scholarly journals Samorząd terytorialny miasta Kalisza. Doświadczenia minionego dwudziestolecia

2018 ◽  
pp. 37-47
Author(s):  
Agnieszka ŻMURKIEWICZ
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Political System ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness

The reinstatement of local government at the level of the district in Poland in 1990 has resulted in the actual empowerment of local communities, while the local governments have become able to define the goals of local policy that are in line with the expectations of local communities. The local government of Kalisz has taken advantage of the new opportunities to improve the living conditions and standard of living of its citizens since it was instituted. Over the years, due to changes in the political system, related to the establishment of counties, the local government of Kalisz has received new operating opportunities, implementing projects at the level of both districts and counties. The political transformation was complemented by the changes in the election principles of the executive, which has significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the President of Kalisz. The activities of local government have been concentrated on the increasing of social integration by means of taking maximum advantage of local assets and potential. In order to achieve these goals promotional instruments have been employed to encourage foreign investors to investment in Kalisz. A significant part of the local government’s activities concern its longstanding international cooperation with towns in Western, as well as Central and Eastern Europe.

Local Policy and Democratic Representation

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Kelleher Palus
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Political System ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Appointed Officials

In this chapter the author examines the existing literature addressing the broad topic of local policy and democratic representation. She begins with foundational works, lingering controversies, and those explicitly focused on the question of the link between citizen opinion and public policies. The chapter also covers the varied components of the political system and how each serves as a mechanism for policymaking and democracy, including citizenship and political participation, institutions of governance, and elected and appointed officials. She concludes with critiques, future questions, and a call to utilize the great variation of local governments to further our knowledge about the manifestation of democracy and governance.

A Real Or a Marginal Trend in Participatory Budgets in Local Governments

e-Finanse ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-21
Author(s):  
Beata Zofia Filipiak ◽  
Marek Dylewski
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Participatory Budget

AbstractThe purpose of the article is analysis of participatory budgets as a tool for shaping decisions of local communities on the use of public funds. The authors ask the question of whether the current practice of using the participatory budget is actually a growing trend in local government finances or, after the initial euphoria resulting from participation, society ceased to notice the real possibilities of influencing the directions of public expenditures as an opportunity to legislate public policies implemented. It is expected that the conducted research will allow us to evaluate the participatory budget and indicate whether this tool practically acts as a stimulus for changes in the scope of tasks under public policies. The authors analyzed and evaluated the announced competitions for projects as part of the procedure for elaborating participatory budgeting for selected LGUs. Then, they carried out an in-depth analysis of the data used to assess real social participation in the process of establishing social policies.

Self-government and 1911 in China: Revolution or Continuity in the Political Participation in Sichuan Province?

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 165-189
Author(s):  
Monica de Togni
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Sichuan Province ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Western Sichuan ◽  
The Creation

The process that led to the creation of self-government organs, and their activities in the first years of their existence, shows a consistent continuity between the imperial and the republican institutions, but also some changes in the institutional behaviour of the representatives of the local communities before and after the 1911’s revolution. The different meaning attributed to the institutional reforms as they appear to have been interpreted by the Qing Court, from the interpretations by the local society - a tools to control the political activism of the local notables vs a means to play a more active role in the local policy -, did not interfere with the creation of the organs of self-government, a part of the new structure to be built for the constitutional monarchy scheduled through imperial edicts on 27th August, 1908. The local activism and activities, as they are illustrated for Sichuan province through provincial and county archive documents, local gazetteers and reviews, show contradictory tendencies even as relates to some officials, and part of local communities anticipating sometimes the dispositions by the central government for the implementations of self-government, and some resistance by the people who had the right to vote in the participation to the preparatory process for the poll. However, the flourishing of self-government councils of the lower level and the fields of their interventions as representatives of the local communities show a very positive attitude on part of the local communities that continued until Yuan Shikai closed them down in 1914. This study will be concentrating on this aspect and will include, among other things, the case-study of Xuanhan county in north-western Sichuan, where a powerful local lineage played a very relevant role, taking advantage of the disruption of the provincial institutional order.

Political instability and the ability of local government to respond to reputational threats in unison

2017 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Howard Grøn ◽  
Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Reputation Management ◽  
Administrative Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
History Of

This article investigates whether local governments are able to act in a unified manner when responding to reputational threats posed by negative media coverage. Based on an argument that local governments facing political instability are less able to perform in unison, the article investigates a number of expectations, including various types of political instability (council, agenda and policy area instability) and their relation to different types of responses to negative media coverage from the political and administrative actors (communication behaviour, responsibility and blame-avoidant behaviour, and sanctioning behaviour). The article finds such relationships for some of these aspects. The analysis also indicates that the reputational history of a local government is related to the degree of unified behaviour. The empirical analysis is primarily based on a survey sent to all Danish public managers in the three upper levels of the local government hierarchy. Point for practitioners Reputation management has become an area for strategic management in the public sector, not least in local governments. This article demonstrates that public managers need to pay attention to the degree of political instability characterizing their local governments when dealing with reputational threats. If the local government is characterized by political instability, the need to address potential disagreements between administrative and political actors becomes vital. Furthermore, public managers need to take into account the reputational history of their organization as it may challenge the ability to coordinate a unified response across the political and administrative leadership during reputational threats.

