Subnational Leaders Research Articles

The institutionalization of “serial personalization” in Argentina's Peronist Party, 1983–2023

AbstractObjectiveThe purpose of this article is to explain how Peronism, an allegedly personalist party, has managed to institutionalize its internal power struggles and its succession procedures since democratization in 1983.MethodsThe authors employ the common conceptual framework developed for this special issue. Evidence is drawn from public media, scholarly sources, and participant observation. A two‐tier approach to party adaptation is developed to distinguish the capacity to adjust to electoral challenges from the capacity to adjust to governmental challenges.Results and conclusionThe authors develop the concept of “serial personalization” to describe an informally routinized feature by which middle‐rank and subnational leaders transfer their loyalty from one personalistic leader to another as long as he or she delivers the best possible electoral performance and, when in office, fiscal transferences.

Overcoming the constraints of competitive clientelism? Explaining the success of Ghana's poorest region in reducing maternal mortality.

Maternal mortality remains a health challenge that many developing countries struggle to address. Drawing on 64 key informant interviews, this article shows how Ghana's most impoverished administrative region, the Upper East, emerged as a bureaucratic 'pocket of effectiveness' in reducing maternal mortality in a context where national political settlement dynamics are undermining progress in improving maternal health. At the national level, Ghana's progress in reducing maternal mortality has been disappointing because public investments are disproportionately directed to reforms that contribute to the short-term political survival of ruling elites. Competitive electoral pressures have contributed to greater elite commitment towards health sector investments with visual impact, while weakening elite incentives for dedicating resources to interventions that are necessary for enhancing the quality of health. The relatively better performance of the Upper East Region in reducing maternal mortality has been driven by a hybrid form of accountability that combines top-down pressures from the regional health directorate with horizontal forms of accountability that result in a competitive spirit among health workers. These findings show that even in contexts where resources are limited, the capacity of sub-national leaders in devising local solutions to local problems can lead to improved performance of health systems at the sub-national level. The findings also suggest the need for academic debates to go beyond the binary distinctions regarding the usefulness of top-down versus bottom-up accountability measures and focus on building effective and legitimate forms of accountability that run both top-down and bottom-up when seeking to improve health service delivery.

Formal power in informal networks. Distribution of power resources in personalized bureaucracies: the case of Russia’s subnational elites

ABSTRACT The instrumental use of patronage for political appointments and career advancement can be found across all regime types and historical periods. Despite a pronounced academic interest in the political and economic effects of patron-client relationships, little is known about the nature of interplay between informal networks and formal hierarchies. How are formal powers distributed in personalized bureaucracies? The article addresses this question through a cross-temporal case study of subnational government in one of Russia’s regions – Sverdlovsk Oblast. Based on network analysis and negative binomial regression, the article shows that subnational leaders and their clienteles seek to monopolize those formal powers that allow administrative control over other executive agencies, while other coercive, financial, and normative powers are distributed relatively evenly. This pattern persists regardless of institutional context, degree of subnational autonomy, or the shape of informal networks, which signifies the importance of controlling functions that the core of informal networks in personalized bureaucracies performs.

The Role of Sub-National Leaders Implementing the One Health Approach

Successful public health interventions using the One Health (OH) approach require the broad committed collaboration of individuals, institutions and technical and policy organizations from all sectors of society. In many communities, city and district mayors (sub-national leaders) directly control the administrative functions that serve the well-being of their constituents and are important stakeholders in setting and implementing priorities and mobilizing local capacities, resources and concrete action. A multisectoral and transdisciplinary team composed of the Indonesian Ministries of Health, Home and Agriculture and the Association of All Health Offices; the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union); the University of Western Ontario, Canada and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) convinced this established consortium of mayors, the Asia Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT), to join forces and adopt and implement a One Health workshop with fellow Asia Pacific regional city and district mayors and decision-makers in preparation for the November 2022 G20 meeting in Indonesia. The main objective of this workshop was to highlight the pivotal, practical role mayors play in advocacy, action and accountability for current and future diseases at the human-animal-environment interface using the OH approach. The workshop was conducted on 2 June, 2022, with 2544 (1577 on zoom and 967 on YouTube) people attending this virtual event from 16 countries and 431 cities. An overwhelming majority of participants agreed that the OH approach can prevent outbreaks of zoonotic diseases. The mayors committed by signing a political declaration that addressed local challenges through the implementation of local strategies based on international standards using the OH approach. Activities were formulated and initiated to prevent the risks of future disease outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics caused by zoonotic diseases.© The Authors 2023

Intergovernmental policy opportunities for childhood obesity prevention in Australia: Perspectives from senior officials.

