ABSTRACT While the relationship between jurisdiction size and economic and electoral outcomes has been extensively studied, its causal impact on institutional capacity and quality remains unexplored. Leveraging the mergers of 197 Italian municipalities, we investigate changes in administrative quality using the Municipal Administration Quality Index (MAQI), a novel composite measure of local administrative capacity and quality based on three pillars: bureaucratic, political, and economic. Using a non‐parametric difference‐in‐differences approach, we find that mergers substantially improve administrative performance. This improvement is driven primarily by the enhanced quality of local politicians and strengthened economic‐fiscal performance, whereas bureaucratic efficiency improves only marginally. We demonstrate that these positive outcomes are attributable to economies of scale and the self‐selection of higher‐quality local politicians, who are drawn by the opportunity to earn higher wages. Our findings contribute to the broader debate on the optimal municipal size and demonstrate that municipal mergers among small municipalities can enhance the quality of local government.

Abstract Amid the ever-greater encroachment of neoliberal principles in education – including marketisation, ranking and teaching to assessment – this article serves as a reminder that educators possess agency to resist and mount a successful defence of democratic, child-centred education. The case study presented here reports and reflects on an instance of informal adult learning at community level. It occurred between 2011 and 2014 in Sandefjord, a small town in the south of Norway. The municipality is affluent and was governed at the time by the two most right-wing parties in Norway, the liberal-conservative Høyre [The Right], and the populist-libertarian Fremskritts-partiet (FRP [Progress Party]). The local politicians wanted their schools to be the best in the county, preferably in the whole of Norway. For them this meant achieving the top grades in the national exams in Years 5, 8 and 9, so they introduced a strict half-yearly grading scheme in all municipal schools, starting with six-year-old children in Year 1. They ignored the fact that the Norwegian Education Act specifically forbids the grading of children in the first six years of schooling. One teacher refused to comply, arguing that this represented an inhumane ranking of his pupils. He was joined, first by one other teacher, and later, after the municipality hired a law firm to enforce their compliance, by 38 others. Parents wrote to newspapers in support of the protesting teachers. The entire community studied the legal regulations on the grading of young children. The “Sandefjord case” gained nationwide media coverage, the protests were successful, and the scorecards were done away with. On 13 January 2015, the original two protesting teachers were awarded the prestigious Zola Prize for civil courage. Ten years after this victory, the author of this article presented this case study at the 2024 conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), whose thematic focus was “The power of protest”. The Sandefjord case is of universal relevance, demonstrating the power of informal adult education, of protest, and of solidarity among members of a local community.

Research in advanced economies shows that street protests can indirectly influence untargeted firms through informational spillovers. We propose that, in developing economies, the indirect effects of street protests extend beyond information cues to include a resource spillover effect. Specifically, local officials may be motivated to defuse or redirect the momentum of street protests by appealing to constituents’ aspirations for economic well-being. This middle-ground approach sits between symbolic gestures and targeted policies directly addressing activists’ grievances and can facilitate the creation of new organizations. Using a longitudinal data set organized by city-year observations in China between 2008 and 2019, we examine how street protests over noneconomic issues impact the founding of new ventures. We find that city mayors’ response to street protests indirectly facilitates entrepreneurship by lowering business operating costs and increasing access to capital. Further, the resource spillover effect on businesses is accentuated by a political opportunity structure that enhances the impact of street protests on the responses of local politicians. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2024.18885 .

Abstract Public engagement is essential for garnering support for wind farms, but research shows that formal hearing processes often fail to involve citizens, spurring local opposition ‘outside’ these processes. In contrast, this article explores how critical citizens remain ‘within’ the formal hearings, searching for critiques that hold legitimacy in this context. Expanding work on participation in French pragmatic sociology, the article uses the test concept to analyse both the critiques presented by citizens during public hearings and the extent to which ‘the planning institution’ recognises these critiques as legitimate. Based on six qualitative case studies in Denmark, the article identifies three pertinent tests that citizens typically conduct during hearing processes for wind farm projects. First, the article examines ‘persuasion tests’, which mobilise numerous strengths to affect the attitudes of local politicians. Next, ‘potentiality tests’, which establish that alternative solutions are more desirable, are considered. Lastly, ‘de-legitimation tests’, repurposing institutionalised test formats to cancel the planned project, are addressed.