Political-Administrative Interface at the Local Sphere of Government with Particular Reference to South Africa

2017 ◽  
pp. 242-255
Author(s):  
Purshottama Sivanarain Reddy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
National Development ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Government Legislation

The ongoing political-administrative dichotomy discourse, which is steeped in public administration history, manifests in uncertainty about how the relationship between politicians and administrative officials should be structured. South Africa was democratized in 1994 and local government has subsequently undergone a fundamental socio-political transformation. “World class” local government legislation, with an entrenched constitutional development mandate, was introduced; however, the large numbers of public protests bear ample testimony to major challenges in basic service delivery. A critical issue impacting negatively on the functionality of the post-1994 local government dispensation is the political-administrative interface. The National Development Plan has mapped out a socio-economic vision to 2030, with stabilization of the political-administrative interface a priority. Consequently, the political-administrative interface has to be critically reviewed relative to the quality of local democracy, impact on efficient and effective service delivery, and good local governance.

Public Libraries and Local E-Government

2009 ◽  
pp. 647-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Access Point ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Primary Location ◽  
And Training

Many residents and local communities rely on public libraries for access to and training to use e-government. Many local governments direct citizens to the public library for help in using e-government, while citizens seek help from the public library in using local e-government when they have no other means of connecting or when they want help using e-government. As a result, public libraries now serve not only as instrumentalities of local government, but as a primary location for access to local e-government and a very successful link between citizens to e-government. As residents, communities, and governments rely on public libraries as a main access point to e-government, it essential to better understand the connection and education roles of public libraries to improve the delivery of local e-government.

scholarly journals Critique of the functional assignment architecture of Punjab’s local governance legislation of 2013 & 2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moazzam Ali Janjua ◽  
Rainer Rohdewohld
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Functional Assignment ◽  
Institutional Strengthening ◽  
Government Legislation ◽  
New System

In 2013 and 2019, the local government legislation of the province of Punjab in Pakistan saw two rounds of major changes – each of which led to a new local government Act being passed. In 2013 the changes were driven by constitutional and judicial requirements and in 2019 by the political will of Pakistan’s new coalition government. This article analyses and compares the functional assignment (FA) architecture of the two Acts against a set of parameters. The study finds that marginal improvements to the FA architecture introduced by the 2019 Act are offset by continuing inconsistencies and lack of clarity over ‘who does what’ in the functions assigned to local governments. The authors suggest that improving the functionality of local governments requires full implementation of the design features of the new system, including institutional strengthening of provincial-level entities which regulate and oversee the local government system.

Pensions in the Trenches: How Pension Spending Is Affecting U.S. Local Government

2020 ◽  
pp. 107808742096486
Author(s):  
Sarah F. Anzia
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Significant Variation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Government Services ◽  
Almost Everywhere ◽  
Key Features

Some experts claim that U.S. local governments are experiencing dramatic increases in pension expenditures and that pension spending is crowding out government services. Others maintain that serious pension problems are limited. This issue is important to political scientists, urban scholars, and policy practitioners, but no existing studies—nor the datasets they rely on—allow evaluation of whether pension expenditures are rising or how they are affecting local government. This article analyzes a new dataset of the annual pension expenditures of over 400 municipalities and counties from 2005 to 2016. I find that pension expenditures rose almost everywhere over this period, but there is significant variation in that growth. On average, local governments are not responding to rising pension spending by increasing revenue. They are instead shrinking their workforces. Moreover, I find that the magnitude of the employment reductions due to pensions varies with key features of the political environment.

Virtus Romana

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina Balmaceda
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Political System ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Ideal

The political transformation that took place at the end of the Roman Republic was a particularly rich area for historical analysis. The crisis that saw the end of the Roman Republic and the changes which gave birth to a new political system were narrated by major Roman historians who took the Roman idea of virtus as a way of interpreting and understanding their history. Tracing how virtus informed Roman thought over time, the book explores the concept and its manifestations in the narratives of four successive Latin historians who span the late republic and early principate: Sallust, Livy, Velleius, and Tacitus. Balmaceda demonstrates that the concept of virtus in these historical narratives served as a form of self-definition which fostered and propagated a new model of the ideal Roman more fitting to imperial times. As a crucial moral and political concept, virtus worked as a key idea in the complex system of Roman socio-cultural values and norms which underpinned Roman attitudes about both present and past. This book offers a re-appraisal of the historians as promoters of change and continuity in the political culture of both the Republic and the Empire.

scholarly journals Local Government Efficiency in German Municipalities

2013 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Geys ◽  
Friedrich Heinemann ◽  
Alexander Kalb
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Cost Efficiency ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Global Efficiency ◽  
Government Efficiency

AbstractThis article evaluates German local governments' cost efficiency using a sample of 1,021 municipalities in the state of Baden-Württemberg for the year 2001. We thereby concentrate on overall or 'global' efficiency scores—rather than estimate efficiency for one particular service—and explicitly account for exogenous or non-discretionary influences. The latter not only corrects for influences possibly beyond the control of local policy-makers, but also allows some indication of the determinants of such 'global' efficiency. Our results indicate that there is a substantial divergence in efficiency across municipalities despite a homogeneous institutional setting. As especially smaller municipalities appear less efficient, these results support a case for policy programmes aimed at boundary reviews or more extensive inter-communal cooperation among small municipalities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document