Tier Of Local Government Research Articles

Addressing health inequalities in times of austerity: implementation of a place-based approach in multitiered local government.

This article focuses on how local authorities in England are tackling wider determinants of health and inequalities in their population's outcomes while budgets for public services are diminishing. It reports the experience from one case study engaged in rolling out a devolved, place- and asset-based strategy over multiple tiers of local government. Relating these findings to relevant social theory, we draw out aspects of context and mechanisms of change. We offer plausible hypotheses for the experiences observed, which supports transferability and implementation of place-based strategies in other local authority areas struggling with similar challenges. Findings highlight the importance of high-level and political buy-in, as well as the role of the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential catalyst to rollout. Creating the foundations for a new, place-based working was important for achieving coherence among partners around what local government was trying to achieve. These included investment in infrastructure, both relational and tangible inputs such as organisational and human resources, to establish the conditions for systemic change towards early intervention and prevention. This study identified clear foundations for place-based action, plus enablers and barriers to significant transformation of practice towards asset-based approaches between local authorities, partners and the public.

Green Public Procurement in Spain

We analyse green public procurement (GPP) implementation in Spain by examining thousands of procurement processes for the period 2012 through 2019. Our logistic regressions highlight three main findings: first, the 2014/24/UE directive transposition on public procurements fosters GPP adoption in Spain, its most marked effect being recorded among the more bureaucratic, less flexible, bodies; second, regional and local tiers of government are not as green in their procurement processes when we control for sector effects; and, third, there is a year-end effect that reduces the GPP on central and regional governments.

Political Economy of Local Level Budgeting in Bangladesh: A Critical Analysis

Accompanying the estimation of revenue and expenditure, the local level budget manifests a grassroots area's development plan for a defined period. In Bangladesh, the Union Parishad (UP), the lowest tier of local government, is obliged to prepare its annual budget by ensuring people's participation through various mechanisms and committees following the Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, 2009. With this background, the study explores the UPs' budgeting procedure to identify the influential actors and effectiveness of people's participation from political economy perspectives. Following the qualitative case study approach, this study was conducted on the four Union Parishads in Sylhet, Sunamganj, Cumilla and Narsingdi districts. It follows the in-depth interview and Focus Group Discussion techniques to collect primary data from the UP chairman, members, Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNO), and other members of various UP committees. The finding shows that mechanisms like Ward Committee (WC), Ward Shava (WS), Standing Committee (SC), Planning Committee (PC) and Social Mapping for ensuring people's participation are not working accordingly. In most cases, these committees are confined to the papers. In practice, the budgeting procedure is dominated by the politically and economically empowered groups, e.g. UP chairman and his allies, ruling party members, local elites and bureaucrats, which is hindering the socio-economic development at the grass-root level in Bangladesh.

An Exploration of Vertical and Social Accountability in the Elected Tier of Local Government: Evidence from Kazakhstan

This study explores the functioning of the lowest elected tier of local government in Kazakhstan that governs villages, towns and small cities. While the existing literature on this issue mostly relies on quantitative data, document reviews and comparative analysis with foreign countries, this study explores new angles on the subject through the qualitative interview method. In so doing, this investigation evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the lowest elected tier of local governments, their vertical interaction with higher-level local government and social engagement. The following conclusions have been obtained. First, providing authority to aul akims (heads of the lowest elected tier of local government) to develop budgets from locally collected revenue creates unequal opportunities for service provision. This is because the capacity of such local governments to collect taxes varies by population size, geographical features and remoteness from large cities. Second, aul akims now allocate more funds than before, but financing conditions still make them dependent on higher authorities. Third, recent requirements stipulating that aul akims discuss local issues in a local community meeting have made the heads much more socially accountable. Finally, legislation that regulates the functioning of aul akims is complex and incomplete. Based on these findings, this study suggests a number of practical recommendations for policymakers, contributes to existing knowledge via enhancing contextual information and provides directions for future research.

