Search results

Examines reform to decentralized governments in GB & in Eastern/Central Europe -- different types of economic & political systems at different levels of development -- with the observation that the political model has greater power than the managerial reform model to capture pertinent issues regarding central & local government relations. In GB, New Public Management (NPM) has impacted decentralized levels of local & regional government, & has sometimes been seen as a weapon against local government power, function, & jurisdiction, in direction opposition to the decentralizing principle of NPM theory. In Eastern Europe, managerial reform is subordinated to the current issues of constitutional reform, postcommunist development of regional & local government authority, & the development of structures of political leadership. Communist officials who have retained power exert bureaucratic & political resistance to managerial reform. Since NPM reforms must be adapted to the political context of its operation, external aid donors would accomplish more by supporting probity & accountability before promoting market-oriented management reform. 43 References. L. A. Hoffman

Investigates the content & form of the triangular institutional relationship between local government, nation-state, & European Union (EU) institutions as the economy has moved from Fordist to post-Fordist forms of production & work organization. Particular attention is paid to issues of work organization & employment. It is argued that the restructuring of the production process & the organization of work has meant the creation of more active labor policies that regulate the labor market to meet the demands of capital accumulation. Further, discussions with the EU about these processes have been ideologically biased toward market-oriented solutions. Specifically, the principal of subsidiarity that has arisen in these discussions is described as primarily concerned with decentralizing & privatizing social costs of innovation & structural competitiveness at the expense of weakened democratic forms at the local-regional level. Thus, it is asserted that issues of employment & work organization at the EU level will ultimately be decided by positions of power & concerns of expediency, rather than local-regional forms of democratic decision making. 46 References. D. M. Smith

The effects of Brazilian federalism on the process of economic reform are analyzed in the context of the interactions & balance of power between the president & the governors, Congress, & others protecting state interests. Federalism indicators alone -- the resource base of subnational governments, the power of governors, the national Congress' degree of emphasis on subnational interests, & the distribution of government functions across levels -- would give Brazilian state actors leverage over presidents, which was the case in three presidential policy initiatives between 1985-1994 -- state debt containment, state bank control, & fiscal allocation adjustments between the national & subnational governments. This situation was reversed during President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's 1995-2002 regime because of factors specific to his administration, eg, the President's skill in achieving reform, the degree of Congressional backing for the President, & presidential performance. It is concluded that the study of federalism's effects on policy cannot be reduced to institutional issues, but have to include complementary variables. 4 Tables, 81 References. M. Pflum