ABSTRACT This article presents a case study of Mexico City's social housing policy to expand our understanding of administrative burdens as a mechanism of political control over access to services and benefits. Faced with excessive and unclear waiting times for obtaining social housing via the city's social housing institute, citizens affiliate with social organizations that promise a reduction of those burdens in exchange for participation in collective protests and political proselytism to both sway and pressure local authorities and politicians to grant funding for housing projects and speed up construction permits. Vulnerable citizens in need of housing are captured in a political economy of administrative burdens conditioned by resource shortages in the formal bureaucracy and political leverage over the reduction of burdens. Understanding how political patronage may become engrained in policy implementation is relevant for the Global South but also for other contexts where concerns are growing over the weaponization of the state for political gain.

Abstract International aid is a key resource for local development, and project implementation is influenced by local political elites. However, we know little about how these elites view aid and whether they are more likely to prefer some funding sources over others. We explore elite attitudes toward aid in Tunisia, arguing that local politicians are less likely to prefer development programs funded by the United States compared to other domestic or foreign sources. Through a conjoint experiment embedded in a survey of local Tunisian politicians, we find a strong aversion to local development projects funded by USAID. Analysis of subgroup effects and comparisons to other international donors suggests the negative reaction is driven by ideological rather than material concerns. This research provides insights into elite perceptions of foreign aid in recipient countries and contributes to our understanding of how anti-Americanism can affect policymaking in the Middle East.

As cities grapple with climate risks and biodiversity decline, international policy frameworks increasingly position urban nature as a critical ally in building resilient and sustainable urban areas. The European Union's Biodiversity Strategy 2030, for example, calls on European cities to develop and implement ambitious 'Urban Nature Plans' (formerly 'Urban Greening Plans'). In this paper, we introduce Urban Nature Plans as a strategic planning tool and discuss potential pathways to their implementation, using Germany as an example. With more than 650 cities of diff erent sizes and with diff erent administrative capacities – many of which already have planning instruments sharing features with Urban Nature Plans – Germany provides a useful case to discuss the implications of introducing this new strategic approach. To contribute to the international discourse on Urban Nature Plans and wider discussions around integrated biodiversity and climate planning, we summarize findings from a German research and development project. The project included, among other aspects, a dialogue process with government organizations, professional associations, non-governmental environmental organizations, municipal representatives and other actors. During this process, it became evident that Urban Nature Plans should be understood as ambitious, integrated, and flexible strategies which are adaptable to local needs and capacities. A clear commitment from local politicians is seen to play a critical role in increasing the amount and quality of urban nature, promoting the participation of diff erent stakeholder groups and accelerating the implementation of related measures. While existing planning instruments such as open space plans and landscape plans can ful fil many of the Urban Nature Plan requirements, a new and targeted strategy could address gaps and shortcomings of existing approaches, such as a lack of integrated working methods, co-design approaches or monitoring mechanisms. However, the findings also highlight that cities have diff erent capacities for strategic planning and the implementation of measures, and that Urban Nature Plans need to correspond to these diff erences if they are to be more than a tool for larger cities and existing champions in sustainability across Europe.

This article employs the case study method to explore the nature of political interference in rural water schemes through the perspectives of local politicians in eastern Nepal. Using thematic analysis and in-depth interviews with seven key respondents in Panchthar District, the article finds that most delays in rural water schemes are attributed to entrenched political undercurrents, which often result in project failure. This finding aligns with public choice theory, which posits that political interference is rooted in the vested interest of electoral gain rather than optimal and sustainable choices. The study further identifies the presence of the tragedy of the anti-commons in rural water schemes, contributing to further political impasse. However, despite their differences, politicians expressed concern about climate change, and hence the study suggests adopting a utilitarian approach in order to implement sustainable and climate-resilient water schemes.

In the recent past, more attention in research has been drawn to local media (use). However, there are still blind spots in this area of research. Knowing from the news desert research that information on a subnational level is very important for a functioning democracy, insights in the use of information sources and local media is of high relevance. Especially in times of digital transformation with a growing amount of possible information news sources that compete with a ubiquitous amount of other content. This paper presents an analysis of a distinctive data set that offers insights into the subnational political information repertoires of the Bernese citizens (canton in Switzerland) and the role of local media. Four political information repertoires can be found: the informed socializers, the traditionalists, the wooed ones, and the online readers. Local media are still being used – more strongly by the older than the younger and by men than women. Local media use has no significant effect on voter turnout here, although it does have an effect on “Swiss split-ticket voting” (panaschieren). The findings from this work should both lay the groundwork for further research and provide insights for practitioners (local media professionals and politicians).