BackgroundEarly childhood (from conception to five years) is a key life stage for interventions to prevent obesity. In the Australian Federation, policy responsibility for obesity prevention sits across all levels of government and several intergovernmental institutions, rendering a complicated policy space. There is a gap in our understanding of the role of intergovernmentalism in developing obesity prevention policy in Australia. Given the complexity of intergovernmental structures and initiatives influencing childhood obesity prevention policy, it is important to understand the perspectives of senior health officials within the bureaucracy of government who through their roles may be able to influence processes or new strategies.MethodsDocument analysis relating to obesity prevention in the intergovernmental context provided material support to the study. This analysis informed the interview guides for nine interviews with ten senior health department officials (one interview per jurisdiction).FindingsSeveral opportunities exist to support nutrition and obesity prevention in early childhood including marketing regulation (discretionary choices, breastmilk substitutes, commercial complementary foods and ‘toddler milks’) and supporting the early childhood education and care sector. This study found a widening structural gap to support national obesity policy in Australia. New public management strategies limit the ability of intergovernmental institutions to support coordination within and between governments to address complex issues such as obesity. Subnational informants perceived a gap in national leadership for obesity prevention, while a Commonwealth informant noted the commitment of the national government to partner with industry under a self-regulation model. In this gap, subnational leaders have pursued nationally consistent action to address obesity, including the development of a national obesity strategy as a bipartisan endeavour across jurisdictions. Public officials calculate the strategic possibilities of pursuing opportunities within state agendas but note the limited chances of structural change in the absence of national leadership and funding.

Communication and leadership in times of crisis: analyzing the cultural competency of US state governors during the vaccine administration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to analyze the common vaccine equity practices expressed by United States (US) governors in their COVID-19 press conferences—with a specific focus on equitable vaccine distribution and overcoming vaccine hesitancy—in order to provide an understanding of gubernatorial cultural competency during the vaccine administration phase of the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis article employs a qualitative content analysis of the COVID-19 press conferences held by US governors from November 1, 2020, to August 14, 2021, to inductively identify themes in socially equitable and culturally competent vaccine administration strategies and rhetoric.FindingsThe article finds that common strategies aimed at providing equitable access to vaccines and combating vaccine hesitancy in communities of color include utilizing data to target communities where vaccines are needed, meeting people where they are at by working with community leaders and organizations, addressing language concerns, educating skeptics and appealing to communitarian and familial values. The findings also show that US governors tended to embrace a general prioritization lens rather than focusing on the unique needs of communities of color, with scant attention paid to the historical instances of public health discrimination that have influenced vaccine hesitancy within such communities.Originality/valueThis article provides an understanding of the equitable and culturally competent messages and strategies conveyed by sub-national leaders during the vaccination phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Works Well with Others: Gendered Mediation of Collaborative Leadership Skills

ABSTRACT This research note reports an intriguing finding, reached inductively from textual analysis of newspaper coverage of the leadership attributes of 22 women and men premiers in Australia and Canada. When introducing these newly selected subnational government leaders to the public, journalists articulated their capacity to work well with others as an important leadership competency. Women and men premiers alike were described as inclusive, conciliatory, and consultative, and these qualities were highlighted as integral to effective decision-making and sound governance practices. Our research challenges a central proposition of the gendered mediation thesis: that news coverage of political leaders foregrounds and lauds the agentic qualities traditionally associated with men and masculinity while downplaying and denigrating communal qualities linked to women and femininity. Evidence of media attention to and praise for collaborative leadership traits indicates a feminization of politics that disrupts gender stereotypes in a manner helpful to women’s political ambition.

