Nature Of Intergovernmental Relations Research Articles

When All Hands Are Not on Deck: Intergovernmental Relations and the Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic in the Nigerian Federation

ABSTRACT The defects and susceptibility of the Nigerian federalism are more pronounced at this period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing studies are yet to articulate how the states, in the formulation and enforcement of the lockdown and physical distancing policies, infringed on the federal exclusive matters by closing land borders, airports and imposing partial banking services. There is selective provision/distribution of healthcare facilities and stimulus packages and palliatives across the states by the federal government. The objective of this study is to examine how the conflicting nature of intergovernmental relations is implicated in the level of implementation of containment policies/strategies towards the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Based on content analysis and the functional-process theory, the article argued that the cantankerous/imploding disconnects between the federal and state governments–obscuring the making and implementation of harmonised and coordinated pandemic containment policies–constitute key impediment to the fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria.

ЕХРЕRIENCE OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES IN INVESTING IN CULTURE AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION FOR UKRAINE

Increasing the investment attractiveness of the cultural sphere of Ukraine is possible only with the introduction of modern tools and mechanisms to attract resources that have become widespread in the world and have proven their effectiveness.
 The model of public financing of culture is formed in each country on the basis of a choice of methods, forms and mechanisms of financial policy. Its formation is greatly influenced by such factors as traditional national cultural preferences, as well as the development of philanthropy, sponsorship and philanthropy. The system of financing culture and art is determined by the degree of centralization of public administration and the nature of intergovernmental relations. In unitary states, the central budget continues to play a major role.
 The main types of financial support for culture and art in different countries by attracting state investment (budget funding) are direct funding, general and targeted transfers, joint participation of different levels of government, support through independent intermediaries, public-private partnership.
 The experience of financial support for the cultural sphere in the EU countries indicates that countries are trying to pay considerable attention to the development of this sphere. The most common mechanism for attracting investment and increasing funding for culture in the EU is a reduced VAT rate on the consumption of a cultural product or service.
 Despite the significant number of tools used by European countries to attract investment in culture and increase the investment attractiveness of culture, we should not forget about public investment. Public and private investment are complementary. Public investment, in turn, guarantees the priority of the sphere for the state, consolidates the development of confidence in the public good of culture, ensuring the stability of the development of the cultural sphere.
 In the proposed model of multi-channel financing, the main investors can be the state at the expense of state and local budgets, private partners (businesses, enterprises, etc.) and directly the population (those who consume cultural services and products).
 The proposed model of multi-channel financing combines best practices and tools to attract financial resources in the field of culture, which have become widespread in the European Union. It should also be noted that based on the analysis, it can be argued that the introduction of a project approach to finance culture and create competitive markets for cultural services can serve as a basis for organizational and economic mechanism to increase investment attractiveness of culture in Ukraine.

Bill Content, Legislative Outcomes, and State-Level Resistance to National Policies

AbstractRecently, scholars of the lawmaking process have urged their colleagues to devote more attention to the potential impact of bill content on legislative outcomes. Heeding their call, this paper builds an original dataset of over 5,000 pieces of state-level legislation addressing issues that span the ideological spectrum. It compares proposals that challenge the authority of the national government in a specific domain to proposals that lack federalism-related implications and finds that the former, all else being equal, make less legislative progress toward enactment. In addition, it categorizes the measures that resist national laws based on the specific nature of the challenge they pose. Its analysis finds that measures that are inconsistent with existing national law but work within the law’s legal framework make more legislative progress than measures that seek to nullify the national law or that vow not to cooperate with it. It also confirms that sponsor characteristics such as majority status, the number of cosponsors, institutional rules such as hearing requirements, and state-level factors like party control of the state legislature affect how much progress proposals make toward enactment. Thus, the paper demonstrates the importance of legislative content as an explanatory factor and sheds light on the nature of intergovernmental relations in the contemporary United States.

To the discussion about the modern world order

In many political researches there if a conclusion that the world system which was founded after the Second world war is destroyed of chaos. But the world system couldn`t work while the two opposite systems — socialist and capitalist were in hard confrontation. After collapse of the Soviet Union and the European socialist community the nature of intergovernmental relations and behavior of the international community did not change. The power always was and still is the main tool of international communication.

Defying the traditional theses: Intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration in Belgium

ABSTRACTThis article considers the features of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Belgium and critically examines the dynamics that shape them. The characteristics of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium are shown to vary over time and differ across regions and sub-policy areas (immigrant reception policies and anti-discrimination). The comparative case study indicates that the primary traditional theses of the international comparative IGR literature, namely classical institutionalism and party politics, do not provide insights into the nature and mechanisms of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium. Less established variables like European integration and sub-state claims for distinctiveness constitute key explanatory variables. While European integration explains the increase of IGR over time, notwithstanding the appearance of party incongruence, sub-state claims for distinctiveness enlighten the more conflictual nature of IGR with Flanders, even in cases of more party congruence than for Francophone authorities.

Intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration in Spain: The case of Catalonia

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the nature of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Spain, a relatively recent immigration country, with a focus on Catalonia. By means of qualitative document analysis and semi-structured interviews at both levels of government, the paper demonstrates that despite the formal existence of multilateral and institutionalized fora for intergovernmental relations, most intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration tend to be informal and bilateral. The paper also highlights that the conflictual nature of IGR on integration varies across sub-policy areas and over time. The paper contributes to strengthen existing hypotheses regarding institutional features (the distribution of competencies and the territorial organization of power) and party politics for explaining the patterns of IGR.

Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations in Africa: Retrospect and Prospects from Nigeria

This article diagnostically examined the several competing perspectives on the beleaguered nature of intergovernmental relations in Nigeria. Tracing the evolution of intergovernmental relation in Nigeria and espousing its legal, political and governance antecedents, the paper hazarded the undercurrent for the lingering conflicts between the center and the component units. The article also critically analyzed the impacts of the erstwhile British colonial strategy of division into regions as a means for administering the country and exploration of the mineral endowments in the 1950s on the composition and the current nature of predatory power that the center currently wields, much to the detriments and underfunding of the component units in the federation. The paper found evidences to showcase that because the British colonialists unduly queered the political pitch by allocating more seats to the North than to each of the other two regions at the center, intergovernmental relations in Nigeria has been quite contentious. If anything, a mutual suspicion between the North-dominated Federal Government and the Southern component units became a logical end. We concluded, among others, that notwithstanding the ample provisions in the 1999 Constitution for veritable intergovernmental relationship in Nigeria, there are still the intricate issues of regional domination of the center, leading to lack of political will to induce proper constitutional implementations.

Intergovernmental Relations in Canada's Immigration System: From Bilateralism towards Multilateral Collaboration

AbstractThis article has two objectives. The first is to highlight a turn towards multilateral collaboration in the immigration sector and the resulting focus on pan-Canadian policy objectives and initiatives. This account is set against the current literature, which argues a bilateral approach to intergovernmental relations in the sector has resulted in asymmetrical policies and programs. The second objective is to demonstrate the value of explicitly focusing on the nature of intergovernmental relations as unilateral, bilateral or multilateral. Applying this lens, the article draws out the drivers and complexity of the turn towards multilateral collaboration in the immigration sector, arguing it is motivated by an increased provincial engagement in economic immigration and also by the federal government's desire to reassert its own role in response.

Intergovernmental Relations in the UK: Continuity in a Time of Change?

Party political incongruence in the UK after 2007 has had a moderate effect on both the machinery of intergovernmental relations and the dominant modes of intergovernmental interaction. In assessing changes in intergovernmental structures, we find more frequent meetings and more formalised interactions. A preference for informal bilateral exchange, however, still prevails. In assessing changes in the nature of intergovernmental relations, we find some intensification of conflict, but amid continued co-operation. While one might find more pronounced changes after longer periods of party political incongruence, we argue that the limited effect observed thus far can be traced back to: (i) formal-legal features of the UK multi-level polity; (ii) the nature of the policy sectors requiring intergovernmental co-ordination (iii); the specific political dynamics within the constituent governments; and (iv) the mitigating role and structure of non-elected institutions such as the civil service and the judiciary.

Intergovernmental Relations and Political Parties in Northern Ireland

Intergovernmental relations (IGR) as a political principle and a mechanism of governance have played a major and distinctive role in Northern Ireland's political and constitutional development. This distinctiveness is apparent in the interpretation and scope of IGR, in party representation in intergovernmental fora and in the meaning and context of party incongruence. This article seeks to analyse the development and nature of IGR since the restoration of devolved government in 1999 but particularly since 2007, in light of this distinctiveness. It sets out the wide range and nature of the processes and institutions of IGR involving the Northern Ireland government and its form of consociational representation. The article then examines how the different political parties have engaged in IGR.

Comparative Program-Performance Evaluation and Government Accountability in New Mexico—Some Applied Lessons for Intergovernmental Relations

In Strategies for Using State Information: Measuring and Improving Program Performance (2003), Shelley Metzenbaum poses a series of “key questions” about the federal-state performance reporting relationship. Metzenbaum asks whether there should be a uniform accountability system across the American states and whether it should be required of the states by the federal government. Ancillary questions include what uses should be made of state performance information and whether federal agencies should publicy report such information.These questions are important in light of the burgeoning performancemanagement movement in contemporary public administration. The extension of performance measurement and reporting systems to state governments is largely due to the impact on states of the federal Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), and generally to the ascendancy of new public management perspectives in governmental practice.The experience of the State of New Mexico with regard to intergovernmental performance reporting in recent years, under both Republican and Democratic gubernatorial administrations, suggests that closer integration of federal and state performance reporting is necessary, that more comprehensive performancebased systems (that include comparative performance measurement and strategic planning frameworks) are essential, and that new evaluative models are needed to address the sometimes cooperative and sometimes adversarial nature of intergovernmental relations. Lessons from the MPA classroom arising from these interrelated concerns and from the authors’ applied research with state government are addressed at the conclusion of this study.

Conflict and cooperation in EU policy‐making: The case of Catalonia

This article examines how European integration has altered territorial relations in one member state, Spain, and how the EU has increasingly become a domestic issue in Spanish territorial politics. It examines the case of Catalonia and how greater participation for Spain's autonomous communities in EU decision‐making has become an important political issue within the Catalan political sphere with a greater number of Catalan political parties increasingly viewing the process of European integration as one in which Europe's regions are ‘losing out’. In particular, the issue has moved away from primarily being a concern for Catalan nationalist parties to one in which non‐nationalist parties have taken a growing interest. The article analyses how the issue of direct representation of the autonomous communities in EU institutions has gradually become a divisive issue amongst Spanish and Catalan political parties and how this reflects many of the unresolved issues that have emerged from Spain's continuing process of devolution. Finally, the article argues that growing overlap in regional, state and EU spheres of authority has merely served to reinforce the conflictual nature of intergovernmental relations within Spain.