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Central-local relation is a critical but overlooked perspective for understanding China's land system. During the last decades, the central government has decentralized considerable autonomy of land development to local governments to encourage the latter to adopt their advantages in local information for economic growth. However, the local government pursues more development-oriented goals, leading land to be an endowment for jurisdiction competition, fiscal revenue maximization, and officials' career advancement at the local level. The discretion of local government, however, is constrained by the central authority. Land quotas, land approval, and, perhaps most importantly, nomenklatura, all of which are controlled by the central government, undermine the credibility and irreversibility of decentralization. We call such a central-local relation limited decentralization, a framework that could be applied to explain a range of land issues such as farmland protection and real estate regulation. Although we believe the central government is the principal determinant of the degree of decentralization, we also acknowledge that the initiative of local governments is essential. The interactions between central and local governments result in rights definition, power distribution, and, consequently, land use policy change over time.

À partir d'analyses anthropologiques et historiques des « primatologies locales » en Afrique centrale, cette contribution montre qu'elles permettent de mettre en lumière les savoirs accumulés et en mutation sur l'alimentation, l'écologie et le comportement des primates non-humains, et elles peuvent également servir de cadre pour comprendre ce que cela signifie de dire que les primates non-humains sont « presque comme les humains ». Le terme « primatologies locales » fait référence à la manière dont des populations vivant à proximité de primates non-humains les observent afin de mieux comprendre leurs rapports sociaux et leurs comportements. Ce terme reprend et étend les débats dans le domaine des sciences sociales sur les « savoirs écologiques locaux ». J'examine ici, à travers une analyse historique et anthropologique, les récits et la manière dont les populations habitant dans la forêt en Afrique centrale entrent en relation avec les primates non-humains, en particulier les grands singes. Cette analyse révèlent d'autres modèles d'humanité, d'animalité, et de changement historique, qui peuvent offrir un socle potentiel sur lequel peut s'appuyer la protection des primates non-humains.

peer-reviewed ; Another year, another minister, another renaming of the department! Changes to the cabinet in June 2017 included the appointment of Eoghan Murphy, TD, as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, and John Paul Phelan, TD, as Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government with Special Responsibility for Local Government and Electoral Reform. Further functional realignment also took place: community functions were transferred to the newly created Department of Rural and Community Development and, at the end of 2017, responsibility for motor taxation was transferred to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Thus, the centralisation of functions traditionally associated with local government continues.

The article investigates the theoretical and practical aspects of the main parameters of state and self-government structures, its interaction in the process of formation and development of the state, its separation from society. The authors make a general description of the state, local government, social sphere. Attention is paid to the issues of relations between local self-government and institutions of the state, society, institutions of human and citizen' rights and freedoms. The objective factors of the relationship between the state and self-government principles are considered, including the degree of socio-economic maturity of society, the ratio and arrangement of social groups. An attempt to determine the role of the individual in the implementation of the harmonization of human and citizen rights and freedoms with the interests of the state and society has been made there.

Central Government refuses to accept the need for freedom of information or open government laws affecting its administration. In 1985, however, the Local Government (Access to Information) Act was passed which constitutes a freedom Of information law for local government. What has been the impact of this statute on local government administration? What problems or difficulties has the legis lation caused and what lessons for good government might the law and its operation hold?

How does local governance operate in the United Kingdom today? 'Modern Local Government' reviews and explains the complex on-going process of post-1997 modernisation in local government.

A common presumption is that decentralization is prone to a potential pitfall owing to the greater vulnerability of local governments to capture by local elites. We investigate the determinants of relative capture of local and national governments theoretically, in the context of an extended version of the Baron-Grossman-Helpman model of electoral competition with lobbying by special interest groups. A number of factors do provide support to the traditional presumption, such as reduced cohesiveness of interest groups, higher levels of voter awareness, and greater electoral competition at the national level. A number of other factors may, however, create an opposite tendency for lower capture at the local level. These include less electoral uncertainty at the national level, and a higher value of campaign funds in national elections owing to their fungibility across different districts. Relative capture also depends on heterogeneity across districts with respect to levels of local inequality and poverty: accordingly decentralization will tend to increase capture in high inequality districts and lower it in low inequality districts. Power-sharing between parties at the national level, due either to coalition governments or proportional representation, limits the extent of national capture. We conclude that empirical research is necessary to investigate the extent and determinants of relative capture.