (2014) published in the Emerlad Journal which is Scopus indexed, the Rocha (2014) study entitled "Framework for a global quality evaluation of a website".
 The method in this research is qualitative, in qualitative research with an inductive approach it is easier for researchers to take pictures and describe the facts in the field, then the findings in the field are dissected with various theories that have been prepared. The results of this research are; The Depok City Government has used the website to communicate and provide services to the public, but the website needs some improvements, among others; 1. The renewal of information on the website needs to be improved, 2. Community complaints need to be answered immediately, 3. Depok City Communication and Information Agency needs to be given more authority to gather information spread across several agency 4. Website maintenance needs to be considered because there are several pages that cannot be opened.
 
 Keywords: Public Service, Communication, Website, Information Technology.

Australian local government policies on creating a healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system: analysis in New South Wales and Victoria

ObjectiveTo analyse local government (LG) policies concerned with creating a healthy, sustainable and equitable food system. MethodsAll relevant policies on LG websites were identified and analysed against a framework of 34 recommendations for LG action on food system issues. ResultsA total of 13 of 207 (New South Wales 128, Victoria 79) LGs had dedicated food system policies. Most actions on food system issues were in general (non‐food specific) policies. Most LGs acted on food safety, sustainable local food production, food waste, drinking water access and food system‐related education. Few used economic measures to support the consumption of healthier foods, restricted unhealthy food advertising, developed and implemented dietary guidelines in LG‐managed settings or influenced the opening of unhealthy/healthy retail food outlets. ConclusionsLGs undertook a range of actions relevant to creating a healthy, sustainable and equitable food system. Strategic opportunities for LGs include regulating the sale and marketing of unhealthy food and ensuring policy coherence. Implications for public healthLGs can be supported to act further on food system issues, including through ‘joined‐up’ state and federal policies. Further research should address how relevant LG policies can be developed, implemented and monitored effectively to address the complex challenges created by contemporary food systems.

I Do Solemnly Swear: Institutional Enforcement of the Oath of Office to Fight Public Corruption

Public officials are oath takers and expected to uphold the law, but criminal convictions provide evidence that corruption exists. When public officials violate their oath, these violations evade ethical norms of behavior important to protecting the integrity inherent in the public office. This article synthesizes the literature on public corruption and related fields and presents a conceptual model to help us understand public leader violations of the oath and factors that enable corrupt behavior more broadly. Through an exploratory analysis of news articles and local government websites of examples of federal corruption convictions from the top ten most corrupt juridictions in the United States, this preliminary model finds six factors influence corruption within a jurisdiction at two collective levels: (1) organizational, and (2) institutional. A case study of an independent nonprofit’s experience in anti-corruption further informs a claim that corrupt leaders (i.e., oath-takers) often involve and exert corrupt influence on subordinates. Findings on convicted corruptions expands the conceptual model to inform on institutional factors that may mitigate corruption. Failure to act on corruption creates a distributional consequence for society. Public corruption minimizes equal access to public goods and services, diverts public finances for personal gain, and undermines public confidence.

Analisis Kepuasan Pengguna Pada Website Pemda Kabupaten Dompu

Dompu local government provides a website that provides information. Each interaction with the user gives rise to a variety of perceptions. One of them is the negative perception of the dompu community as a user of the website as well as the dompu local government as its supply organization. To reduce the problem of negative perceptions related to user experience in the process of using it, an evaluation of user experience is also done as well as an improved interface design. This research was conducted to determine the problems experienced by users by gathering various perceptions of the local government website. The test was carried out using a tool in the form of a User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). The reason for using the UEQ method is because it is a quick and easy questionnaire to measure the user experience of a website. The results of evaluating user experience using UEQ, The results of evaluating user experience using UEQ show that aspects of perspicuity, efficiency, stimulation, novelty attractiveness and dependability: bad

Institutional transparency and gender: Analysing the municipalities of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area

Despite the growing interest in transparency policies and, concomitantly, the need to include a gender perspective in analysing the actions of public authorities, the intersection of both fields has attracted limited attention from the research community. The scarce contributions to this topic do not provide a framework that supports an empirical examination of institutional transparency and gender, and therefore, the implementation of these policies remains unexplored. This paper contributes to the debate on institutional transparency and gender perspective by developing an index of gender inclusion in transparency policies based on the information available on official local government websites, and by identifying and analysing factors that drive variations in the municipal councils. The research focuses on the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB) and includes other cities for comparative purposes. The findings indicate that the number of inhabitants of the municipality, the presence of women in its political bodies and institutional factors, and particularly the volume of the budget, are positively associated with the incorporation of a gender perspective on institutional websites.