State-level Citizen Response to COVID-19 Containment Measures in Brazil and Mexico

In Brazil and Mexico, presidents failed to take swift, national action to stop the spread of COVID-19. Instead, the burden of imposing and enforcing public health measures has largely fallen to subnational leaders, resulting in varied approaches within each country and conflicting messaging from elites. We likewise see variation in compliance with social distancing across subnational units. To explain this variation, we contend that citizen responses are driven both by the comprehensiveness of state policies and whether they take cues from national or subnational elites. We hypothesize that support for national and subnational elites, and the nature of the state-level policy response, affect citizen compliance with public health guidelines. In both countries, we find that support for the governor has an interactive relationship with policy response. In Brazil, support for the president is associated with lower compliance. In Mexico, this effect is not present. We argue that these distinct relationships are due to the different cues emerging from each leader.

National multisectoral governance challenges of implementing the Philippines' Reproductive Health Law.

In recognition of the role of reproductive health in individual and national development, the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Law of 2012 was passed in the Philippines after 30 years of opposition and debate. Seven years later, this article examined the cohesiveness of national multi-sectoral governance among state and non-state actors and identified challenges in coordination as part of the first comprehensive evaluation of the landmark policy. Using a qualitative intrinsic case study design and guided by the World Health Organization's systems checklist for governing health equity as our theoretical perspective, we conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with national implementers from health agencies (n = 11), non-health agencies (n = 6) and non-state actors (n = 3) that included civil society organizations (CSOs). Key themes identified through thematic analysis were supported with document reviews of policy issuances, accomplishment reports and meeting transcripts of the RPRH National Implementation Team (NIT). The study found that despite aspirations for vibrant multi-sectoral coordination, the implementation of the RPRH Law in the Philippines was incohesive. National leaders, particularly the health sector, were neither able to rally non-health sector actors around RPRH nor strategically harness the power of CSOs. Local resource limitations associated with decentralization were exacerbated by paternalistic financing, coordination, and monitoring. The absence of multi-agency plans fostered a culture of siloed opportunism, without consideration to integrated implementation. This case study shows that for neutral policies without conflicts in sector objectives, the interest and buy-in of non-health state actors, even with a national law, cannot be assumed. Moreover, possible conflicts in interests and perspectives between state and civil society actors must be managed in national governance bodies. Overall, there is need for participatory policymaking and health-sector advocacy to set health equity as an intersectoral goal, involving subnational leaders in developing concrete action plans, and strengthening NIT's formal accountability systems.

A Treaty for the Rich and Politically Loyal? Explaining the Bilateral Center-Region Treaties in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract This paper studies the signing of bilateral treaties between the federal and regional governments of Russia in the period of 1994–1998. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 64 cases suggests that by signing bilateral treaties in exchange for political support President Yeltsin built a broad coalition with subnational leaders. This strategy allowed Yeltsin to win the 1996 presidential election but, in the long run, contributed to the preservation of authoritarian enclaves in Russia. The results are in line with the argument that authoritarian consolidation in Russia during the 2000s was deeply embedded in the center-region relations of the 1990s.

Do new mayors bring fresh air? Some evidence of regulatory capture in China

This paper provides evidence of regulatory capture in China’s environmental regulation by exploring the relationship between subnational leaders’ tenure and local firms’ environmental protection behaviors. We find that firms discharge more exhaust and make less effort to abate air pollution when mayors’ tenure increases. The results are robust to alternative specifications and measures, but show heterogeneity across regions and ownerships. The intensity of regulatory capture depends on institutional factors and firm characteristics. This study enriches the literature by analyzing regulatory capture under a regionally decentralized authoritarian system and provides clear policy implications for preventing regulatory capture.

