Local Governance Practices Research Articles

Workforce Diversity and Employee Performance in the Local Government of Kanchanpur, Nepal

Background: In today’s highly competitive governance, diversity has become one of the most critical executive issues, as the local governments have increasingly become diverse concerning their workforce. Diversity emerges in a local government when its members differ from one another. The concept of diversity includes recognizing, accepting, and respecting each difference and understanding that each is unique. Objectives: The main objective of this paper is to investigate the association between employee performance and workforce diversity in the local government of Kanchanpur district. Methods: The study adopted a descriptive research design. Purposive and cluster sampling techniques were used, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from 400 employees of different municipalities of Kanchanpur district. To analyze data correlation matrices, ANOVA tables, and coefficient tables as outputs of regression. Results: The employees in the local governments are becoming more diverse because of the political reforms, the global practice of local government, competitiveness and change in customer preferences, and inclusive participation in the constitution. With the drastic change in politics, the formation of the progressive constitution of Nepal increasing reforms in the last two decades and changing demographics of the labour market local government has become a place for diversity inclusion. Conclusion: The result revealed that ethnicity diversity, educational diversity, and work performance diversity have positive impacts on employees’ performance. Further, physical disability has a negative impact on employees’ performance. This study highlights how workforce diversity affects employees’ performance in the local governments of Kanchanpur district. These results can be used to build strategies to improve the implementation of employee diversity in existing local governments.

Board Response to Transnational Regulation on Corporate Governance: A Case Study on EU Banking Regulation

How does a board of directors respond to stringent transnational regulations on corporate governance? We explore this question in a case study that includes interviews with key governance actors of a bank dealing with regulatory changes in the European Union (EU) initiated in 2010 in response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Our findings suggest that transnational regulations introduced a conflicting prescription to the directors, who were caught between two needs: existing local governance practices and transnational regulatory compliance. Contributing to the international corporate governance research, our findings corroborate the resistance to transnational regulations and the distrust attributable to boards of directors’ role struggles and the invasive accountability mechanisms introduced by such regulations. We, therefore, contribute to the ongoing discussion on how the conflicting layers of corporate governance—local versus global—and how the discontinuities between competing existing practices and the prescriptions of transnational regulations can provoke micro-resistance.

Linking local collaborative governance and public service delivery: mediating role of institutional capacity building

Collaborative governance has received attention among scholars and practitioners for resolving governance issues across the globe. The government of Pakistan emphasizes local collaborative governance practices for resolving complex local problems through efficient public service delivery. This research is planned to examine the impact of local collaborative governance on public service delivery, institutional capacity building and how local collaborative governance influences public service delivery through the mediating mechanism of institutional capacity building. Using collaborative governance theory and collecting data from multisector organizations in the context of Pakistan, the results of this study revealed that local collaborative governance is significantly related to the dimensions of public service delivery and institutional capacity building. This research findings revealed that local collaborative governance engenders public service delivery through the dimensions of institutional capacity building including service capacity, evaluative capacity, and M&O capacity.

New Public Management Practices and Financial Performance of Local Governments in Cameroon

During the previous two decades of this millennium there has been a succession of reforms from New Public Management (NPM) to New Public Governance (NPG) in public organisations in line with the strategic development visions of governments the world over. Central to this is the adoption of private style management techniques to enhance efficient performance in public sector development endeavours. Consequently, a handful of private management practices such as accrual accounting, professionalism, outsourcing, and the use of ICT were introduced in the Local Government of Cameroon. This study sets out to assess the relationship between these NPM practices enshrined in the governance processes of councils and financial performance in Local Governments of Cameroon. The study employs a mix of survey-based research with a triangulated method of data collection. Questionnaires and documentary research are used to collect both financial and non-financial data. From a population of 374 councils in Cameroon, 50 councils and their financial statements as well as books of original account entries are sampled and grouped according to statutory council categories. Both descriptive and inferential techniques are used to know the levels of NPM practices and their effect on financial performance. The results show that professionalism and outsourcing have a positive performance outcome, while accrual accounting and the use of ICT are negative. However the combination of all NPM practices in general is positive. For an efficient performance in the public sector there is need to gradually sequence the integration of NPM practices in the governance and management processes, based on the budget size of public sector entities. There is no one-size fits all policy for the wellbeing of public sector entities.

Assessment of solid waste management practices in Ikere local government, Ekiti State

The study assessed solid waste management practices in Ikere local government area of Ekiti state. The purpose of the study was to find out of solid waste management practice. The descriptive survey design research was used for the study. The sample size of three hundred (300) respondents was used for the study. Five (5) quarters was selected for the study. Five (5) streets were selected from each of the quarters. The simple random sampling technique was used to select sixty (60) houses from each quarter. The instrument for the study contained twenty-nine (29) items structured questionnaire adapted from O’Leary (2014). A test-retest method of reliability was used, using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). A coefficient of 0.67 was obtained at 0.05 level of significance. Chi-Square (x2) was used to test the hypotheses, at 0.05 alpha level. The finding of the study on burning of refuse as a solid waste management practice revealed that, the Null hypothesis was rejected therefore the result was significant. The researcher recommended that adequate attention must be given to waste management in order to safe guard human health.