Background and Objectives: Vote-buying is a pervasive political phenomenon that undermines democratic principles, particularly in local governance structures. This study examines the deceptive vote-buying tactics employed by local politicians in rural Thailand, focusing on their impacts on democratic values, governance, and public morality. The research aims to analyze the mechanisms through which politicians manipulate the electoral process, the role of economic vulnerability in perpetuating vote-buying, and the long-term consequences for democratic development. Understanding these patterns is essential for formulating policy recommendations to combat electoral corruption and enhance political integrity. Methodology: The study employed a qualitative research approach, drawing from in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and non-participant observations in four northeastern Thai provinces: Buriram, Surin, Si Sa Ket, and Ubon Ratchathani. The target participants include general voters, local politicians, community leaders, election officials, and youth representatives. Data collection focused on the types of vote-buying tactics used, public attitudes towards elections, and the societal implications of these corrupt practices. Additionally, secondary data from political science literature and electoral reports were analyzed to contextualize findings within broader theoretical frameworks. Main Results: The study revealed a multifaceted pattern of vote-buying strategies employed by local politicians in rural Thailand, reflecting a deeply entrenched culture of transactional politics. These tactics range from direct cash payments and the provision of consumer goods to false development promises, digital vote-buying via online transfers, and the mobilization of long-standing patronage networks. Economically vulnerable groups—particularly low-income households and the elderly—are systematically targeted due to their heightened dependency on state assistance and limited political agency. Beyond material inducements, coercive measures such as threats to withhold welfare benefits are deployed to manipulate voter behavior. Notably, the normalization of such practices within rural communities has blurred the moral boundaries between legitimate campaigning and corrupt exchange. Vote-buying is often perceived not as an act of electoral malfeasance but as a socially accepted reciprocity. This perception contributes to the erosion of democratic values, diminishes political accountability, and perpetuates a cycle of ineffective and self-interested governance. Discussions: The research underscores the ethical implications of vote-buying, demonstrating its role in eroding democratic values and public trust in governance. The practice reinforces systemic corruption, weakens political accountability, and prioritizes personal financial gain over genuine policy-driven governance. Moreover, vote-buying perpetuates a cycle of ineffective leadership, as politicians who attain power through financial incentives often seek to recoup their expenditures rather than fulfill campaign promises. Institutional weaknesses, including ineffective enforcement mechanisms by the Election Commission of Thailand, further enable these corrupt practices to persist. Conclusions: Vote-buying poses a significant threat to democratic integrity, particularly in local political systems where patronage networks are deeply entrenched. Addressing this issue requires comprehensive legal reforms, stronger law enforcement, and increased political literacy among citizens. Strengthening civic engagement and fostering a political culture based on transparency and accountability are critical for reducing electoral corruption. By implementing systemic changes and raising awareness about the detrimental effects of vote-buying, Thailand can move towards a more equitable and democratic electoral process.

Over three decades after the end of the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to attract the attention of its neighboring countries such as Serbia and Croatia, as well as more distant great powers and the International Community as a whole. Interference in internal affairs by foreign countries is an everyday reality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. All this was made possible by the internal fragility of the state, but also by the fact that the Dayton Peace Agreement secured a legal basis for the regional countries, as co-signatories of the Agreement, but also to other foreign powers to decide on its fate and perpetually interfere in its affairs. One of the topics in which all these countries took an active or indirect role is the issue of the Electoral Law, which defines the intra-ethnic relations in the country. Especially the latest amendments to the Election Law imposed on the night of the 2022 general elections, by the High Representative, once again showed the harsh reality of political realism and geopolitical interests at the expense of Bosnian state. Regarding this issue, the views of many countries were clearly expressed, vis-à-vis Bosnia and Herzegovina and its future. The position and credibility of the OHR, the executive representative of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), as well as the rest of the International Community, has often been contested by the local politicians. The decision by the High Representative Christian Schmidt was met with different reactions inside the country and internationally after enacting new amendments that favored ethnic division and the Croatia’s proxy HDZ BiH. Zagreb was lobbying for years for amendments to the Election Law that would secure enormous political power for its political proxy. However, HR received support from a certain part of the International Community, the USA and the UK, majority of the EU member-states and Russia, while the only great power that openly opposed it was Turkey. Regardless of support from the International Community, the new amendments strengthened the ethnic division and further empowered nationalist parties in political system, thus decreasing chances for Bosnia and Herzegovina to transform itself into a civic state. Therefore, due to the strengthening of ethnic power-sharing and electoral unit gerrymandering, the further deterioration of the country seems unavoidable yet leaving the space for separatist policies to dominate the political scene in the upcoming years.

