scholarly journals The Joy of Joining Up: Modes of Integrating the Local Government Modernisation Agenda

10.1068/c0135 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Cowell ◽  
Steve Martin
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Government Reforms

Since 1997, local government in the United Kingdom has found itself at the sharp end of an ambitious programme of potentially far-reaching reforms known collectively as the ‘local government modernisation agenda’ (LGMA). These initiatives are intended to promote ‘joined-up government’ and holistic service delivery—two of the hallmarks of New Labour's approach to public service improvement. To date there has been very little analysis of the ways in which local authorities are approaching this task at a corporate level. The authors examine the theory and practice of joining up policymaking and service delivery in local government. They draw upon an analysis of the perspectives of key actors involved in the formulation and implementation of current local government reforms at the national level and the experiences of a sample of authorities that have been among the most active in seeking to integrate the various elements of the LGMA at local level. The evidence suggests that the superficially attractive logic of more integrated policymaking and service provision, which runs so strongly through current reforms, belies the multidimensional nature of joined-up working. The presentation of the LGMA as a coherent package of reforms therefore disguises the degree to which different forms of joining up may conflict. In particular, the push for closer vertical integration between local and central government, with ever-tighter control being exerted from the centre over priorities and performance, is seen as constraining progress towards more effective horizontal joined-up working at a local level.

scholarly journals Exploring the ‘Shadows’ in the Implementation Processes for National Anti-fraud Strategies at the Local Level: Aims, Ownership, and Impact

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Levi ◽  
Alan Doig
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Strategy Implementation ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This article studies the development and implementation of a nationally drafted strategy for fraud in local government in England. The purpose, relevant to other countries which also face (or evade) problems of policy outreach, is to consider what is required to achieve effective implementation through three broad aspects: aims, ownership, and impact. There is a particular focus on the assessment of the strategy implementation process and what mechanisms translate strategies into effective delivery or what other factors may subvert that delivery. The empirical research draws on the UK government’s 2006 policy review on fraud and the consequential changes between then and 2019, including a number of fraud strategies initiated by the United Kingdom central government. To review implementation in practice, it focuses on the 2011 local government strategy and uses a local-level case study to assess issues concerning aims, ownership, and impact, as well as the effect of other nationally determined policies and agendas. It concludes that without an ‘owned’ strategy implementation process as a whole, national strategies concerning the prevention and policing of fraud in England in the twenty-first century have had—and continue to have—modest impact on practice on the ground at the local level. We find it plausible that this is true elsewhere in the world, not only for crime control but also for other ‘change’ strategies in the public sector. However, testing that proposition is for researchers in other countries. Our aim here is to use this superficially parochial study to raise more universal questions about how policy designers (and academic researchers) need to take better account of circumstances on the ground, the management of strategy implementation and legitimacy, if their strategies are to be more than merely symbolic rhetoric.

scholarly journals Performance of Decentralized Local Service Delivery in Developed Countries: Case Study of Japan

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (35) ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyantha W. Mudalige
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Local Service ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative

Many countries decentralize the administrative, fiscal, and political functions of the central government to lower-level governments. In many developing and developed countries, governments and their policymakers have used decentralization as a means of improving the delivery of local service. Accordingly, this study is based on the delivery of local services to the people by the local governments of Japan as a developed country. The overall objective of this article is to review the performance of decentralized local service delivery in developed countries and based on a case study of Japan. The study also aims to examine the correlation between the revenue and expenditure of local governments of Japan and its trends. Basically, this article has been written based on secondary data materials. This data consists of qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Hence, a qualitative and quantitative descriptive method has been applied to analyse the performance of local government decentralization in Japan, and descriptive statistical methods are used to analyse the data and the correlation between revenue and expenditure. The problem in this research is how the functional political institutions created for local service delivery at the sub-national governments in Japan affects the success of decentralization. This research revealed several findings. The local governments of Japan have a sound institutional system and several powers recognized by the constitution. Japanese local governments monitor over 70% of national works, but a majority of the standard public services are the responsibility of local governments. Karl Pearson’s correlation value of revenue and expenditure is 0.979, and there is a strong positive relationship between revenues and expenditure. In Japan, the highest value of local government spending is on public welfare. It is followed by education, civil engineering works, and general administration, second, third, and fourth, respectively. Also, its central and local administrative institutions are maintained in a mutually dependent and mutually complementary relationship. Most of the local governments are collaborating with the private sector in Japan. As a result, the efficiency of service delivery has improved at the local level. In this way, waste management, which is a major local problem in Japan, is being dealt with closely by the central government and the local governments.

