Suchergebnisse

Decentralisation & democratisation have proceeded simultaneously in the post-communist space of East Central Europe. Decentralisation to elected local governments was encouraged to facilitate democratisation, combat corruption & provide better public services & goods. To evaluate the success of such efforts, I examine recently archived (2001, 2002) surveys of local government chief administrative officers from Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia & Latvia. My analysis suggests variation in local government transparency to be a function of the density of political & civil society, & the institutions that mediate between them, as opposed to socioeconomic development or locality size. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

The central research goals of this article are to classify and explain the positions of the 89 state "governors" of Russia with regard to the most desirable federal division of power. The state governors are classified along a 5-item autonomy index based on events data and content analysis of their speeches, declarations, petitions, threats and actions from 1991–1995 as reported in two regional sources. Theoretical propositions derived from four schools of thought (essentialism, instrumentalism, relative deprivation and resource mobilization) are tested to discover which, if any, provide useful insights into the preferences and behavior of regional elites in Russia. In the end, a combined model that synthesizes elements of the above is shown to be most useful in explaining variation in elite positions.

Ziel der Untersuchung ist es, die unterschiedliche Orientierung regionaler Eliten in ihrer politischen Interaktion mit der Bundesebene im föderalen System Russlands zu erklären. Die empirische Basis der inhaltsanalytisch angelegten Untersuchung bilden Daten des "Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press" und des "Open Media Research Institute" für die Jahre 1988 bis 1995. Den theoretischen Hintergrund bilden vier unterschiedliche Erklärungsansätze, die als Essentialismus, Instrumentalismus, relative Benachteiligung und Ressourcenmobilisierung qualifiziert werden. Die Strategien regionaler politischer Eliten werden auf einer Unitarismus-Autonomie-Skala verortet, wobei fünf Typen unterschieden werden: (1) Unitarismus; (2) Befürwortung einer starken Zentralmacht im föderalen System; (3) Befürwortung einer territorialen Föderation; (4) Kantonalismus oder Ethnoföderalismus; (5) Befürwortung der Unabhängigkeit von der Föderation. Die Untersuchung macht deutlich, dass diese unterschiedlichen Strategien nicht konsistent durch einen der genannten Ansätze allein zu erklären sind. Vielmehr werden verschiedene Faktoren in jeweils unterschiedlichem Ausmaß wirksam. Hierzu zählen kulturelle Faktoren, Ressourcenausstattung und politische Ambitionen der Eliten. (BIOst-Wpt)

PurposeThis paper seeks to identify some of the most important drivers of Portuguese local government transparency in their activities over time. The recent literature on good governance has repeatedly identified transparency as central to promoting accountability, preventing corruption and mismanagement and stimulating greater civic engagement. As local government is the main provider of many primary services to the population, evaluating its transparency is especially relevant given that misconduct or maladministration will have a strong impact on the population's well-being. Given increased diffusion of European good governance norms and practices, the authors believe the Portuguese case to be relevant across the EU.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop a dynamic panel data model to evaluate the simultaneous influence of both political and contextual variables on the municipal transparency index (MTI) in 308 Portuguese municipalities during the period from 2013 to 2017.FindingsThe results suggest support for previous studies that found increased Internet enabled transparency in municipalities with low levels of indebtedness (per capita), are more highly populated, are governed by left-wing parties, demonstrating higher levels of financial efficiency. The urban/rural status, measured by population density, is not a significant predictor.Originality/valueThe paper seeks to confirm earlier analyses of these same data over a longer period of years to substantiate the validity of those findings. This is important especially in the context of the political variable, to demonstrate it was not necessarily a particular collection of left-wing mayors, but that the relationship holds over time, across administrations, because the dataset covers two election periods.

Purpose - This paper seeks to identify some of the most important drivers of Portuguese local government transparency in their activities over time. Recent literature on good governance has repeatedly identified transparency as central to promoting accountability, preventing corruption and mismanagement, and stimulating greater civic engagement. As local government is the main provider of many primary services to the population, evaluating its transparency is especially relevant given that misconduct or maladministration will have a strong impact on the population's well-being. Given increased diffusion of European good governance norms and practices, we believe the Portuguese case to be relevant across the EU. Design/methodology/approach - We develop a dynamic panel data model to evaluate the simultaneous influence of both political and contextual variables on the Municipal Transparency Index (MTI) in 308 Portuguese municipalities during the period from 2013 to 2017. Findings - The results suggest support for previous studies that found increased internet enabled transparency in municipalities with low levels of indebtedness (per capita), are more highly populated, are governed by left-wing parties, demonstrating higher levels of financial efficiency. The urban/rural status, measured by population density, is not a significant predictor. Originality/value - The paper seeks to confirm earlier analyses of these same data over a a longer period of years to substantiate the validity of those findings. This is important especially in the context of the political variable, to demonstrate it was not necessarily a particular collection of left-wing mayors, but that the relationship holds over time, across administrations, because the dataset covers two election periods. ; 461E-088F-70B5 | Gonçalo Rodrigues Brás ; N/A

Comparative studies of mass political culture based on surveys, such as the World Values Survey (WVS), typically leap to using aggregate-level statistics for the entire population. No previous analyses of the WVS have examined the value differences associated with a common source of cleavage: ethnicity. The authors test for ethnic differences on 10 democratic values in 16 WVS countries from 1990 to 1993. Ethnic differences within countries on these indicators are often far larger than the aggregate differences between countries. Of 259 paired comparisons between the majority and the minority groups within the 16 countries on the 10 indicators, by chance alone the authors should have found about 13 statistically significant differences; instead, they found 134. Thus, the differences in support for democratic values between ethnic groups within countries are far from just a random phenomenon.