Local Government: Management or Politics?
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