Styles of inter-municipal cooperation and the multiple principal problem: a comparative analysis of European economic area countries

ABSTRACT Cooperation in the delivery of public services is generally framed as desirable, but it is often hindered by serious collective action problems. The article compares inter-municipal cooperation in seven countries with different institutional settings. It investigates the rules of governance characterising these diverse institutional settings and assesses how they deal with the multiple principal problem. The authors find that in almost all cases, all participating municipalities are represented on the supervisory board of the cooperative entity. In contrast, in other less frequent case cooperation is frequently managed through a different tier of local government, thus circumventing the multiple principal problem affecting inter-municipal arrangements in the other countries.

Manifestation of People’s Participation in The Existing Local Government Acts in Bangladesh

Whether it is agenda setting, policy formulation or implementation, people’s participation at all levels of policy process, decision-making and service delivery has become the prime prerequisite in the prevailing development paradigm. Although in practice there remains huge argument regarding people’s effective involvement in the development process due to unwillingness of the supply side and inefficiency, political ignorance of the demand end, it is an undeniable fact that the government of Bangladesh in the recent past has enacted laws for all levels of local government bodies with especial focus given on the people’s participation in different phases of development process. This study aims at reconnaissance of the degree of rights and opportunity given to the general people to participate in the development process presented in the existing Local Government Acts, both in rural and urban local government tiers. The study mainly focuses on the secondary sources, exclusively on the existing Local Government Acts and ordinances. The study finds that all acts have significantly included the opportunities for local people to participate in the decision-making process. It is interesting to say that the lower the tier of local government, the higher opportunity to participate in decision making process. Social Science Review, Vol. 38(1), June 2021 Page 1-16

Adaptation Strategy with Climate Induced Salinity Disaster in the Coastal Area of Bangladesh

This study examined explanatory responses to saline-water intrusion in the coastal areas of Bangladesh which are renowned for providing ecological and livelihood services. The goal of this study is to look at the different adaption strategies which coastal people have been using to deal with the growing salty water incursion. To this end, the researchers conducted a survey on 100 (one hundred) coastal people (Female 37% & Male 63%) chosen at a random basis from two unions (the lowest tier of local government) namely Perikhali union of Rampal upazila under Bagerhat district and Banishanta union of Dacope upazila under Khulna District at the southwest coast of Bangladesh. Agriculture (30%) and fisheries (27%) were the main livelihoods of the respondents. While looking at their existing problems due to salinity, it is seen that around 65% people are to move 3 - 5 (three to five) kilometres to get water access, low yield from agriculture (47%) and conversion of agricultural land (25%), acute crisis of grazing land (50%), damaged housing of cattle (30%) and fisheries (92%) are being affected due to salinity. Along with the impact, locals also have adaptation like seasonal water storage (31%), desalination (30%) and rainwater harvesting (26%) for water related impact. For agriculture, farmers are rotating crops (32%), cultivating saline tolerant varieties and others have switched from rice cultivation to other crops (30%) and cultivating saline tolerant variety (32%). In livestock, farmers are using better management practices (39%) followed by complete shift of livestock rearing (20%) to other businesses. Shifting from freshwater fish to marine water fish and crab/prawn cultivation (38%) found the most adaptation practices by the communities. For long term resilience to salinity induced disaster, collection of safe water (93%), quality seed (57%), disease control (47%) in livestock and quality hatchlings are the main barriers identified by the communities. For strengthening the current adaptation practices, rainwater harvesting (41%), household filtering of water (34%), ensuring of quality seeds (67%) and interest free loan to women through local NGOs have been stressed by the communities, local government officials as well as civil societies. Changes in land use patterns, use of contemporary technologies in agriculture, crop diversification, growing saline tolerant crops, income sources diversification, cultivating of saline tolerant fishes, utilization of savings, and rainwater harvesting are all prevalent adaptation strategies in the studied area. Moreover, to effectively address salinity in the coastal area of Bangladesh, the study also recommends increasing budget allocation for saline-water intrusion adaptation in the targeted institutions, staff capacity enhancement in water salinity monitoring, and provision of sophisticated equipment and technology.