A New Model for a New Nature

Smart city applications, evolving from technological to socially inclusive, aim to prioritize sustainability and livability. Despite growing interest, a lack of standardized definitions and planning methodologies hinders smart city development. Urban living labs (ULLs), on the other hand, play a pivotal role in implementing smart city solutions, acting as testing grounds for technologies and policies. Their integration into local government practices is essential. However, ULLs in Turkiye, such as the Basaksehir Living Lab and Istanbul Planning Agency, focus on local problem-solving and sustainable development. While ULLs hold promise, it is unclear if they can entirely replace existing urban governance models. Research is needed to assess their effectiveness. Effective collaboration between national and local governments is essential for comprehensive urban planning. Addressing these challenges, the article emphasizes the interaction between ULL and local government by analyzing Istanbul's landscape transformation process and management system as a model for other countries.

The Practice of Local Leadership and Governance in Nepal: A Historical Perspective

The paper aims to study the practice of local leadership and governance in Nepal critically. The historical perspective synthesizing the review of literature and interpretation analyzing the changes over some time is adopted as a method. The practice of local leadership and governance in Nepal has been since ancient times. The kings and states are examples of leadership and governance practice that is mentioned in Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. The great-men theory or charismatic theory of leadership has largely been associated with leadership and the governance system was mainly based on religious and community basis and ultimately utopian ideas. Self-rule was found on a community basis as governance at the local level. Similarly, the charismatic typology of leadership has long been dominant in Nepal. Despite this, leadership has largely been influenced by caste, kin, and noble family. However, with the advent of modernization, the traditional practice of governance and leadership has changed. Nonetheless, questions on leadership and governance have also been raised regarding social transformation and economic growth.

Migration som orsak till samhällets problem

Migration as a cause of social problems – how does the narrative impact local government practices? Even though Sweden has well over half a century’s experience with migration, recently strengthened master narratives of migration and migrants as social problems are generating an impact on policies and practices at the local level. Previous research has identified how narratives of migration and migrants impact policy making and interventions related to migration, integration and accommodation of migrants. This study widens the scope as it identifies how narratives of migration and migrants impact policies and practices in general. Adopting a theoretical framework based on racialisation, decision making and narrative theory, 17 interviews with local government administrators and police officers from a district in Stockholm are analysed. The results show how narratives of migration and migrants are embedded in the causal argumentation of present problems in the district. When practically every problem is argued to have migration as a root cause, policy and practices for solving them tend to target migrants. The article describes how this takes place and the final discussion addresses several risks that follow. First, the quality and efficiency of policy and interventions is at risk when the causality behind a problem is simplified and inaccurate. Second, targeting migrants when addressing the districts’ problems also risk omitting those natives impacted by a problem from benefiting from the solution or relief provided by the local government. Third, there is a risk that the local government strengthens the master narrative of migration and migrants as causing society’s problems. Given the results, an ending theoretical contribution is provided, arguing that a local government is a racialising bureaucracy. Not only is it racialised in its structure, as previous theory has stated, it also actively contributes to the reproduction and development of racialised structures in society at large.

Explaining the Green Development Behavior of Local Governments for Sustainable Development: Evidence from China.

Although researchers have examined organizational sustainability practices, a specific interpretation of local government green development practices remains for supplemental analysis. This study conducted an empirical survey of 53 local officials from departments related to green development to understand the key processes and practices of green development behavior of local governments in China. The key findings indicate that the main stakeholders involved in the green development practices of Chinese local governments consist of enterprises and residents. In part, local government green development practices emphasize the greening of enterprises, especially in the step of process environmental regulation. The new institutionalism theory and the organizational process research provide dependable insights into green development behaviors. Our findings further shed light on the process of cross-sectoral cooperation across local government departments in green development, contributing to local multi-sectoral interactions for regional green development.

