Local Governance Practices Research Articles

Using the Economics of Certification to Improve the Safety and Quality of Male Circumcision in Developing Countries

Although male circumcision (MC) has been a widespread practice in some regions, while relatively new in others, it has recently ascended in popularity as a HIV-reduction intervention, particularly in areas with high rates of HIV but low rates of MC. However, the uptake and potential effectiveness of MC may be hampered by uneven levels of provider training and procedure skill within developing country settings. Indeed, this procedure that is otherwise considered simple and safe has witnessed complication rates as high as 25-35% in some areas, leaving some men with irreversible injuries. To improve the transparency of procedure quality for prospective patients, I borrow from a classic economics approach and advocate a new application in the form of provider certification. Building on some experience in the healthcare systems and economic rationale of high-income counties, I explore the potential for certifying providers of MC in low-income countries and compare and contrast three models of implementation: government agency, private certifiers and private MC device manufacturers. The hope is that increased transparency of provider quality through any or all three types of certifying programmes can better assist local men as they navigate this otherwise complex and unclear medical care market. As more resources are being devoted to MC scale up, I argue that certification should be considered for incorporation as a means of complementing both current and future efforts in order to enhance the effectiveness of MC campaigns. The two models based on privatized certification, as opposed to having the local government underwrite the intervention, may prove most useful when public or philanthropic funding is volatile or incomplete for a given location. The timing for MC campaign adoption and desired speed of scale up may vary across countries in ways that international assistance efforts cannot always immediately and flexibly adapt to. As such, the role of the diverse MC provider marketplace and accompanying quality-revelation mechanisms may take on different levels of importance and expediency across settings as individual countries move forward with their respective HIV prevention campaigns. The subsequent challenge is to creatively design solutions that are sustainable and applicable within diverse host-country environments and expectations. This is where I believe some economic insights are currently lacking in the MC dialogue. Although I believe the three certification models exhibit much potential for enhancing medical care delivery in developing countries, they are not without their challenges, and implementation would not necessarily be a simple process. Local levels of medical knowledge, public and private resource constraints and the integrity of local business transactions and government practices would likely influence the nature and success of a certification intervention. However, with sufficient model adaptability and partnerships across public and private sectors, I argue that many of these implementation issues could be proactively addressed. Creative and careful certification structures should ultimately improve the MC circumstances across a variety of developing countries.

Citizen perceptions of general-purpose and special district governments: A comparative analysis

Special districts comprise over 40% of local governments, prompting debate on the merits of general versus special entities. Previous research focused on relative cost-efficiency and tended to ignore how special districts impact government accountability. This study fills a critical need by testing how type of government (general versus special) impacts citizen awareness of and familiarity with government, a precondition for accountability. Drawing from two theoretical perspectives (institutional reform and public choice), we used survey research to assess familiarity with the goals and performance and financial practices of local governments in Indiana. Our study participants were more aware of and familiar with general than special governments, which supports the institutional reform perspective more than public choice. We conclude that efforts to improve accountability should be expanded to include special districts.

Analysis Changing of Software Requirements on Control Systems of Chinese Performance Evaluation

This paper including: Question proposed, literature reviewed, proposed the hypotheses, data collection, building modeling, data showed and conclusion. For an interesting phenomenon of China before 2009, the qualitative score decide the evaluation last scores in whole public sectors. But after 2009, the situation is changed that the quantitative evaluation becomes the decisive factor in the performance total score by the model of original evaluation data analysis, but the qualitative score become the negative correlation factors of performance score. Why such a change will happen One of the reasons is the new evaluation control software is adopted, the new public policy and its tools of Chinese public performance management are making by evaluation departments during 2009 to 2010. The paper shows 4 kinds of performance improvement software tools. The paper use the econometrics and thinking about performance evaluation control software and its practice of local government, makes quantitative analysis by evaluation original data of performance. This paper research about the relationship between total score of Chinese-style performance evaluation and the ratio of quantitative score which showing itself as positive sequel, and the two cave are almost the same level while the paper gets value of data’s log, which proves that the evaluation index of quantitative become affects the evaluation total scores strongly (Coefficient: 0.81). The paper builds the evaluation model in 2009 and shows a software requirements changing map of performance evaluation control in China.