Public Investment and Regional Resilience: Empirical Evidence from the Greek Regions

AbstractThis paper examines empirically the contribution of public investment expenditures to regional resilience. Analysis is based on a novel dataset including public investment expenditures data decomposed by sub‐categories and disaggregated at NUTS III Greek regions over the period 2000–2017. Results indicate that public investment expenditures had a positive influence on regional resilience during the period of the economic crisis. Decomposing public investment expenditures by type the analysis provides evidence that the decentralized public investment expenditures that were executed through the tiers of local government and those that were related with the secondary and tourism sectors asserted a positive and significant impact on regional resilience. These results are signifying the importance of public policy in regional resilience and could be utilized for the formulation of regional policy during recessions.

Decentralisation and Democratisation in Local Government Focusing Key Development Programs in Bangladesh

The local government system is considered to be the main regulator of good governance in a country. Although the local government system in Bangladesh is very old, it has tiny achievements in terms of its effectiveness, decentralisation of power, democratic practices, and public participation. After the country's independence, almost all the governments have come up with the innovation of different levels of local government structures was just nomenclature. They never allowed the local people to enjoy autonomy by their elected representatives in the way directed by the constitution. On the other hand, various local and international development partners have been implementing various programs to strengthen the local government system in Bangladesh, decentralise it and ensure public engagement in local government. Through which some positive elements have been added to the issue of autonomy and participation of the people in the local government system; however, it is significantly minor than required. This research paper seeks to understand the process of democratisation and decentralisation in the local government system of Bangladesh by fieldwork-based research knowledge and review various initiatives taken for the development of the local government system. Besides, drawing on literature and the observations and research on Union Parishad (the lowest tier of local government in Bangladesh), the interrelationship between local government elections and power structure has also been analysed in this article. Ultimately, this paper argues that the process of decentralisation and strengthening of the local government system in Bangladesh through development interventions. Though the interventions of development programs could have been mammoth achievements in the path of democratisation and decentralisation, the party politicisation has made massive impediments to attain the targets.

When tensions become conflicts: wind turbine policy implementation and development in the Netherlands

Governments all over the world experience institutional conflicts in transforming their fossil-based energy system into a more renewable one. Between national, regional, and local tiers of government tensions rise on meeting renewable energy objectives. Under the institutional arrangement of subsidiarity, decisions on renewable energy policy objectives are taken on the international level, while the implementation of policy increasingly becomes a local responsibility. In this paper, we use an institutional framework to analyze the tensions in interactions between tiers of governments on four cases of Dutch wind energy policy implementation. The analysis offers insights into how tensions emerge in top-down wind energy policy implementation in the Netherlands. Within the four cases, tensions between government tiers are found, serving to constrain local tiers of government to implement local policy and object to top-down development. The results indicate that local issues aren’t sufficiently addressed in higher-tier government policies.

Building the ‘front door’ within a web ecology: Informational governance and institutional shaping of national government webportals

Government webportals are central to governments' web strategy. They are designed to be nodal hubs, or gateways, for encountering government, and as such position government in the online world. Yet the designs of government webportals, particularly their location within wider web ecologies are scarcely studied. In additional to these web ecologies, this paper conceptualises webportals as being located within wider information and institutional ecologies. Methodologically, it comparatively examines the hyperlink structures of the national government webportals of the top ten e-government countries: Australia; Canada; Finland; France; Japan; Netherlands; New Zealand; Singapore; UK; and USA. Different ways governments approach this task are analyzed using webcrawls of the webportals and their neighboring webpages. Variations are considered in relation to the constitutional structures of the countries (i.e. unitary vs federated; centralized vs decentralized).This research highlights information referral versus information repository webportal designs, the latter of which appears to arise more in unitary and city states, than federal states. The hyperlink networks also demonstrate the important structural role of commercial social media websites in half of the countries, revealing a new interactive webportal design. Despite being constructed as whole-of-government entryways, national government webportals typically fail to connect to regional and local tiers of government. The paper provides the basis for assessing the effectiveness of different portal designs and investigating how portal designs arise out of varied government institutional settings.