Displacement is a process in which people are exiled to a strange land to secure their lives. They face a lot of issues like losing identity, sense of displacement, longing for their homeland and unadaptable culture and tradition. Displacement is divided into three types: physical displacement, psychological displacement and cultural displacement. Desire plays both optimistic and pessimistic roles in postcolonialism. Through the characters like Amulya, Nirmal and Mukunda, playan optimistic role like possessing the desire to overcome all the struggles soon and lead a happy life, returning to their homeland or a comfortable place from the struggle, making a place through achieving success in life. Through the characters of Kamal, local politicians, opportunistic landlords and moneylendersplay cruel roles like dominating others, quest of ruling power, and grasping others’ prosperity to fulfill their wishes. . It focuses on the role of displacement and desire, which takes place in the narration and with the characters in the text. The paper elaborates on the emotional and physical spaces of the people by mapping their achievements of every individual in opposition to the socio-political background of the postcolonial land. It also highlights their struggle in attaining identity, dislocation, memoriesand longing during displacement.

Abstract Fiscal rules are a popular tool to improve fiscal discipline and reduce waste in public spending, but their effectiveness and political feasibility remain unclear, particularly in weakly institutionalized settings. We leverage exogenous variation across Colombian municipalities in exposure to a fiscal rule that limits the operating expenditures of local governments. Our difference-in-differences analysis yields three main findings. First, the fiscal rule effectively reduces operating expenditures and the probability of a current deficit. Second, there is no meaningful impact on local public goods or living standards. Third, the fiscal consolidation leads voters to be less dissatisfied with their local government and increases the probability of re-election for the incumbent party. These findings suggest that fiscal rules can reduce waste in public administration and align fiscal policy with the preferences of voters in settings, like Colombia, where electoral accountability is hampered by weak political parties and limited career concerns for local politicians.

ABSTRACT With few exceptions, women are underrepresented in local councils throughout the world. Moreover, female councillors have much higher turnover than their male counterparts, leaving political life quickly and in higher numbers. This paper focuses on the intention of local councillors in Iceland to seek re-election. The Icelandic case is an intriguing example of a system with high gender equality, in which local councils mirror society reaching full descriptive gender balance. The findings demonstrate that even in systems in which descriptive gender balance has been achieved, local politicians’ intention to seek re-election is gendered. While women may be as motivated as men to seek re-election, external factors create gendered barriers to their continued participation in local politics. Despite gender parity having been achieved in local councils, the findings suggest that more is needed to achieve genuine equality, making descriptive representation merely one step in a longer process of institutional change.

This work offers a new theoretical contribution that advances our understanding of the take-up of social rights. According to standard theoretical models, the decision of clients whether to collect the social benefits to which they are entitled is influenced by the policy design and administrative levels. Our argument is that the clients are not only affected by, but also have potential influence on policy design and the extent of the administrative burden, which may have positive consequences on the degree of take-up. Both policymakers and administrators may consider the political reaction of ‘clients’ to the chosen policy and bureaucratic process, suggesting that the relationship between the ‘clients’ and policy design and administrative levels is bi-directional rather than uni-directional, as assumed in conventional theoretical frameworks. Incorporating this notion of influential ‘clients’ may help explain the wide variation in take-up across social programs, countries and over time. An analysis of responses provided by senior managers in 75 municipalities in Israel reveals that the administration is indeed directly and indirectly affected by the perceived power of clients. The potential appeal of clients to local politicians shapes the degree of administrative burden related to residential property tax discounts. In most municipalities, the administration tends to promote the take-up of property tax benefits despite the expected loss of tax revenues. This is manifested in various forms, such as active assistance, initiatives to reduce administrative barriers such as online submission of applications, expanding the variety of sources of information on property tax discounts, and utilizing administrative data to automatically extend discounts. This theoretical insight also contributes to the literature on administrative burden, which also treats the client as a powerless actor, and to the literature on policy feedback, which often predicts that contact with bureaucracy may suppress political participation.