‘Cultural work’, spatial planning and the politics of renewing public sector planning professionalism in England

This paper assesses the effects on local government practice of attempts by the planning profession in England to reinvent its role and redefine the disciplinary field by promoting a shift from land-use to spatial planning. Drawing on work that investigated the rationale for the move to a spatial planning approach and two case studies of emerging practice in the south-east of England in 2006-8, the article explores the ‘cultural work’ required to realise spatial planning, i.e. its capacity to reshape the knowledge, social relations and identities of public sector planning practice. It concludes that the promotion of spatial planning has highlighted enduring tensions within the planning-professional project, and discusses what this means for the future of the profession in the public sector.

UNDERSTANDING URBAN GOVERNANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: A Case Study of Solid- Waste Management in Rayong Municipality, Thailand

Local government practices in Thailand have become more networking orgovernance-oriented since the promulgation of the Constitution of 1997 and the Decentralization Plan and Process Act of 1999. Several local governments have applied modern concepts of New Public Management (NPM) in order to perform their tasks. Public- Private Partnership is, therefore, regarded as a mode of governance for the sake of successful public service delivery. This article aims to describe and analyze local governance in political economy perspective. The case study of Rayong Municipality is selected to present the factors that drove the emergence of public-private partnership and how local government coalitions cooperate in public service delivery, especially the case of solid-waste management. The waste problem in Rayong Municipality had risen considerably due to the rapid increase in population, a trend that may continue in the future. The causes of the problem are many; lack of proper disposal units, limited budget, personnel and landfill areas. This problem has a negative impact on the quality of life in the municipality and therefore this is best dealt with collectively. The project that has been implemented is the waste recycling scheme, garbage banking in schools and communities. The Waste-to-Fertiliser and Energy project makes the Integrated Waste Management Approach complete with the cooperation from other government agencies and NGOs and the involvement of the private sector as PPP.

The Continuing Problem of Special Districts in American Government

ABSTRACT Due to fiscal constraints and demands for increased accountability, scholars and public officials are reviewing the structure and reporting practices of local governments. These efforts are often incomplete, however, because they bypass special districts, which now comprise over 40 percent of all local governments. The proliferation of special districts has the potential to increase government costs, redirect the allocation of scarce resources, remove debt and expenditure practices from the public eye, and reduce democratic controls over elected officials. This paper highlights some of the public interest concerns related to these entities to inform future, localized research. For decades, scholars have approached special districts from two opposing theoretical perspectives: institutional reform and public choice. Literature from these opposing perspectives is used to analyze special districts along three dimensions: efficiency and economy of operations, policy alignment and allocation of resources, and democratic accountability. This paper uses the U.S. Census Bureau definition of special districts, though alternative definitions are discussed. Efforts by four states (Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New York) to improve local government, and their varying approaches to special districts, are reviewed, leading to the conclusion that the complex issues related to special districts must be resolved within state contexts.

Price Setting Practices in Australian Local Government

Revenues generated on a 'fee-for-service' or 'user-pays' basis are a significant source of income for Australian local governments. However, how local governments set prices and charges remains under-explicated. This article reports empirical evidence obtained on the pricing policies and practices of Australian local governments. The responses to a national survey reveal considerable diversity - and often an apparent lack of 'rationality'- in setting specific prices. Instead, general 'across the board' adjustments to historical prices are typically made to assist in balancing budgets. The cost of service delivery is neither a prominent nor standardised input to pricing decisions.

Crime Management and Urban Governance: Everyday Interconnections in South Africa

Interconnections between crime prevention and local governance practices are increasingly evident through the involvement of local partnerships and local government in crime prevention. The microlocal workings and the political implications of these interconnections have, however, received far less attention. This paper uses a case study from South Africa to understand the microlocal experiences of the interconnections between what is described here as ‘crime management’ and local governance. It is argued that the extent of interconnection is beyond that captured by the concept of ‘partnership’, as multiple governance structures, including local political parties, engage in crime management. Furthermore, the paper illustrates how local governance is dominated by crime management and that this domination is explicitly tied to the party political ‘ambitions’ of the dominant ANC party. The interconnection is theorised as the criminalisation of governance within a context of state-building.

