The book provides a the state-of-the-art of local government studies, with an emphasis on contributions by political science. Particular attention is paid to the development of the research agenda in the field, of which a potential future development is outlined.
The book provides a the state-of-the-art of local government studies, with an emphasis on contributions by political science. Particular attention is paid to the development of the research agenda in the field, of which a potential future development is outlined.
Local governments encounter many problems, and although there is not one panacea that works internationally, this book argues that there are mechanisms to improve local situations. By drawing on case studies from the developing world, the authors review best practices in good governance.
In the era of globalization, comparative government and politics have come to the forefront due to the transformations of the social welfare state and the subsequent social, economic, political, cultural, technological and administrative changes. Taking a particular look at local government systems can uncover new perspectives on issues related to globalization, localization, governance, new democracy movements, managerial reformation, and privatization. Comparative Studies and Regionally-Focused Cases Examining Local Governments is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on the role played by local governments in overall administration, types and models of government at the local level, consequences of managerial reformations, and new develops regarding structure, process, personnel, and policymaking aspects of government. Highlighting relevant perspectives from comparative research and case studies, this book is ideally designed for students, government officials, politicians, civil society representatives, and academicians.
Despite the recent economic upswing in many Latin American countries, rural poverty rates in the region have actually increased during the past two decades. Experts blame excessively centralized public administrations for the lackluster performance of public policy initiatives. In response, decentralization reformshave become a common government strategy for improving public sector performance in rural areas. The effect of these reforms is a topic of considerable debate among government officials, policy scholars, and citizensÕ groups. This book offers a systematic analysis of how local governments and farmer groups in Latin America are actually faring today. Based on interviews with more than 1,200 mayors, local officials, and farmers in 390 municipal territories in four Latin American nations, the authors analyze the ways in which different forms of decentralization affect the governance arrangements for rural development Òon the ground.Ó Their comparative analysis suggests that rural development outcomes are systemically linked to locally negotiated institutional arrangementsÑformal and informalÑbetween government officials, NGOs, and farmer groups that operate in the local sphere. They find that local-government actors contribute to public services that better assist the rural poor when local actors cooperate to develop their own institutional arrangements for participatory planning, horizontal learning, and the joint production of services. This study brings substantive data and empirical analysis to a discussion that has, until now, more often depended on qualitative research in isolated cases. With more than 60 percent of Latin AmericaÕs rural population living in poverty, the results are both timely and crucial.
The book educates, enlightens and exposes the students and practitioners of local government to the evolution, development, principles, practices and theories for studying local government; its place in structure of government, its relationship with other governments, source of its revenue, its operations and changes it have witnessed across the world using Nigeria, United States, Britain, France, India and Tanzania as case studies of analysis. The political and administrative structure of local government in these countries were examined, to provide the basis on how these institutions operates, the differences between the single and multi-tier structures in various local government systems. In the book, the reader will learn about the evolution of Comparative Local Government as a discipline, the different phases of the growth and development of the study, the nature approaches and the methodologies of analysis in Comparative Local Government Administrations.
A fresh examination of the relationship between two key issues in the on-going debate on urban governance - leadership and community involvement. It explores the nature of the interaction between community involvement and political leadership in modern local governance by drawing on empirical data gathered from case-studies concerning cities in England, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. It presents both a country specific and cross-cutting analysis of the contributions that communities and leaders can make to more effective local governance. These country specific chapters are complemented by thematic, comparative chapters addressing alternative forms of community involvement, types and styles of leadership, multi-level governance, institutional restrictions and opportunities for leadership and involvement, institutional conditions underpinning leadership and involvement, and political culture in cities. This up-to-date survey of trends and developments in local governance moves the debate forward by analysing modern governance with reference to theories related to institutional theory, legitimation, and the way urban leadership and community involvement compliment one another. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and urban governance, and to all those concerned with questions of local governance and democracy.
This insightful Research Agenda takes a thematic approach to analysing reform in regional and local government, exploring central concepts such as devolution, Europeanisation and globalisation. Expert contributors address key trends in structural change and reorganisation, subnational autonomy and decentralisation, metropolitan governance, and multi-level governance.
Offers a groundbreaking analysis of the distinctive substantive, theoretical and methodological contributions of subnational research in the field of comparative politics.