Between the State and the Market: Assessing Impacts of Local Government Reforms in Western Europe

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Kuhlmann
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Government Reforms

This article compares local government reforms in three European countries: France, the United Kingdom (England), and Germany. In the analysis, the author distinguishes between two different types of reform. Firstly, the vertical dimension of the reform refers to the decentralisation of public tasks from the state/central government to local authorities. Secondly, in an illustration of the horizontal dimension, the readjustment of competencies between local authorities and market or non-profit actors is investigated by focusing on the development of privatisation, corporatisation, and contracting out. The paper pursues the following questions: What effects did the decentralisation and privatisation processes cause in the three countries, and did they contribute to performance improvements at the local level? The author reveals that the anticipated positive outcomes of the reforms have proven to be only partially accurate, and that in many cases unexpected and even rather negative consequences have resulted instead.

The Reform of the Scottish Sheriffdoms in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

1977 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann E. Whetstone
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Administrative System ◽  
Uniform System ◽  
High Standards ◽  
And Performance ◽  
English Equivalent

The main feature which distinguishes Scottish local government from English local government in the later eighteenth and most of the nineteenth century is the presence there of professional men—the sheriffs. The sheriff, and later the sheriff-substitute, was the key to the legal and administrative system in the Scottish countries. He had no English equivalent. Essentially he was a representative of the central government who administered justice at the local level. After the reforms of 1748 the sheriff was a bureaucrat in the finest sense—highly trained and efficient. The substitute acquired strict standards more slowly, but by 1830 he too had to meet high standards in training and performance.Before the mid-eighteenth century, the sheriff had hardly been a progressive figure. Indeed, the Scottish sheriff typified the backward state of Scottish local government, a state which had been little affected by the Act of Union. In 1700 Scotland lacked a uniform system of justice. Independent franchise courts and hereditary rights to judicial offices, including that of sheriff, were common throughout the Lowlands. They were relatively rare in the Highlands, because the king's justice had never made sufficient headway to make possible or necessary these particular legal perversions.

Central government patronage, donor aid, and budget performance in local government: testing a mediation effect

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Onyango-Delewa
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Fiscal Federalism ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Future Research Direction ◽  
Mixed Methods Design ◽  
Donor Agencies

Drawing on network and fiscal federalism theories, we investigated central government patronage and donor aid as antecedents of budget performance in local government (LG). A mixed methods design with data collected from 18 LGs, two ministries, and four donor agencies in Uganda was employed. Results revealed that both central government patronage and donor aid predict budget performance. Moreover, autonomy does not mediate the interactions as initially hypothesized. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and future research direction is provided.

scholarly journals Soviets of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Deputies in memorandum of E. G. Gerasimov (Gerasin) of June 14, 1918

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-59
Author(s):  
Tatiana Mikhailovna Akimova
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
Central Administration ◽  
Democratic Centralism ◽  
Internal Affairs ◽  
Socialist Movement

This article discusses the a memorandum of the member of the Control and Audit Committee under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs – Efim Grigorievich Gerasimov (Gerasin). Having supported the socialist movement and subsequently the February and October Revolutions of 1917 since his youth years, the author of the document has analyzed the system of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers 'and Peasants' Deputies that established on the local level in late 1917 – early 1918 and gradually replaced the county self-government. The value of the source lies in the fact that the author of self-censorship revealed the flaws of the new local government, having expressed the concern that they may lead to a civil war in the country. E. G. Gerasimov (Gerasin) dedicated particular attention to the problem of dialogue between the Soviet deputies and central government, and proposed to institute the post of special emergency mediators for controlling the execution of all provisions and “encourage” the representatives of the Soviets. The conclusion is made that the elimination of the existing flaws required the so-called “democratic centralism” in Russia, which suggested the combination of electivity of local administration along with the governing and supervisory power of the central administration. In this regard, the content of the document allows taking a look at the Soviets of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers’ Deputies through the prism of a person who worked in that system, without idealization or “touchup”.

