Suchergebnisse

In the Netherlands, electronic service delivery has become an important issue in many municipalities. Using the Internet for service delivery is seen as an important element of e-government. Based on 2014-2016 panel-data of ICT service delivery for all Dutch municipalities, we show that there is a large variety among the municipalities in the extent to which they offer their service delivery digitally. We explore the factors that may explain the differences among the municipalities. Some trends can be discerned, most notably the strong relationship of e-government adoption with demographic characteristics, such as population, population density and both older age and younger age groups. Remarkably, we did not find an influence of educa-tion and income. Finally, we did not observe a relation between municipal allocated costs and level of e-maturity, hereby leaving the question open if and how e-government can lead to cost reductions.

This article assesses whether the Local Government Council's Scorecard Initiative, implemented in Uganda since 2009, achieved its intended impact of enhancing service delivery by providing information on the performance of local government. We analyse a district-level panel dataset (2005–2016) with administrative data, as well as Afrobarometer data on citizen perceptions (2005–2017). Empirically, we exploit the phasing in of the scorecard for a meticulous difference-in-difference framework with district-specific trends. The results show some small measurable impacts of the scorecard along the so-called 'long route of accountability' on public service delivery. Scorecard districts appear to spend less of their budgets in comparison with non-scorecard districts. This points to greater budgetary restraint of local government councils in scorecard districts. Although no direct impacts on service delivery can be detected, districts with more electoral competition in their constituencies perform better on one service-delivery indicator, the primary school leaving exam pass rate. Concomitantly, the scorecard impacts on perceptions of corruption, as citizens of scorecard districts perceive the local councillors as less corrupt compared to citizens of non-scorecard districts. This result can be interpreted as an indica- tion of the trust-enhancing effect of government scorecards and civic engagement. Overall, our results provide a quantitative contribution to the literature on accountability by demonstrating that civil society reporting mechanisms about the performance of political representatives only trickle down slowly to improved services. The findings suggest that the sustained implementation of instruments to provide cit- izens with more information about their political representatives may have a positive impact on civil society perceptions as well as relevant political and policy outcomes. Like earlier research, we find that impacts also depend on political competitiveness, thus highlighting the positive role of ...

This aritcle presents the use of an eclectic approach to the evaluation of services to the homeless. The method used combines social network analysis and multiattribute technology to allow for the development of a criterion for the evaluation of an entire collection of services for a geographic area. The factors being considered are the description of the service delivery configuration, the criteria for evaluation, and a strategy for future planning and monitoring.

The paper presents a systematic literature review on local public services delivery mechanisms, in-house provisions, privatization and inter-municipal cooperation, for the period 2007 to 2018, with the aim of reviewing the development of the area under study, identifying which delivery mechanism dominates in a given period, and determining which economic research focus dominates in the area under study. Possible effects on economies of scale, cost reductions, efficiency, and other economic, political, institutional, and social factors in the provision of local public services are examined using a content analytical breakdown. The results show that most of the studies are country studies and, especially in recent years, empirical studies. The choice of local public services delivery mechanisms is mainly influenced by the size of local government, the efficiency of service provision, the available resources and the institutional framework. Politics and market competition also play a role in the decision-making process. Following the recent financial and economic crisis, inter-municipal cooperation is increasingly being researched as an efficient form of service provision.