Assessing law enforcement websites: a comparative analysis exploring types, quantity and quality of information available

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the availability of information on law enforcement websites in the state of Wisconsin.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted a content analysis of all 179 county and municipal local law enforcement agency websites within Wisconsin. The authors then implemented a comparative analysis that explored whether the quantity and quality of information available on law enforcement websites are similar to those of local governments and school districts. The authors then estimated models to test whether there is a relationship between the population size served and gender distribution of law enforcement departments to the availability of information on law enforcement websites.FindingsLaw enforcement websites contain a noticeable lack of information. The finding is even more apparent when comparing law enforcement websites to the websites of local governments and school districts. Finally, the authors show a positive link between information sharing on law enforcement websites and the proportion of the civilian staff at an agency that are women.Originality/valuePast studies that reviewed the make-up of law enforcement websites analyzed large law enforcement departments rather than local law enforcement departments, which notably represent the majority of most law enforcement departments. The authors also explicitly demonstrate that the commitment to information sharing is lagging within law enforcement websites compared to local-level governments. Future scholarship and law enforcement departments may benefit from exploring the employment of female civilians.

Communicating Heat-Health Information to the Public: Assessing Municipal Government Extreme Heat Event Website Content

Abstract Extreme heat events pose a threat to human health. Forecasting and warning strategies have been developed to mitigate heat-health hazards. Yet, studies have found that the public lacks knowledge about their heat-health risks and preventive actions to take to reduce risks. Local governmental websites are an important means to communicate preparedness to the public. The purpose of this study is to examine information provided to the public on municipal government web pages of the 10 most populous U.S. cities. A two-level document and content analyses were conducted. A direct content analysis was conducted using federal government websites and documents to create the Extreme Heat Event Public Response Rubric. The rubric contains two broad categories of populations and actions that are further specified. The rubric was then used to examine local government extreme heat event websites for the 10 most populous cities in the United States. The examination of the local government sites found that information included on the websites failed to identify the breadth of populations at greater risk for adverse heat-health outcomes and omitted some recommended actions designed to prevent adverse heat-health events. Local governments often communicated concrete and simple content to the public but more complex information was not included on their websites. Significance Statement Extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of mortality in the United States annually. Public response to extreme heat events requires that the public understand their risk and know the actions to take to mitigate that risk. The public seeks information from local government websites. Our results found that many local government websites did not provide the information to the public on the array of conditions and factors that put people at a greater risk for an adverse heat-health event, nor did the websites include information on the variety of actions that the public should take in response to an extreme heat event in order to reduce their risks. Addressing the omission of the information on these websites may improve public response to extreme heat events.

Integration of publicly available case-based data for real-time coronavirus disease 2019 risk assessment, Japan.

In response to the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Japan, a national COVID-19 cluster taskforce (comprising governmental and nongovernmental experts) was established to support the country’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in conducting daily risk assessment. The assessment was carried out using established infectious disease surveillance systems; however, in the initial stages of the pandemic these were not sufficient for real-time risk assessment owing to limited accessibility, delay in data entry and inadequate case information. Also, local governments were publishing anonymized data on confirmed COVID-19 cases on their official web sites as daily press releases. We developed a unique database for nationwide real-time risk assessment that included these case lists from local government web sites and integrated all case data into a standardized format. The database was updated daily and checked systematically to ensure comprehensiveness and quality. Between 15 January 2020 and 15 June 2021, 776 459 cases were logged in the database, allowing for analysis of real-time risk from the pandemic. This semi-automated database was used in daily risk assessments, and to evaluate and update control measures to prevent community transmission of COVID-19 in Japan. The data were reported almost every week to the Japanese Government Advisory Panel on COVID-19 for public health responses.

Политические стратегии крупного бизнеса в малых российских городах

Introduction: the author attempts to demonstrate and explain the variability of large enterprises roles in urban policy and management focusing on conditions, motives and interests underlying the private business political participation (or non-participation) in urban politics. Objectives: to identify political strategies of large business connected with urban communities through enterprises located in the urban areas, to trace their dynamics over the past decade. Methods: the empirical basis of the study is made up by the materials of semi-formalized interviews with participants in urban politics (n = 8); data on electoral statistics and information about candidates in municipal elections provided by election commissions; biographical information about the mayors, deputies of local legislatures and managers of large enterprises, collected through open data on the official websites of state authorities and local governments and enterprises. Results: the article presents the results of the local political landscapes study in two small towns –Verkhnyaya Tura (Sverdlovsk region) and Gubakha (Perm region), having locations of large industrial enterprises; two political strategies have been identified, namely, the strategy of distancing from urban politics, and the strategy of limited political representation in the town scene, complemented by political and lobbying activity on regional level. Conclusions: the dominance of a large enterprise in the town’s economic life does not mean its dominance in the urban politics; large business do not necessarily take interest in the role of a political leader or coordinator of urban policy and acquiring such a role requires high electoral activity, organizational efforts and financial investments.