Environmental management accounting in local government

PurposeThis study aims to explore the state of environmental management accounting practice and the motivations for its use with a view to improving waste and recycling management by local government. The focus is on practice in local governments situated in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Prior studies suggest the need for environmental management accounting as a supporting tool for waste management.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory case study method was applied in 12 NSW local government organisations. In each local government interviews were conducted with managers responsible for waste and recycling issues.FindingsContrary to prior research this study found that, in the local governments investigated, an increasing amount of environmental management accounting information is being made available. The case studies found two main motivations encouraging the development of environmental management accounting in local government: first, social structural influences, such as regulatory pressures from different environmental regulatory bodies, environmental expectations from local communities, and pressures from peer councils; second, organisational contextual influences reflecting situational needs in the organisational contexts, such as complex waste operations and service designs, changes and uncertainties in waste and recycling management, and the council's strategic position for waste management.Research limitations/implicationsThe results imply that institutional theory and contingency theory provide different but complementary explanations for the development of environmental management accounting in waste management. Although previous environmental studies are overwhelmingly in favour of social system‐based theories, such as institutional theory, to explain environmental changes in organisations, an organisation's contextual dynamics seem to be equally important.Originality/valueThe findings about motivations provide useful information for environmental strategists and government regulators to make policies that improve accountability and the efficiency of waste and recycling management as well as promote future development of environmental management accounting to support sustainable waste management solutions.

Context-Orientated Meta-Governance in Danish Urban Regeneration

Public service innovation is common in planning and urban policy, but the long-term sustainability of new policy instruments depends on the development of new administrative practices in local government to maintain continual progress. This article analyses the case of a large-scale experiment on organisational change that was conducted in collaboration between two separate municipal departments of the city of Copenhagen. Experience with emerging new patterns of intra- and inter-organisational interaction documents suggests that service innovation and organisational change in this case mutually reinforce each other in a virtuous circle of innovation.

Implementing GASB 45: Recommended Best Practices in Local Government

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued Statement No. 45—Accounting and Financial Reporting by Employers for Postemployment Benefits Other Than Pensions in 2004, requiring local governments to actuarially determine their annual required contribution to fund other postemployment benefits (OPEB) and to account for the unfunded amount as a liability on annual financial statements. This article discusses best practices on the implementation and management of this accounting standard, including actuarial practices, funding decisions, and benefit changes. It also presents how Phase I cities and counties in North Carolina implemented Statement No. 45 for further explanation. The hope is that these best practices will serve as a guidepost for making OPEB policy decisions, especially among smaller local governments, on the criteria of financial accountability and sustainability.

Governance Challenges and Options for State and Local Governments

There is little new in a view that State and Local Governments are having a difficult time during what has come to be called the Great Recession. What is new is the endeavor to understand the dimensions and key factors in what is a global crisis for State and Local Governments in the United States. An innovative approach would be to attempt to explain the dynamics of this crisis facing State and Local governments and look for ways to address it. Accordingly, we decided to take up the effort and examine the challenges for Governance at the State and Local levels in our current situation of sustained economic downturn and look at how they might be addressed. This is an undertaking that is likely to provoke thought in those interested in how we govern the nonFederal parts of our government in the United States and that, ultimately, may raise as many questions as it answers. Because this is the final issue of Volume 42 of the State and Local Government Review, the first volume done completely under the auspices of its new publisher, Sage Publications, Inc., we wanted to do something that was both provocative and innovative for the Governance Matters section. In keeping with our desire to innovate, we decided to try something we had not done before in the Review: ask experts for their opinions. Fortunately for us, we were able to convince three experts who have their fingers on the pulse of policy and practice in state and local governments across the United States and who have within arm's reach the latest data and research on what is transpiring in them, Jacqueline Byers, Director of Research for the National Association of Counties, Chris Hoene, Director of the Center for Research and Innovation of the National League of Cities, and John Thomasian, Director of the Center for Best Practices of the National Governors' Association. We cannot thank them enough and are sure that readers will feel the same. They were consulted in a two-hour roundtable discussion phone conference on September 9, 2010, moderated by the editor of the Governance Matters section, who is also the author of this piece, though not the author of the ideas in it: those ideas belong to our experts. Each of the three experts took five minutes to give thenviews about challenges. Then they discussed their views in a follow-up conversation. The follow-up was far ranging, but all three continued to come back to certain issues that constitute

Il bilancio partecipativo di Porto Alegre: il contributo brasiliano alle pratiche di partnership

The Porto Alegre Participatory Budgeting (PB) initiative is considered as one of the best practices of innovative local governance for its democratic effects in terms of administrative efficiency, economic redistribution and social capital. The relation between the state and the participatory society makes PB an interesting case for the theory of partnerships. However, it differs from them in many respects, thus providing new insights into the current debate and research agenda. The democratic and systemic nature of this all-civil society process seem to show a political and social paradigm shift which call into question the modern concept and form of the state, that of the third sector, as well as the sharp distinction between them all. PB seems to go beyond the idea of partnership between state and society, revealing instead a new kind of civil political sphere.