Brexit disruption and transborder leadership in Europe

ABSTRACT The turbulence of Brexit threatens to undermine England–European Union (EU) transborder cooperation at the subnational scale. This paper discusses the lived experience of city and regional leaders involved in developing cross-European cooperation during the early phase of the Brexit ‘project’. It contributes to the idea of relational leadership as a framing device for studying leadership in transborder cooperation in the England–EU subnational setting, and surfaces challenges faced by subnational leaders in transborder cooperation during significant policy turbulence. Two main findings of the research have wider relevance for emerging city and regional (place) leadership theory and practice. First, the unanticipated shock caused by Brexit to the supra-national policy environment is impacting significantly on subnational leaders’ ability to maintain good transborder working relationships; and second, continuing non-prejudicial dialogue and meaningful conversations between subnational partners are an antidote to the negative legacies of such policy disruption.

Justification of the need for forming a frame of mutually complimentary industrial innovation centers in the ultracontinental core of the Eurasian space

Growing disagreements between major actors of world politics and economy have aggravated the conflict between leading competing states and caused expansion of geopolitical and geo-economic rivalry. Living conditions of the population of territories located in the most vulnerable places of the Earth, including ultra-continental cores in the countries of the former “socialist camp” (USSR, China, Mongolia) are sharply deteriorating. Creation of a frame-type network model based on the new industrial innovation centers could contribute to the development of these areas. Such centers should pool and reasonably direct available resources to the most competitive and called-for economy sectors capable to provide the best performance of end-use products output. Along with already recognized subnational leaders, agglomerations of Barnaul, Irkutsk, the Tashkent-Shimkent and Rubtsovsk-Semey transboundary industrial hubs, Jiuquan city district of Gansu province are proposed as nodes for the future development of the study space. The prospects for the Rubtsovsk-Semey hub are demonstrated in more detail. Each core of macro-regional development should have its own polymodal specialization bound as to the world economy as to the interests of Eurasian central countries that enables to mutually complement and strengthen these territories. It is emphasized that the joint strategy of development will ensure a full-fledged economic breakthrough in the ultra-continental Eurasian space.

Subnational governance strategies at the extractive frontier: collaboration and conflict in Peru

ABSTRACT The past decade has witnessed profound transformations in subnational territories engendered by a dramatic increase in natural resource extraction. Research to date has concentrated largely on why the transfer of extractive revenues often reinforces a ‘local resource curse’; however, little work has been done on subnational governments’ attempts to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of mining expansion. Drawing on the literature on subnational governance in the context of resource extraction and neoliberal reforms, this study analyses the strategies – confrontational or collaborative – subnational political leaders pursue and the reasons why they pursue them. The findings are based on in-depth field research in two Peruvian subnational regions that are highly dependent on mineral extraction. More specifically, we examine the collaborative strategy pursued in one region and compare it with a confrontational strategy in another. Our analysis indicates that an interplay between institutional capacity and supporting coalitions affects whether subnational leaders undertake a collaborative or a confrontational approach. Based on our findings, we consider the likely effects of these strategies for regional development. By shifting the focus to the agency of subnational leaders, we make an essential contribution to debates about subnational governance in the realm of resource extraction.

Subnational Hydropolitics: Conflict, Cooperation, and Institution-Building in Shared River Basins. By Moore, Scott M. 2018. New York: Oxford University Press.

<i>Subnational Hydropolitics: Conflict, Cooperation, and Institution-Building in Shared River Basins</i>. By Moore, Scott M. 2018. New York: Oxford University Press.

Career cohorts and inter-jurisdictional innovation diffusion: an empirical exploration in China

Previous research on policy innovation diffusion generally focuses on organizational-level mechanisms while disregarding the actor-level diffusion channels. The current study explores how career cohorts among subnational leaders, who are classified based on political ranks and ages, shape inter-jurisdictional innovation diffusion in China. Compared with subnational leaders from different cohorts, those from the same cohort tend to share relatively homogeneous policy information and compete with one another intensely because of the overlapping future career opportunities, thereby creating a particular pattern of policy interdependence across multiple jurisdictions. We perform a directed dyad-year event history analysis to evaluate the diffusion of China’s provincial-level administrative licensing centers from 1999 to 2015. Empirical analysis shows that after controlling for multiple previously identified diffusion mechanisms and internal determinants, the cohort effect among provincial party chiefs significantly increases the likelihood of innovation diffusion in China.