Framing School Governance and Teacher Professional Development Using Global Standardized School Assessments

The OECD’s education agenda has been marked since the 1990s by monitoring quality and manufacturing problems and solutions for the so-called knowledge economy. Among the instruments used by the OECD is “PISA for Schools” (Pisa-S), an assessment applied directly to schools worldwide since 2011. In Portugal, it was implemented in 2019 under the designation of “PISA for schools in the municipalities” (PISA-M), claiming to create opportunities for collaborative work between schools to promote the success of local educational policies and the quality of student learning. Taking PISA-M as a policy instrument and building on Coburn problem-framing typology, in this article, the revision of PISA-S to PISA-M is reread to analyze the regulatory rationale for the educational system that PISA-M encodes. This research draws on data from OECD PISA/PISA-S/PISA-M websites and two public hearings with the Portuguese PISA-M coordination in the Portuguese parliament and with education unionists, and in existing research relating to PISA-S. Overall, PISA-M appears to be an instrument to reframe local school governance and teacher professional development practices by capturing problematizations and solutions raised on education, teachers’ development, and how school education should be ordered and coordinated at a municipal scale.

The critical potential of institutional theory revisited — a field study of the rationalisation of budget fairness through agentic actorhood

PurposeThis paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the usefulness of institutional theory to critical studies. It pursues this topic by exploring some of the possibilities for allocating local authority funds more fairly for poor residents. This paper aims to shed light on the institution of budgeting in a democratically elected local government under austerity.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses world culture theory, the study of the devolution of cultural authority to individuals and organisations through which they turn into agentic actors. Based on a field study of Newcastle City Council’s (NCC’s) budget-related practices, the paper uses the notion of actorhood to explore the use of fairness in austerity budgets.FindingsThis paper documents how new concerns with fairness gave rise to new local authority practices and gave NCC characteristics of actorhood. This paper also shows why it might make sense for a local authority that is managing austerity budget cuts and cutting back on services to make more detailed performance information public, rather than attempting to hide service deterioration, as some prior literature suggests. This paper delineates the limits to actorhood, in this study’s case, principally the inability to overcome structural constraints of legal state power.Practical implicationsThe paper is suggestive of ways in which local government can fight inequality in opposition to central government austerity.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative accounting study of actorhood. It coins the phrase fairness assemblage to denote a combination of various accounting technologies, organisational elements and local government practices.

Policy of Fiscal Federalism in Nepal with References of the Practices of Local Government

With promulgation of the constitution of Nepal in 2015, Nepal officially adopted a federal form of government as per as legal and constitutional framework. Constitutionally, Nepal follows the three levels of governance ederal, province and local. All levels of governments have certain economic rights to handle the policy and program in their catchment area. This study it analyzes the constitutional provision of fiscal federalism and the special rights of local government interim of financial rights like tax collection, budgeting making and other revenue sharing activities. Qualitative research design has been followed for this study and analyzed the data on the basis of qualitative paradigm, specially, interpretative mode of analysis. Only secondary source of data collected from library and internet study were used in this study. Findings and conclusion of this study have been based on discussions analysis of the legal provision and practice of fiscal federalism. On the basis of discussion, it is found that practice of fiscal federalism did not effectively practice in Nepal. Without proper fiscal federalism, federal government cannot deliver service to local people. The study will help to formulate plan and policy for proper use of financial federalism.

Communities in Transitions: Reflection on the Impact of the Outbreak of COVID-19 on Urban China

“Community”, as a basic category of urban socio-space, has undergone evolution within academic, policy, and day-to-day life contexts in China. Through years of transitions, a kind of dual community emerged in Chinese cities before the epidemic. It encompassed a “conceptual community” based on the concept of (social) co-governance and an “experiential community” based on citizens’ daily living. The disparity between the two had given rise to a paradoxical situation in local community governance practices. The outbreak of COVID-19 brought fundamental changes to the transition process. Through the analysis of 21 recording reports during the outbreak period, we found that to contain the pandemic, the community epidemic prevention measures necessitated both these communities to overlap within a brief time frame. This led to reinforced community boundaries, the coexistence of multiple actors, the reconstruction of a sense of security-based belongingness, and the reformulation of the governance symbolic system that temporarily resolved the paradoxical governance practices. What happened under the preface of co-governance logic during the outbreak period was the coverage and shaping of the conceptual community over the experiential community, which may continue during the post-epidemic era. This study offers a relatively new approach and valuable insights into examining the long-lasting impact of the epidemic on urban social space and sustainable development in the post-epidemic era.

“Shared Language” Or “Straitjacket”? The Hidden Costs of Legitimising Participation Through Standardised Frameworks

In this paper, we examine how a framework developed by the International Association for Public Participation is used to frame and legitimise the participatory practices of local governments in Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia. We find the association of IAP2 materials with appeals to “best practice” raises questions about the potential consequences of the use of standardised frameworks for participation. While these frameworks encourage a minimum standard for public participation, they may also stifle creative and contextually sensitive participatory planning practice.