Book Review: The Theory and Practice of Local Governance and Economic Development

Book Review: The Theory and Practice of Local Governance and Economic Development

New directions in New Zealand local government

The purpose of this paper is to provide a ‘work in progress’ report on some initiatives emerging from local government practice in New Zealand which should help us consider how we think about the role of local government in a world which is undergoing dramatic change. The starting point is work which the writer undertook with the support of Local Government New Zealand (the national association) and a number of New Zealand councils considering the ‘proper role’ of local government. The context is an ongoing public debate driven substantially by the New Zealand business community from a perspective that this ‘proper role’ should be restricted to the delivery of local public goods, narrowly defined. This has included argument that local governments themselves should be structured substantially to promote the efficient delivery of services generally within the now well understood prescriptions of the ‘new public management’. One implication which the business sector in particular drew in looking at the workings of local government was that there should be economies of scale through further amalgamation of councils (the local government sector having been through a major amalgamation process in 1989 which eliminated a large number of special purpose authorities and reduced the number of territorial local authorities from more than 200 to 73). Debate continues, with the latest manifestation being the National Party led government's proposals for the restructuring of local government within the Auckland region, New Zealand's major metropolitan area. The initiatives discussed in this paper are partly a response, but more significantly a result of selected local authorities reflecting on the nature of their role, and the opportunities for being proactive in using their statutory privileges in ways that could produce benefits for their communities without any associated increase in the cost of local government itself.

The Intercultural Practice of Local Governance in an Aboriginal Settlement in Australia

Drawing on research undertaken at a remote Aboriginal settlement, the paper describes the interpersonal interactions occurring in the practice of local governance, by conceptualising an intercultural field on which actors from a variety of institutional positions practice. Local governance in Kowanyama exhibited a political pluralism, encompassing a complex array of competing and at times balancing interests. Informal and formal checks and balances operated to curb the excesses of leaders. There was considerable diversity in the personal characteristics of leaders and of local organizations and forums. The pluralism and specialisation observed was an innovative response to the complexity of local governance and indicative of a political maturity in leadership and their constituency. Critical to local governance was productive relationships operating locally between leaders and trusted outsiders. The bulk of administrative burden was borne by a surprisingly small number of leaders and trusted outsiders, raising questions about how to broaden public participation in decision-making. The paper concludes by encouraging researchers and commentators to move beyond the notion of a narrow interface between monolithic opposing cultures, to the rich sociality that is occurring in the intercultural practice of local governance.

A ‘Tranquil Spectator’:1 The District Official and the Practice of Local Government in Late Eighteenth-Century Bengal

There has been a tendency in the historiography covering the use of armed force in the East India Company's domestic governance to concentrate on the period after the 1810s, when ideas regarding the importance of fostering the colonial government's reputation within Indian society for absolute military rule, tempered by justice, were gaining prominence through the work of Sir John Malcolm and the adherents of the ‘Empire of Opinion’ school. However, the governmental practice of the previous generation of the Company's district administrators, operating before the establishment of a military hegemony, a professional bureaucracy or an accumulated body of Anglo-Indian governmental knowledge, has received comparatively little attention. As this article seeks to demonstrate through the example of the district of Chittagong in Bengal during the late eighteenth century, such a study reveals much about the priorities and limitations of local government in this formative period of British colonial rule.

A Municipalização, Consolidação e Crise dos Serviços de Saneamento de Itabuna/BA: A Emergência de um Pacto Cooperativo

This paper aims to report the processes underlying the decentralization and strengthening local management of sanitation Itabuna and analyze the crisis management of the sector from the emergence of a cooperative agreement, represented by the articulation of local management of sanitation and a new arrangement Institutional moving to the region, with the creation of CBHL Watershed Committee of the East. When you make a discussion of the decentralization of public policies in Brazil, emphasizes the participation of new actors in the formulation and implementation of local policies that are also influenced by new forms of intergovernmental relations and agreements to integrate multi-sectoral. In the specific case of the sanitation sector there is the introduction of institutional arrangements that make new agreements that tend to suggest a reconfiguration of the management practices of local governments. Key-words: Public Administration. Sanitation. Institutional Arragements.