UDC and e-Service Delivery at Local Government Level in Bangladesh: A Framework for e-Government

This is the age of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which has brought change by being an integral part of governmental service delivery of the twenty-first century. Public service delivery is a great concern for governments. The present government of Bangladesh has realized this fact of ICT and has introduced ICT based Union Digital Centre (UDC), district and upazila web portals to provide quicker and smoother services to the people for creating “Digital Bangladesh”. The main focus of this study is to bring citizens under the whole e-governance system. ICT based UDCs are the main actors for this purpose.
 The present government has set up 4547 service centres at every Union level (the lowest tier of Local Government) which is known as Union Digital Centre (UDC). ICT based UDCs providetime and cost effective some sorts of off-line and online door step services to the rural people.The broad objective of this study is to make an e-government framework at the local government level in Bangladesh by providing e-services through UDC. The specific objectives are: To find out the role of UDC in public service delivery at the local government level in Bangladesh; and to know the effectiveness of UDC in promoting e-government by delivering e-services to the people. This study has attempted a qualitative research approach to obtain its objectives.

Women’s Political Empowerment through Local Government in the Patriarchal Society of Pakistan

The democratic local government empowers community members to decide their destiny. However, it bears different meanings for different people in different socio-cultural settings. This study assesses the intended outcome of the local government system, revived by General Pervez Musharraf’s regime in Pakistan since 2001 regarding women’s political empowerment. In the Devolution Plan 2001, the gender quotas of 33% have been reserved for women in all the three tiers of local government at the district level. However, the existing informal institutional forces like socio-cultural and religious practices did not let women to fully participate and achieve the desired political status. Local women’s representatives have not been able to participate meaningfully in the policymaking at the local level. Therefore, this study suggests revising the design of the local government with a focus on eligibility criteria for the candidates. Moreover, to ensure the political empowerment of women, policymakers should focus on other alternatives like women education, political awareness, and monitoring by the civil society and media.

Electoral Violence in Bangladesh: A Study of Rural Local Government Elections from 2009 to 2016

Election is the cornerstone of democracy. Periodic national elections have been held in Bangladesh since the country gained independence in 1971. But periodic elections have not been held in all tiers of local government until in 2009. Local level elections are held for consolidating local democracy. Four local government elections have been held in Bangladesh from 2009 to 2016. Studies reveal that the role of the government and the opposition is not conducive to democratising the political system at local level through free and fair elections. Among these four elections Union Parishad election in 2016 was the most violent. The election saw many deaths and injuries and many irregularities. Confrontational bipolar party politics, internal disagreement in ruling party, many phases’ election, introduction of party line election and weak role of Election Commission (EC) were responsible for that violence.

Political inclusion and educational investment: Estimates from a national policy experiment in India

I examine whether the “role model effect” of female politicians on adolescent girls' school enrollment comes only from female representation in the lowest level of local government. To do this, I exploit variation in the implementation of seat quotas for women applied to a three-tiered local governance structure in India. Enrollment effects were substantially larger than those previously estimated for exposure to female leaders in the lowest tier of local government. The policy response is larger among girls in poorer households and those with less-educated women in the household, and was commensurate with reductions in idle time and employment in household enterprises. There is no evidence of additional school infrastructure, nor a reallocation of schooling resources. Effect magnitudes imply that more than two thirds of the net effect of the policy comes from female politicians serving in reserved positions other than the village council chairperson seat.

Political Inclusion and Educational Investment: Estimates from a National Policy Experiment in India

In this paper, I examine whether the role model of female politicians on adolescent girls' school enrollment comes only from female representation in the lowest level of local government. To do this, I exploit variation in the implementation of seat quotas for women applied to a three-tiered local governance structure in India. Enrollment effects were substantially larger than those previously estimated for exposure to female leaders in the lowest tier of local government. The policy response is larger among girls in poorer households and those with less-educated women in the household, and was commensurate with reductions in idle time and employment in household enterprises. There is no evidence of additional school infrastructure, nor a reallocation of schooling resources. Effect magnitudes imply that more than two thirds of the net effect of the policy comes from female politicians serving in reserved positions other than the village council chairperson seat.