A compliance—integrity framework for ethics management: An empirical analysis of local government practice

AbstractThis article examines two approaches to ethics management found in the literature: compliance‐based and integrity‐based, often called the low road and high road. It asks whether both approaches genuinely exist in practice as the literature suggests and whether they are distinct. Data were collected in a national survey of 764 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) on ethics management practices in their local government to find evidence of the approaches. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis showed that CAOs use both compliance‐based ethics, focusing on enforceable rules, and integrity‐based ethics, concentrating on instilling values. Our confirmatory factor analysis showed that both approaches are used in practice, are separate and distinct, but that they are highly correlated. This implies that both approaches are needed to understand ethics management properly. The results challenge existing literature focusing on one approach being dominant and show that both ethics management systems are essential.

Environmental outcomes of climate migration and local governance: an empirical study of Ontario

PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of migration growth on environmental outcomes and local governance and assess how well the existing local municipal governance has responded to the environmental impact of increased migration influx in Ontario, Canada using the annual data during 2012–2021.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the grey relational analysis (GRA) to examine the correlation degree between migrant growth, environmental outcomes and local governance, used coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) to access to what extent the existing local governance systems have responded to the environmental impact of immigrant growth.FindingsResults show that higher immigrant populations are associated with worse environmental outcomes and the need for more municipal environmental investment and service. The present local municipal environmental service in Ontario lags behind in response to the environmental impacts of increased migration. Good local governance practices and environmental services are required to improve the environmental adaptation capacity of host countries to migrant influx.Originality/valueClimate change has been regarded as an important driver of internal and international human migration. The mass influxes of migrants will threaten cities’ environmental quality and put considerable pressure on municipal services. This study provides empirical evidence for Ontario’s municipal environmental governance and relevant authorities on how to deal with the environmental impact of increased migration and contributes to call the attention of other countries to the urban environmental pressure caused by migration influx due to the changing climate world wide.

The principles and practice of local government in the Australian three-tiered system of government: With special reference to the roles of state and local government in New South Wales

The principles and practice of local government in the Australian three-tiered system of government: With special reference to the roles of state and local government in New South Wales

The Right to Participate in the Consultations on the Participatory Budget in the Light of Legislation and the Case Law of Administrative Courts in Poland

In the practice of the Polish local and regional government, participatory budgeting has been used since 2011, and was the first one introduced in Sopot. It is a form of consultation with residents on the allocation of a portion of the budgetary expenses of a unit of the local or regional government, most often a city. This is a special type of procedure in which residents participate in the creation of the budget of a city (municipality), thereby jointly determining the distribution of a certain pool of public funds. In the first years of the application of participatory budgeting in Poland, a very general legal authorization was used to allow consultations with residents. It was only after several years of grassroots use of participatory budgeting that it was regulated in the Polish legal system in the Act of January 11, 2018 amending certain acts. Since then, it has become a mandatory form of public consultation in cities with district rights. The procedure for participatory budgeting in municipalities is generally regulated in Article 5a of the Act on the commune-level local government. The application of participatory budgeting in Poland has resulted in an extensive case law of administrative courts, hence the purpose of this paper is to determine the group of those entitled to participate in public consultations on participatory budgeting in light of the law and the case law of administrative courts. Using the dogmatic-legal method enabled a positive evaluation of the adopted research. hypothesis that the provisions of local law that designate the group of entities entitled to participate in participatory budgeting procedure is restrictive compared to the provisions of the applicable statute.

Legal System Practices of Local Bodies in Federal Governance

The rule of law is the most important concept of modern democratic governance. Through its successful and effective practice, democracy can be made beautiful and alive. Therefore, legal system become the soul of constitutionalism, good governance and human rights. In this context, this study examines legal system practices of Likhu rural municipality of Nuwakot district through document analysis and review method. The study found dilemma among the local Politicians or elected representatives. For them is it still a local government or a division of the provincial and federal administrations at the municipal level? However, it is seldom given much thought that municipal governments have power in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The constitution contains a framework for allocating power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of a government. Nepal's local government practices of the legal system over various time periods.

Council in war: civilocracy, order and local organisation in daraya during the Syrian War

ABSTRACT While scholars have focused on rebel governance in Syria and elsewhere, other forms of governance have been neglected. This article explores the local council established in the rebel-held city of Daraya, Syria. It informs the fields of rebel governance and civil resistance, specifically wartime order, during civil wars and proposes that the forms and practices of local governance in Daraya exhibited a type of governance best labelled as ‘civilocracy’. In contrast to councils in other opposition-held parts of Syria, the council was established and led by civilians who welcomed rebels to work with them. Based on findings from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with former council members, the article finds that four factors were crucial for this form of governance to emerge and to endure. Key wartime events – a massacre and a siege –, earlier experiences of nonviolent activists, local ties, and the creation of a military office created a space for the maintenance of civil-led order. Daraya offers a fascinating example of how community’s norms affected how rebel governance was created and maintained. This research introduces a new concept to explain wartime order and encourages researchers to find causal explanations for the emergence of this particular governance form in other conflicts.