Values-based public-private networks best practices in Italian local government: The case of “Regione Marche”

Internationally, the theme of territorial social responsibility, or territorial networks (CSR-oriented partnerships between local public and private partners) aimed to promote a model of sustainable economic growth, is still little noted. The movement of collective responsibility sees institutions and organisations (public and private, for profit and non-profit) participating in a form of economic development that is socially and environmentally sustainable. In these territories where deeply rooted actors are stimulated to cooperate for the responsible development of the productive system, their combined actions become an effective instrument in the sustainable government of the territory. Based on this consideration, the aim of our research is the evaluation of Italian local governmental initiatives to promote corporate social responsibility through public-private networks (specially focusing on the “Marche Region” case- study). Local governance based on the subsidiarity and the shared values of a spatial and socio-economic community can therefore be interpreted as a possible form of “managing publicly” which is focused on creating values and following the public interest, and operates through their motivations and values. This triggers a path of human governance in which participation, co-planning, and dialogue are not merely slogans but the modus operandi in actors’ processes of creating value.

Maintaining Gods in Medieval China: Temple Worship and Local Governance in North China under the Jin and Yuan

Maintaining Gods in Medieval China: Temple Worship and Local Governance in North China under the Jin and Yuan Iiyama Tomoyasu Translated by Macabe Keliher Despite the wealth of recent research on China’s middle period, local society and state control in North China under the Jin and Yuan remain unexamined.1 Work to date on middle-period history has given us a greater understanding of the economy and demographics of the Song, but it is confined to trends in the south, taking the Jiangnan region as the focus of research. As such, not much light has been shed on society in North China under Jurchen and Mongol control after the demise of the Northern Song, not to mention the forms of Jurchen and Mongol rule.2 Likewise, although research related to [End Page 71] the politics, economy, and military of the Yuan dynasty and Mongol Empire3 has developed steadily, little work has been done on Jurchen and Mongol rule of the north. In light of this problem, the following article addresses the role of local officials in society and the social and political control they enacted in North China under the Jin and Yuan. Research on the north has not been completely lacking. Indeed, some of the first work on this subject was undertaken by Kobayashi Morihiro 古林森廣, who examined the professional development of local officials as reflected in the Yuan dynasty guanzhenshu 官箴書 (guidebooks for governance), and Elizabeth Endicott-West, who investigated Yuan dynasty local government through the activities of the daruγa (an office created by the Mongols for the purpose of governing conquered territories) and suboffical functionaries (xuli 胥吏).4 However, both of these scholars have only given general overviews of Yuan dynasty provincial rule, and in doing so they consider the dynasty as a discrete unit of time separate from what came before or after. We therefore lack a comprehensive perspective of the developments in North China under Jurchen and Mongol rule since the fall of the Northern Song, and have little understanding of the degree of continuity between the prefectural and county administrations of the Yuan and that of the Northern Song, Liao, and Jin. Furthermore, these studies focused primarily on administrative structures and the nature of the central bureaucracy, but did not address the actual practice of local government or the interaction and intersection of state and society. In attempting to address these issues, I have shown elsewhere that the changing of local power-holders in North China during the Jin and Yuan did [End Page 72] not necessarily coincide with the rise and fall of dynasties. In an investigation of local elite advancement strategies, I pointed to a situation of continuity in local influence and authority from the Northern Song through the Jin and Yuan.5 Given those findings, it is also necessary to investigate local governance and how local officials confronted particular situations in their jurisdiction, and to do so from a trans-dynastic perspective. Furthermore, it is also necessary to look at the local circumstances of officials of the time, as well as how those local officials were evaluated by their predecessors. This will not only reveal developments in local control, but also lead to a consideration of the character and mechanism of that control. What methods, then, will be most effective in getting at these questions? In order to advance research along a longer time frame, I propose to look at phenomena and events diachronically. An arbitrary example of such a method would be irrigation and land reclamation, which by their very nature were long-term enterprises and thus would serve as suitable objects of investigation. However, in undertaking such inquiry, we must be wary of the problem of the paucity of historical records that can provide the necessary details and description for a concrete investigation. For instance, although we should make use of the memorials and personal correspondence of officials, as well as administrative guidebooks, each of these sources has its limitations. We have ample memorials and other correspondence from the early and middle Yuan, but the vast majority of these documents focus exclusively on the policies and circumstances of that period alone and thus cannot serve as primary sources for...