Studies of Central–Provincial Relations in the People's Republic of China: A Mid-Term Appraisal

1995 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 487-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Ho Chung
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
The One ◽  
Central Level

Spatial aspects of power have been relatively neglected in the field of political science in general, with the notable exception of federalism. Many have argued that the study of political power has generally confined itself to the national level and paid scant attention to the interactions between the central government on the one hand and regional and local authorities on the other. Several tendencies have worked against the flourishing of political research on central-local government relations in the last three decades. First, in methodological terms, the “behavioural revolution” that swept the discipline caused a sudden premature end to the institutional analysis so crucial to central-local government relations. Secondly, in thematic terms, political scientists have been overly preoccupied with central-level processes of decision-making while neglecting the politics of central-local relations. Thirdly, in conceptual terms, the rise of “state” as an encompassing concept was facilitated largely at the expense of complex intra-governmental dynamics.

scholarly journals Analyzing Actors’ Engagement in Sustainable Energy Planning at the Local Level in Ghana: An Empirical Study

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2028
Author(s):  
Hassan Qudrat-Ullah ◽  
Mark McCarthy Akrofi ◽  
Aymen Kayal
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Energy Development ◽  
Energy Planning ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Local Actors

Actors play a crucial role in sustainable energy development yet interaction in different contexts is an area that has not received much scholarly attention. Sustainable energy transitions theories such as the Multi-Level Perspective, for instance, have been criticized for not describing precisely the nature of the interactions between actors and institutions within socio-technical systems. The goal of this study was to empirically examine local actors’ engagement and its impact on the planning and implementation of sustainable energy initiatives in the villages and remote areas in Ghana. Using the mixed methodology approach, interviews were performed, focus discussion groups were held, and archival data were collected, and social network modeling and case study analysis was performed. Our findings showed that sustainable energy development at the local level depends on an interplay between local government agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), central government agencies, local communities, and private sector organizations. Despite being the focal point at the local level, local government involvement in sustainable energy planning is limited. In the case of Ghana, sustainable energy planning remains centralized and is manifested in a low level of awareness of local actors on national energy plans. The implication for decision makers is that energy planning functions should be devolved to the local government. Such devolution is expected to ensure the integration of sustainable energies into local government plans for the well-coordinated implementation and effective monitoring of sustainable energy projects.

scholarly journals Seducing for Truth and Justice: Civil Society Initiatives for the 1965 Mass Violence in Indonesia

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Lestari Wahyuningroem
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
The World

The article examines both civil society initiatives that seek to address the mass violence of 1965 and 1966 and the state's responses to them. Unlike other political-transition contexts in the world, a transitional justice approach is apparently a formula that state authorities have found difficult to implement nationally for this particular case. The central government has, through its institutions, sporadically responded to some of the calls from civil society groups and has even initiated policy reforms to support such initiatives. Nevertheless, these responses were not sustained and any suggested programmes have always failed to be completed or implemented. Simultaneously, however, NGOs and victims are also voicing their demands at the local level. Many of their initiatives involve not only communities but also local authorities, including in some cases the local governments. In some aspects, these “bottom-up” approaches are more successful than attempts to create change at the national level. Such approaches challenge what Kieran McEvoy refers to as an innate “seductive” quality of transitional justice, but at the same time these approaches do, in fact, aim to “seduce” the state to adopt measures for truth and justice.

scholarly journals The Implications of Centre-local Relations on Service Delivery in Local Authorities in Zimbabwe: The Case of Chitungwiza

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Tawanda Nyikadzino ◽  
Alfred Gwarega Nhema
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Sewer Pipes ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
And Control ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Effective Service

The area of centre-local relations in local government is a contemporary and topical debate in Zimbabwe. It was on this background that the research on centre-local relations was undertaken with a view to assessing the implications of service delivery in Chitungwiza Municipality (CM). The views of different authorities on centre-local relations were reviewed to further analyse the implications of centre-local relations on service delivery in municipalities. The study triangulated different data collection methods such as key informant interviews, documentary search, in-depth interviews, observation and survey to obtain detailed data on the state of centre-local relations and its implications on service delivery in CM. The findings of the study revealed that centre-local relations between the Ministry of Local Government and the CM are highly centralised. The parent ministry retains overall powers and control over the municipality. The Minister who is supposed to play a strategic role in policy formulation and implementation is involved in the day to day running of the municipality leaving little room for elected councillors and residents in general to determine their own destiny. It has been established that centre-local relations that are supposed to foster independence and autonomy of the municipality has turned into a master-subordinate relationship that has negatively affected service delivery. The study concluded that hyper-centralised governance relations are hindering effective service delivery in the municipality. This has been evidenced by erratic water supply, potholed roads, poor refuse collection and bursting of sewer pipes. The study recommends that the central government through the Ministry of Local Government must grant the municipality more autonomy as a measure of improving service delivery.    

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