SELECCIÓN DE CANDIDATOS Y RELACIONES DE PODER EN LA ESTRUCTURA DE PARTIDO: ELECCIONES PARA CONCEJO DE MEDELLÍN Y ASAMBLEA DE ANTIOQUIA, 2015

Este texto se encarga de analizar los diferentes mecanismos de selección de candidatos usados por los partidos políticos para enfrentar las contiendas subnacionales, destacando de allí los diversos métodos usados, la calidad del selectorado y los requisitos de los postulantes, situaciones cambiantes de acuerdo con dónde se sitúan los centros de poder (quién realmente toma la decisión), así como la forma en que se tramitan las luchas internas por ostentar este privilegio (las tensiones que nacen entre los líderes locales y nacionales). Para cumplir con este objetivo se usan las experiencias de selección de candidatos de los partidos que participaron en las elecciones de autoridades locales de 2015 en Colombia, específicamente en las de Concejo de Medellín y de Asamblea de Antioquia.

Decentralization, District Chief Executives, and District Assemblies in Ghana's Fourth Republic

The article shows how District Chief Executives (DCEs) exert extraordinary influence on Ghana's decentralization. Analyzing data from Afrobarometer surveys and 100 interviews, the article establishes that DCEs’ position is very complex, involving the exercise of political and administrative functions aimed to influence grassroots support for the president. While politicization allowed the DCEs to perform their assigned functions, it polarized the district assemblies with assembly members divided in support of or against their policies/activities. It further led to conflict and tension between the DCEs, administrators, and Members of Parliament, which proved counterproductive to rural development. Subnational leaders who owe their position to political appointment lack autonomy to pursue grassroots preference. Yet with constitutional reforms that ensure direct election of DCEs, and the creation of a local supervisory body with review and veto powers over DCE policy and administration, responsiveness, and accountability to the people can be encouraged. This, in turn, can foster cooperation/positive interaction among the varying actors and perspectives for effective decentralization.Related Articles Mohammed, Abdulai Kuyini. 2013. “” Politics &amp; Policy 41 (): 117‐152. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12003/abstract Beal, Amanda L., and Leah Graham. 2014. “.” Politics &amp; Policy 42 (): 311‐345. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12077/abstract Danso, Alex. 1991. “.” Southeastern Political Review 19 (): 117‐144. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.1991.tb00052.x/abstract Related Media Zakaria, Hamza Bukari. 2013. “.” Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance 13/14 (November).

Subnational leaders and economic growth: evidence from Chinese cities

This paper studies the role of subnational leaders in economic growth using a unique city-leader linked dataset of Chinese cities for the period 1994–2010. A unique feature of China’s institutional setups is that local leaders are often moved from one locality to another. This feature allows us to compare leaders across cities. Adopting the decomposition method previously applied to linked employer–employee data, we find that leaders have significantly different levels of abilities to promote local economic growth. We also study how leaders’ personal abilities affect their chances of promotion. We find that personal abilities become more important as a leader gets older, and this effect is most pronounced around the median age in the sample. Those results remain robust when we conduct full-information maximum-likelihood estimation of a system of equations consisting of both the growth and the promotion equations.

Taxing with Dictators and Democrats: Regime Effects, Transfers and Revenue in Argentina's Provinces

Political institutions strongly influence incentives to tax. In this article, I examine differences across national regimes in provincial taxation in Argentina from 1959–2001 and compare them to subnational regimes under national democracy. I argue that elections fundamentally shape taxation by guiding career incentives of provincial leaders. Under autocratic regimes, sub-national leaders have strong motivation to tax because they answer to national leaders who reward extraction. I find that national autocrats tax at higher levels, using more difficult taxes. In democratic systems, governors judged by local constituents use political resources to avoid taxation. Governors in closed electoral regimes generally collect less tax revenue than governors in competitive provinces, but this effect is largely driven by national coalition-building and privileged access to national resources. An important difference across sub-national regime type is incidence – closed provinces extract disproportionately from the dependent business sector.