Evaluating 10 Years' Experiences of Decentralization: The Emphasis of Intergovernmental Relations and Decision-Making Structure

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Tobin Im
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Actual State ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Local Council ◽  
Iron Triangle ◽  
Decentralization Reform

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of the intergovernmental relations in Korea since the decentralization reforms begun in 1991. This study evaluates the Korean experience of 10 years of decentralization has significantly changed the decision-making structure in the country. Even though the apparent framework of tiers and local governments are the same as those before decentralization reform, the real number of decision-making units has increased and a new decision making structure has emerged since the introduction of local elections. The creation of local council as well as the elections of heads of local government brought about the loss of the central government’s controlling power over local governments. However many people are not satisfied with the actual state of decentralization. Constrains and limits that most local governments face support this thesis. In this point of view, the experience of the last ten years can be summarized as ‘controlled decentralization’. However, the central government is not totally responsible for this dissatisfaction. Citizens’ low participation and local governments’ incapacity and inefficiency are also responsible. These resulted in ‘the New Iron Triangle’ Model of decision making.

scholarly journals An Empirical Study for the Establishment of Desirable Relation Between the Local Council and the Local Executive

1994 ◽  
Vol 9 (0) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Chi-Woon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
New Era ◽  
Local Council ◽  
Initial Stage

The re-introduction of legislative bodies at two levels of local government in April and July 1991 through the local elections opened the new era of local autonomy. Local autonomy means the management of local affairs by local government, not the central authority, using local organs. Theoretically, there are several essential advantages of local autonomy : first, it will increase the extent of citizens' participation in local affairs ; second, it will produce effective public service because local governments are more responsive to local demands and more accountable to local inhabitants ; and third, it will function as a means of checking and balancing the central government. In spite of much negative aspects of the initial stage of the two years' experience on local autonomy, our local autonomy system is now being settled in high speed, especially with the launching of Kim Young-sam Administration into the sea of democracy.

scholarly journals Interrogating the Revenue Allocation in Intergovernmental Relations, Fiscal Federalism and Local Government Finance in Nigeria

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Bolanle W. Shiyanbade
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Fiscal Federalism ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
National Income ◽  
Revenue Generation ◽  
Local Council ◽  
Revenue Allocation ◽  
State And Local

This study examined the relationship between fiscal federalism, governance and local government finances in Nigeria, focusing on the administration of local governments and other subsidiary issues on revenue generation in the country. It analysed the legal, institutional and procedural mechanisms for administration, as well as assessed the effect of intergovernmental relations on local government under federal system of governance in the country. This is with a view to providing information on revenue allocation and intergovernmental relations as important elements in understanding and addressing the fiscal federalism on local council finance in Nigeria in the context of their divergent governance experiences since the fourth republic.The paper discovered that beyond the function of revenue generation or allocation, fiscal relations influenced governance positively by creating the expediency of transparency and responsiveness in government as well as a corresponding three levels of government has responsibilities and roles to play in the lives of citizenry in order to bring governance to the grassroots. However, the work found evidences of lack of fiscal autonomy and independent of local government as well as delay in local government election has resulted to poor performance of local administration in Nigeria at large. The results also revealed that a very important factor affecting the local government administration in Nigeria still remains the overbearing contribution of about 93% oil revenue to the national income; a situation that, both state and local governments in Nigeria cannot generate up to twenty five percent (25%) of their expenditure and poor tax culture amongst the citizenry. The study concluded among others that effective human resources, improved strategy, and enhanced capacity building, are critical to improved revenue generation and allocation, which in turn could go a long way to alleviating good governance in Nigeria.

scholarly journals Delegation and Decentralization: Reform Ideas for Bihar’s Economic Transformation

2021 ◽  
pp. 2633190X2199193
Author(s):  
Stuti Khemani
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Policy Selection ◽  
Development Institutions ◽  
Public Policy Implementation ◽  
Decentralization Reform

This article proposes reform ideas for Bihar using advances in economics research on the role of institutions in economic development. Institutions—the formal and informal rules of the ‘game’ of how people interact in society—are fundamental determinants of economic activity and entrepreneurship. Historical institutions of caste-based feudalism in Bihar have been regarded as depressing entrepreneurship and encouraging lawlessness and corruption. New survey data–based evidence shows the potential of two reforms to bring about Bihar’s institutional and economic transformation: greater delegation of public policy implementation in bureaucracies and greater decentralization of public policy selection to local governments. Greater delegation means giving autonomy and discretion to agents in bureaucracies, and promoting professional norms for service delivery rather than hierarchical monitoring and disciplining to achieve performance. Greater decentralization means that more policy choices—such as on the composition of public expenditures, tariffs and fees for public infrastructure—are made by local leaders who gain the power to make these choices by winning more local elections. Communication within bureaucracies and through local media about the performance of public policies is part of these institutional reforms. Taken together, these can reduce the influence of patronage politics and enable the selection of leaders who pursue policies in the broad public interest. In turn, these institutional changes can spur greater economic activity and entrepreneurship, including all social groups in growth and prosperity.

