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AbstractWhen a central government deals with local demands, it may strengthen political accountability of the local governments by political decentralization or offer benefits through economic assistance. An authoritarian regime uses economic assistance policy because political decentralization may contradict regime survival. Although economic benefits can be used to buy political support, the distribution of these benefits is seldom equal. We argue that the unequal distribution is more salient in regions where ethnic minorities reside because the unusual demographic composition of those areas make it difficult for the national government to evaluate the performance of the local government who is responsible for the distribution of the economic benefits. As a result, economic assistance may backfire in ethnic regions and intensify their existing conflicts. We develop a simple formal model to illustrate our arguments and explore the cases of Xinjiang and Hong Kong for empirical analysis.

The Nordic model of governance has contradictory features as it is driven both by a passion for equality & a desire to enhance local self-government. Local governments account for around 66% of all public spending. Traditionally, a hierarchical, prefectural model of supervision has served to integrate the local & national levels of the Nordic polities. The hierarchical features of integration have been reduced & new instruments of fuzzy coordination developed. In response to fiscal crises & EU membership more contractual central-local relations are emerging. Relations are changing less in Norway than in Finland & Sweden, due to an economic boom & the "no" to EU membership. Central-local relations are not only increasingly of a multilevel governance character, they are also multilayered in nature: traditional styles & methods persist alongside new approaches, making central-local relations more complex despite efforts to simplify governance. This is above all true for Norway. 1 Table, 10 References. Adapted from the source document.

In England a link has always existed between the central and the local health administrative bodies. This has been helpful in solving problems, standardizing methods, and stimulating local effort through-out the Kingdom.

International audience ; In the fall of 2012 the Italian Government, chaired by Mario Monti, has taken a series of decisions going in the direction of a strong re-centralisation of Italian public administration. In particular it has proposed a constitutional reform transferring back to the State several competencies devolved to the Regions in 2001, and has also proposed to reestablish external ex ante controls on the local and regional expenditure (entrusted to the Court of Accounts, the financial police and the Ministry for the Economy), as well as a strong limitation to the statutory freedom of the Regions.This is in reality only the last episode of a policy orientation that can be only described as centralistic, and that encompasses the reduction of the financial transfers to the territorial government, the proposed abolishment of the Provincia (the county level administration) as a directly elected body, the imposition of a string of stringent rules on the administrations. Actually it has re-established the municipal tax on the real estate thatwas abolished by the Berlusconi government in 2008, but it has also decided that half of therevenue has to be transferred from the Communes to the State: for the first time in Italian history are the local governments that finance the central administration and not viceversa.

Abstract
During one of the worst economic crises that Portugal has faced in the last decades, with a considerable debt to deal with, emigration, population loss, ageing and unemployment afflicted our economy and society, particularly in rural territories. The aim of this article is to access the main local and central government policies to fight depopulation and territorial inequalities, and their attempts at sustainable development. What remains in the Portuguese inland regions and how is it being addressed by the few who still believe in life outside the cities? What is the role of local government in the sustainable development of the territory? All over the country, and particularly in rural areas, there is an urgent need to attract people and investment (Almeida 2017a). What are the main issues addressed by the central government to deal with this problem? For this research, a database was built with the political programmes of the 308 mayors elected in 2013, which were subject to a thorough analysis, and the new socialist government recently approved National Programme for Territorial Cohesion, aimed at promoting a more balanced territorial planning. This article describes the demographic situation and compares the municipalities' economic strategies. The results are yet to be observed, but these new local and central policies at least reflect a change of paradigm from the social-democrat coalition government (2011–15) and introduce a discourse of hope for inland regions, even if the political time of each government (four-year terms) is never enough to solve such complex issues.

RECENT BRITISH GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS AFFECTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT ARE CONTAINED IN WHITE PAPERS ON 'RATES' AND 'STREAMLINING THE CITIES'. THE SECRETARY OF STATE JUSTIFIES SUCH MAJOR PROPOSALS AS THE ABOLITION OF SEVEN MAJOR AUTHORITIES AND THE EFFECTIVE WEAKENING OF THE POWERS OF OTHER LOCAL AUTHORITIES WITH THE SOMEWHAT SIMPLISTIC ASSERTION THAT 'WE (IN BRITAIN) LIVE IN A UNITARY AND NOT A FEDERAL STATE'. WHEREAS THE STRUCTURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD NEVER BE STATIC, A NEED FOR CHANGE IS NOW BEING ARGUED ON A SERVICE-EFFICIENCY BASIS, WHILE THE REQUIREMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS TO GOVERN THE CONURBATIONS IS ALMOST UNCONSIDERED. THE EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS WILL BE TO WEAKEN THE POSITION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RELATION TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT AND AGAIN RAISE SIGNIFICANT QUESTIONS ON THE NATURE OF REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY WITHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF OUR DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM, FAR MORE REAL, RESPONSIVE AND PROXIMATE FOR MOST OF US, AND THE ONLY BODIES, APART FROM THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, WHICH ARE ELECTED.