Preferences for female successors: Evidence from a survey experiment among Japanese local politicians

The study titled 'Exploring the Socio-cultural impacts of Dallagau Homestay on rural tourism in Nepal' utilized a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the socio-cultural and economic benefits of rural tourism in Nepal. The research was specifically focused on Madhuban-1, Dallagau Homestay in the Bardiya District. It employed a descriptive-analytic approach within an exploratory research design, focusing on a purposively selected subset of 22 households out of 120 in Dallagau. Additionally, 22 non-homestay households and 22 recent visitors were also included in the study. Data were gathered from primary and secondary sources, including interviews with tourists, hoteliers, locals, tour guides, local politicians, and NGO representatives during a field survey in May 2024. Globally, the concept of "homestay" is interpreted differently, with each region having its unique version. In Nepal, homestay programs are community-driven initiatives that play a crucial role in the local economy and tourism sector. Despite the potential for substantial economic and socio-cultural benefits, the homestay industry in Nepal is hindered by inadequate infrastructure and planning. This research, focusing on the "Khata Biological Corridor Homestay" in Dalla village, emphasizes the socio-cultural and economic impacts of these programs. The findings underscore the importance of proper management and community involvement in maximizing the benefits of homestay tourism for sustainable rural development.

This paper investigates the linguistic landscape (LL) of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, specifically addressing the under-explored artistic and regulatory discourses in the city. In the context of current geopolitical changes, the study critically examines the presence, constellation, and thematic functions of languages in urban signage, with special attention to the shifting perception and visibility of Russian as a language which was perceived as problematic before the COVID-19 pandemic by local residents and politicians. The aim is to fill a research gap concerning LL studies in the Czech context and to explore functional multilingualism in a Central European urban environment. The analysis uses a sub-corpus systematically collected from a central city street in Karlovy Vary. Methodologically, the study combines qualitative categorization based on theoretical frameworks proposed by Opiłowski and Makowska (2023) and Scollon and Scollon (2003), with a quantitative frequency analysis inspired by Gorter (2018). The findings reveal a predominance of Czech, frequently combined with English in multilingual signs within both researched discourses. Russian emerges marginally and only within regulatory discourse linked to spa regulations, signifying its limited symbolic role. Thematically, artistic signs primarily advertise cultural events (concerts, shows, films), while regulatory signs cover topics such as spa rules, waste management, and parking. These insights highlight local practices of multilingual communication and the retreat of Russian from the city after the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, offering implications for future research in sociolinguistic studies of language visibility.

This study explores how Participatory Budgeting (PB) actors employ diverse logics to dominate the PB implementation during political and administrative leadership periods in a Sri Lankan local government context. The study contributes to the limited literature on PB and institutional logics in accounting studies by exploring how political, administrative, and citizen empowerment logics interact in shaping the PB processes and their outcomes. Drawing on the institutional logic theory, this interpretive case study relies on document analysis, informal discussions, and semi-structured interviews with local politicians, administrators, and community members. The finding reveals that political actors use PB as an instrument to develop their political strength by modifying PB practices during political leadership. In contrast, administrators introduce procedural adherence to rules and regulations and tend to marginalise the contribution of citizen participation in administrative leadership. The role of citizens in making final budgetary decisions under both leaderships is scant despite rhetorical discourses on citizens' empowerment. Therefore, the study underscores the need for a balanced approach to ensure citizen empowerment, which combines political inclusiveness, administrative accountability, and transparency, and citizen engagement within a budgeting process to foster democratic participation and participatory decision-making in local government.

CEOs increasingly engage in activism on controversial social and political issues, such as police reform, LGBTQ+ rights, and gun control, to influence the behavior of policymakers. We run an experiment on 514 local elected politicians to examine how revealing information about CEO activism on police reform affects the views of policymakers. Additionally, we examine how CEOs’ controversial positions on social issues affect politicians’ willingness to privately meet with CEOs or publicly advocate for their businesses. We do not find that revealing CEO support for specific police reform policies affects policymakers’ opinions. Policymakers, however, are much less willing to engage—either privately or publicly—with CEOs who take controversial positions on social issues. These results do not vary with local economic conditions or the salience of police reform, but they appear to be driven by policymakers’ personal ideological commitments. Our results suggest that CEO activism may have limited influence on local politicians, at least on the topic of police reform, and they underscore the business costs of CEOs taking political positions. We discuss the implications for CEOs and the activist groups that often pressure them to take public positions on controversial issues. Funding: This work was funded by the UCLA Anderson School of Management and University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.18282 .