Search results

'Central-Local Relations in Asia-Pacific: Convergence or Divergence?' edited by Mark Turner is reviewed.

This paper examines the impacts of devolving authority for public resource allocation to local governments in a setting of limited electoral control. Such a setting differs from that assumed by seminal formal models of devolution, but describes many developing countries. This study presents a formal model of this setting and tests it using unique data from a natural experiment in rural Ethiopia whereby half of the country's regions were decentralized but not the other half. Employing a spatial regression discontinuity design, this article shows that decentralization strongly improved delivery of agricultural public services, which are of high priority to the central government. In contrast, it did not impact drinking water services, on which the central government places lower priority but citizens place high priority.

SUMMARYIt is widely believed that between 60 to 66 per cent. of local authority expenditure (or income) is met by grants from central government alone. This popularly held view is challenged in this paper through a consideration of the current system of funding. We begin with the rate support grant procedure and identify some common sources of misunderstanding; these concern the definition of the rate support grant itself and the true nature of relevant expenditure. This leads us to examine the question of local authority miscellaneous income from fees, sales, rents and other sources from which we conclude that its contribution is underestimated. However it is general knowledge that besides miscellaneous income local authorities derive their income from two other principal sources namely, government grants and local rates. Accordingly the remainder of the paper examines in turn the contribution of these three sources towards (i) local authority revenue expenditure in respect of rate fund services, (ii) local authority revenue income and (iii) local authority income including both revenue and capital receipts. In no instance does central government's share approach 60 per cent. Thus, it would appear that the contribution of government is being overestimated while that of miscellaneous income underestimated. The implications of this are discussed.

This article examines three key, possible post-devolution trends relating to central-local relations in England, Scotland and Wales. First, the Scottish and Welsh cases indicate that devolution does not inevitably lead to regional centralism and that central-local relations at the regional or intermediate levels are less competitive and more collaborative where a power balance or symmetry exists between the intermediate and the local level. Second, post-devolution differences in how the public services are being restructured in England, Scotland and Wales suggest that the trend towards governance is not immutable but at least partly a matter of political choice. Third, even so the post-devolution policy similarities between the metropolitan centre and the two devolved territories remain pronounced with a pattern of continued policy tracking, through which the dominance of the metropolitan centre is maintained indirectly rather than directly.

Abstract.  The costly lobbying model of Potters and van Winden is confronted with data on lobbying interactions between local assemblies and the national assembly in Norway. A total of 239 interactions are studied. Survey responses by a large number of voters and politicians, as well as registry data on fiscal standing, demographics and elections are utilised. Two of the main predictions of the costly lobbying model gain support in the data. The probability of obtaining substantial discretionary funding from the central level increases: with decreasing conflict of interest between local and central politicians; and with the lobbying cost incurred by local politicians. For a given conflict and cost, however, the rate of lobbying success depends crucially on structural characteristics of the municipality. In particular, the success rate is significantly higher for poor municipalities located in national electoral districts with many seats per voter than for rich municipalities located in districts with few seats per voter.

Advocates of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe before 1989 placed great emphasis on community self-government as the basis of civil society and democracy. After the 'Velvet Revolutions' of 1989 and the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the new states created an elected local government, whereby cities, towns and villages elected their own representatives and started running local services. This unleashed the development potential of urban communities across the region, but also led to the emergence of a different logic based on resource efficiency and service effectiveness. Loc

The Government's main role is to serve the public and ensure the fulfilment of social needs. Public facilities are essential to support the national prosperity and development. Capital expenditure becomes one of the financial instruments that can be allocated to build infrastructures as the part of public service. The research aim to figure out the performance of central and local government in spending the income to public investment. The study conducts ten years analysis to financial report of local government in West Java Province-Indonesia. There are 30 data sample from Bogor, Depok and Bekasi City, that proceeded into statistical analysis using multiple regressions. The result shows that both central and local government have optimize their income capacity especially in dedicated funds and budget surplus toward capital expenditure. The regression remains a significant influence from independent variable to dependent variable. The research contributes to the completion of previous study in the government investment especially the relation of central and local government.

As many countries around the world grapple with political and market reform, lively debate is growing around questions concerning the conditions under which decentralization policies are called for, which policies and strategies work, and how transferable they are. This timely study looks closely at the possibilities for and limitations of decentralization in industrialized, developing, and former Eastern bloc countries. Of particular interest is Part One of the book, which concentrates on an in-depth analysis of decentralization developments in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. Under the themes of (a) political and administrative development, (b) governance and services, (c) services and revenues, and (d) urban and regional dimensions, the book traces the decentralization experiences of the developing countries, the countries of the former USSR and Eastern Europe, as well as OECD countries. The first such comprehensive study of these issues, this volume also boasts several contributions by ministers and senior officials in charge of local reforms in their respective countries. This timely and important look at current developments in decentralization will be of great interest to students of decentralization, regional development, and the transition from centralized to market economies, and to those responsible for creating and implementing the relevant policy

This paper looks at the role of local governement in relation to income maintenance in Britain arguing that, after a period in which it seemed only to be left with residual issues consequent upon the abolition of the Poor Law, it has begun to be drawn back into playing a crucial role in the imple mentation of some of the most difficult and controversial parts of the system of means tests. Whilst in many other policy areas local government's role is being restricted, in income maintenance it is growing but not in conditions of its own choosing.