Decentralisation advocates argue that decentralised governments are more responsive to the needs of the poor than central governments and thus are more likely to conceive and implement pro-poor policies. Recent evidence from a selected group of sub-Saharan African countries is reviewed in a comparative framework that highlights factors associated with success in poverty reduction. (InWent/DÜI)

It is argued that the regional level of the state in Britain has been neglected in recent work on intrastate relations. The aim in this paper is to develop, through the application, development, and amendment of a 'dual politics' thesis, a middle-range theory of the political processes which characterise the regional state level. On the basis of a review and discussion of primary and secondary research materials relating to English Regional Water Authorities and Regional Health Authorities, it is suggested that the 'politics of production' at regional level are characterised by class domination organised through corporatist forms, whereas the 'politics of consumption' at this level tend towards a pattern of bureaucratic and professional closure. Explanations for such a divergence are put forward and the implications for democracy of a growth of state functions at a regional level are briefly explored.

The implementation of fiscal decentralization in Indonesia has been running for 18 years, marked by the increase in the burden on local governments in carrying out it, and the fact that there are still many local government budgets used for personal expenditure. Nationally, there are still 151 regencies/municipalities out of 416 regencies/municipalities in Indonesia, which have more than 50% of the total regional revenue and expenditure budget. Many local governments rely on transfers of funds from the central government in carrying out the role of fiscal decentralization. The dependence of regional government is reflected in the size of the balancing budget used to finance fiscal decentralization, due to the limited revenue from original local government revenue. This paper aims to see do regencies/municipalities finance fiscal decentralization, what is the local revenue for each region and its relation to economic growth, and what is the employee expenditure allocated to each regional revenue and expenditure budget and its relationship with economic growth. This paper uses cross-tabulation analysis with variables of original local government revenue, the proportion of employee expenditure on regional revenue and expenditure budget, and economic growth in 35 regencies/municipalities in the Central Java region. Local income consists of local revenue, balanced budget, and other legitimate income. Regencies/municipalities consist of local taxes, retributions, the income of regional government corporate and management of separated regional government wealth, and other original local government revenue, while the balanced budget is in the form of tax share, no tax share, general allocation fund, and special allocation fund. Research in Central Java Province because it is a Province with the number of regencies/municipalities the second largest after East Java in Indonesia. The results of this study are that in the province of Central Java, there are still 30 regencies/municipalities (85,7%) whose balance funds exceed 50% of their APBD funds, in other words having very low PAD, and employee expenditure is still high. Transfer of funds from the central government to the regions has also not played a major role in driving economic growth. There are strong indications of the inability of local governments to carry out fiscal decentralization so that improvements are needed in the formulation of their policies. One way to increase local government original income is to diversify local taxes, but by paying attention to the situation and conditions of the region so that it does not harm the economy in general. It could also be by developing productive regional businesses while still prioritizing public services. Besides, the government can also carry out efficiency in running its government, for example by training employees and not increasing the number of employees over the next few years.Keywords: 1 Fiscal Decentralization · 2 Economic Growth · 3 Original Local Government Revenue · 4 Personal Expenditure · 5 Regional Revenue · 6 Expenditure Budget

Cover -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- The British Reliance on Identity -- Northern Landscapes and Anti-Thatcherite Positioning -- There is no such thing as political memory!? -- A Fatal Attraction? -- Killing Fields and Poppy Fields -- HMY Britannia -- Reviews: -- Wolfram Schmidgen (2013), Exquisite Mixture. The Virtues of Impurity in Early Modern England -- Gaby Mahlberg & -- Dirk Wiemann, eds. (2013), European Contexts for English Republicanism -- Gert Hofmann & -- Snježana Zorić, eds. (2012), Topodynamics of Arrival. Essays on Self and Pilgrimage -- Addresses of Contributors.