scholarly journals Ideas, Institutions and Interests: The Politics of China’s Energy Policy Change 1996-2015

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yang Gao
Keyword(s):  
Energy Policy ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
National Level ◽  
Scientific Development ◽  
Chinese Government

<p>This study investigates and explains the shift of the relative priority in China’s energy policy in the 1990s and 2000s. Between 1996 and 2015, the priority of China’s national energy policy had shifted from an emphasis on energy supply security to energy demand efficiency. A central question this study seeks to answer is: what forces led to this shift of policy priority?  To answer the question, this study proposes a multi-layered and cross-sectoral analytical framework based on Historical Institutionalism theory. It focuses on the complex interaction between ideas, institutions and interests to understand the politics of China’s energy policy change. This study establishes a model of policy change as a means of institutional adaptation to manage an emerging mismatch between evolving ideational patterns at the national level, and the persistence of certain interest-seeking behaviour shaped by historically-formulated institutions at the subnational level.  With the introduction of the “Socialist Market Economy” idea in the early 1990s, China began to deepen its reform on two sets of fundamental institution that define China’s state-industry relations and central-local intergovernmental relations. Over time, the reforms profoundly impacted the development of China’s two major energy-based industrial value chains, namely the Coal-Metallurgical Value Chain (CMVC) and the Oil-Petrochemical Value Chain (OPVC), by shaping their asymmetrical institutional connections with Chinese government at central and local levels. At the national level, the 1990s reforms helped to build strong institutional connections between the central government and the OPVC, which greatly contributed to China’s energy security in the 2000s. However, decentralising and marketising most heavy industries allowed interest-seeking local governments to build strong institutional connections with the CMVC, causing the 1990s reforms to produce an unintended consequence of heavy industrialisation that has significantly changed China’s economic structure. Such uncontrolled heavy industrialisation, revealed by the country’s declining energy efficiency in the early 2000s, had increasingly went against a new generation of Chinese top leadership’s “Scientific Development” idea. A major energy policy shift was therefore initiated and utilised by the central government to curb the heavy industrialisation. The central government’s institutional connections with the coal-based heavy industries, especially those in the CMVC, were rebuilt and strengthened.  Overall, this study provides a more sophisticated understanding of how ideas, institutions and interests dynamically interact to produce major policy change in the context of a transitional state.</p>

scholarly journals Constitutional basis of Austria’s accession to the European Union

2009 ◽  
pp. 111-119
Author(s):  
E. A. Vodyanitskaya
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Central Government ◽  
National Council ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

On 1 January 1995 Austria became a member of the European Union. Austria’s accession to the EU constituted the most important transfer of jurisdiction in the history of the Federal Constitution. On this occasion the Austrian legislature passed an amendment to the Federal Constitution which provides for the participation of Austrian organs in the decision-making process of the European Union. The legal basis of Austria’s membership in the EU is the treaty on accession to the European Union and the special constitutional bill authorizing the competent authorities to ratify the treaty on accession. First of all, provisions on the election of Austrian members to the European Parliament were introduced by the amendment into the Constitution. Secondly, the amendment contains a procedure for participation of the Austrian lands and local governments in the decisions of the European Union. Thirdly, the legislative bodies on the central government level (National Council and Federal Council) are also accorded the right to participate in decision-making of the EU. Finally, a special provision confirming Austria’s participation in the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the Union was introduced.

scholarly journals PILKADA SERENTAK DAN HUKUM POLITIK: KONTROVERSI KEBIJAKAN PEMERINTAH PUSAT TERKAIT PUTUSAN HUKUM PILKADA KABUPATEN, SIMALUNGUN SUMATERA UTARA TAHUN 2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Ian Pasaribu
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
The Government ◽  
Politics And Law ◽  
Associated Pair ◽  
Electoral Law ◽  
North Sumatra

This study examines, analyzes dna discusses Simultaneous elections Politics and Law: controversy Central Government Policies Related Legal Decisions Election District, North Sumatra Simalungun Where the Year 2015. On December 9, 2015 ago in elections Simalungun which is one of five areas was postponed due Regent Amran deputy candidate Sinaga experienced legal permaslahan. This study uses the theory of Elections, the concept of democracy and the electoral law. This study used qualitative methods with qualitative descriptive analysis techniques. The results of this study are Chronologically elections Simalungun, Inconsistency Regulations, Budget Swelling elections, Process Inaugural JR Saragih. Where the conclusions of this research local elections December 9, 2015 simultaneously experiencing the same problem as well as a substantial permasalahn. Registration problems associated pair of candidates is the responsibility of political parties to avoid any single candidate. On the issue of the availability of budget, the government and local governments need to give a strong political will to urgently solve the problem.