PROCEDURY ZAKŁADANIA I LIKWIDACJI SZKÓŁ PUBLICZNYCH W POLSCE

W artykule opisano procedury zakładania i likwidacji szkół publicznych w Polsce. Przede wszystkim skupiono się na omówieniu tworzenia i zamykania szkół publicznych, których organem prowadzącym są właściwie jednostki samorządu terytorialnego, to jest: gmina, powiat i województwo. Taki układ treści jest odzwierciedleniem struktury szkół w polskim systemie oświaty, w którym szkoły prowadzone przez jednostki samorządu terytorialnego zdecydowanie przeważają nad szkołami prowadzonymi przez ministrów oraz szkołami publicznymi prowadzonymi przez osoby fizyczne i inne niż jednostki samorządu terytorialnego osoby prawne. W artykule poruszono też kwestię likwidowania szkół publicznych. Szczegółowo został omówiony przepis art. 59 ustawy z 7 września 1991 r. o systemie oświaty.

Leadership preparation and development within a multi-academy trust

There has been a large-scale structural reform of schooling in England during the 21st Century; new ‘academy schools’ have emerged, the organisation of which differs to schooling in the latter half of the 20th Century. These new schools are independent of the middle tier of local government, the Local Authority, and are often grouped within a multi-academy trust (MAT). This article is a case study of two academy schools within a single MAT. Interviews were held with three participants, two principals and a MAT senior representative. The schools differed in their range of leadership preparation and development (LPD) but welcome practice is indicated particularly within one school with a specific emphasis on middle leader development. The paper concludes that if LPD is important for successful schools, then quality assurance systems for LPD within MATs need to be in place and its provision ought not to be left to the marketplace.

Decentralisation without decentralisation: Bangladesh’s failed attempt to transfer power from the central government to local governments

This article addresses decentralising initiatives in Bangladesh with reference, first, to significant literature on decentralisation in the context of development and, thereafter, to a particular reform involving the introduction of the Upazila Parishad (UZP) as a potentially important tier of local government. While the reform heralded a possible expansion of local participation and the taking of responsive local action, the functioning of the UZP has not lived up to the promises and expectations. A lack of a proper transfer of power and responsibility to the elected representatives, the existence of centrally-controlled administration and planning, and the extensive interference of politicians and bureaucrats has limited considerably the capacity of the UZP to operate effectively. Only through a reduction of central control and a recasting of local action will it be able to achieve its significant goals and objectives as a vital form of local government and governance.

The Local in the Imperial Vision: Landscape, Topography, and Geography in Southern Song Map Guides and Gazetteers

Author(s): Lin, Fan | Abstract: This article examines the generation of topographic maps and geographical writings about local regions of the Southern Song (1127­–1279). It identifies two distinct yet interrelated models in the making of local regions in maps and writings: first, map guides (tujing 圖經), which were produced and updated regularly at different tiers of local government for administrative purposes; second, a growing number of monographs, some of them also named “map guides” (tujing) and others “gazetteers” (zhi 志 or difang zhi 地方志), which were compiled by local literati scholars. Upon close examination of these two models, one finds that the local consciousness and identity voiced by the provincial elite were congruous with centralist sentiment and discourse at this time. Specifically, the literati described features of local topographies within an imperial context and in the language of the authorities. Moreover, the wide circulation of these writings also contributed to the collective imagining of a Song Empire in the daily life of the society. In sum, this article argues that there was a close relationship between cartographic discourse and the production of empire at the local level. On the one hand, the state of the Southern Song, traditionally thought to have lost momentum in local control, still proactively maintained regular checks on local geography through mapmaking. On the other hand, local literati strived to establish ties with the central state in various ways while documenting their communities in gazetteers. Keywords: Song dynasty, map guide, tujing, gazetteer, difang zhi, geography, topography