Affordable housing policy development: public official perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 934-951
Author(s):  
Xiang Cai ◽  
Wei-Ning Wu
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Housing Policy ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Housing Policies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Officials

Purpose This paper aims to examine the factors affecting the implementation of affordable housing policies in two Chinese municipal governments. Since 2010, the Chinese government has enforced an ambitious plan to adopt affordable housing provisions accompanying a series of urbanization programs. Furthermore, the policy implementation at the local level has led to various outcomes but has been scarcely investigated. The views of policy implementation from local officials are crucial in the context of intergovernmental relations. Therefore, it is important to examine the views of local public officials on the development status and challenges in the context of Chinese intergovernmental relations. Design/methodology/approach This paper verifies which factors exert significant impacts on the willingness of local officials to adapt affordable housing policies by using the logistic regression model and marginal effect estimation. With original data from the fieldwork surveys of city administrators, the measures incorporated local characteristics as well as the intergovernmental support from the central government in two selected megacities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Findings There are significant differences in local investment between the selected cities. Intergovernmental support from the central government, city development strategies, implementation perceptions of local governments and land supply, all significantly impact the selection of an affordable housing program and its overall implementation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ understanding, this study would be one of the first to empirically explore the view of municipal public officials on affordable housing policy in China. This paper provides an empirical analysis from municipal public officials on the local implementation of affordable housing policies in China. As the outcome of housing policies actually depends on the implementation willingness of public officials and the overall performance of local governments, this explorative study would benefit the future development of China’s affordable housing policy.

Local Autonomy versus Central Control during Transition: Explaining Local Policy Outputs in Post-Soviet Ukraine

10.1068/c25m ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 889-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor L Brown
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Small Enterprise ◽  
Small Enterprises ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Central Control ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Government Authority

Many post-Soviet central governments have assigned numerous policy responsibilities to local governments, but have simultaneously constrained local autonomy in an effort to ensure that local governments pursue central objectives. In this paper, I examine the interplay between local autonomy and central control in one post-Soviet central government—Ukraine—by examining the case of small-enterprise privatization. Shortly after Ukraine's independence, the central government transferred ownership of state-run small enterprises to local governments, but required that local governments meet annual privatization targets set by a central agency. Some local governments have met the annual targets, while others have lagged behind. The results of an empirical analysis of local privatization levels indicate that central control mechanisms currently have limited influence over local decisionmaking. The results demonstrate that, instead, local elections have increased the influence of local groups whose interests do not always coincide with those of the central government. In response, the central government has instituted several changes to the intergovernmental finance system that are likely to increase central government authority and continue to move Ukraine towards a system in which local governments carry a heavy service-delivery load with limited autonomy.

scholarly journals Regulatory and legal support for the establishment and functioning of united territorial communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piddubnyi Oleksii ◽  
◽  
Oleksiuk Viktoriia ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Great Responsibility ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Decentralization Reform

The article examines the issues of legal support for the creation and functioning of united territorial communities at present. It is determined that since 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine have adopted a significant number of normative legal acts that allow for the implementation of the decentralization reform. United territorial communities in Ukraine are the primary source for the formation and implementation of a new policy of sustainable development of the territories of Ukraine. It was found that one of the most important elements of the strategy of management of the united territorial communities in Ukraine is independence, efficiency, managerial innovations, speed and justification of decision-making. The management of this sector is based on the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which provides for the decentralization of power, the transfer of basic powers and resources to local governments, while placing great responsibility on them. It is proved that this policy is based on the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the best world standards of public relations in this area. The legislative basis for a radical change in the system of government and its territorial basis at all levels began to take shape in 2014. It is concluded that for the further successful functioning of the OTG it is necessary to resume work on the bill to amend the Constitution of Ukraine on decentralization; to adopt a new version of the Law of Ukraine «On Local Self-Government in Ukraine»; to amend the Law of Ukraine «On Cooperation of Territorial Communities» regarding the introduction of the procedure for joining territorial communities to existing cooperation agreements; Keywords: united territorial community, OTG, local self-government, decentralization, reform, local self-government bodies

scholarly journals Decentralization of power in Ukraine in the conditions of the COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45
Author(s):  
Hennadiу Kryvchyk
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Regional Parties ◽  
The Social ◽  
Territorial Structure ◽  
The Face ◽  
Decentralization Reform

Decentralization and coronavirus - these are the two words that have recently been most often used in the information space of Ukraine. Therefore, the relevance of the topic of this article is twofold, as it stems from two current social and political issues addressed in the article - the fight against coronavirus and the fateful reform of decentralization of power for Ukraine. The purpose of the article is an objective analysis of the process of decentralization of power in the face of a serious challenge facing the Ukrainian state due to the coronavirus pandemic. The methodology of historical science is used for this purpose. The study is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, specificity, systematics; analytical, descriptive methods were used in writing the article. The events of the final stage of the decentralization reform phase (2020) are considered, when the tasks of consolidation of districts, formation of a new administrative-territorial structure of the country, holding elections to new district councils and communities were solved. At the same time, all this was carried out in the context of the economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, the decline in the living standards of most people, and the decline in confidence in all branches of government. An important problem of decentralization of power has been the balance of state and regional interests, the establishment of interaction between the central government and local elites, mayors of large cities, whose role has increased due to anti-virus measures. An indicator of this was the successful performance in the local elections of regional parties and personally acting mayors. The novelty of the article is that it first considers the reform of decentralization of public administration in an unprecedented pandemic, which threatened the survival of large masses of people, the economy, the social order of Ukraine. Like most countries in the world.

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