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Recent worldwide financial crisis puts local governments under sever stress to change and reshaped their strategy, attitude and commitments to citizens in order to control spending patterns. Cutting-back services, breaking contracts, rethinking welfare and additional austerity measures are a worldwide path that local governments follow to handle financial adversities. In this trouble times, although keeping in mind the need to ensure the basic conditions for local government to perform its functions and the capacity to implement them, several actors struggle to reshape urban governance, according to their preferences (Pierre 1999). Political parties, unions and interest groups are joined by engaging citizens and aggressive media to build new forms of social ties (Clark 2000). The way in which rules, values and behaviors are established can alternate the equilibrium between the elements of urban governance forcing a change in kind and nature. Oscillations occur in a democracy-efficiency continuum promoting four alternative forms of urban governance: autocratic efficiency, democratic inefficiency, democratic efficiency and autocratic inefficiency (Waldo & Miller 1948; DiGaetano & Strom 2003; Norris 2012). The goal of this paper is to analyze the different divers that constrain the settings of urban governance. The paper claims that urban governance is the grass root for a compatible combination among civic engagement, political responsiveness and efficient mechanisms of service delivery. The main hypothesis of the paper suggests an optimal level of democracy translated into an invert U-shape relation between democracy and efficiency. Using a quantitative approach, the paper collects data from all Portuguese local government and builds two set of indexes to test the hypothesis. Findings confirm the supported argument and contribute to some clarification on the interaction between democratic procedures, and managerial initiatives to achieve higher standards of democracy.

Comunicação apresentada na 30th Sunbelt Social Networks Conference, em Riva del Garda, Itália, a 3 de Julho de 2010. ; This paper draws on the conclusions of an international research project on EU Enlargement and Multi-level Governance in European Regional and Environment Policies. The project's main goal was twofold: first, to evaluate the impact of Europeanization of public policy on the governance structures of three traditionally unitary countries (Ireland, Portugal and Greece), and their response, in terms of learning and adaptation, to the European environment in the regional and environmental policies; and second, to identify the appropriate reforms that new member states (Poland and Hungary) should undertake, in order to facilitate the adaptation and adjustment of their public policy structures to the European environment. Focus is given to institutional formal and informal networks that sustain the policy-making process and its relation to EU policy, which were analyzed with SNA methods, namely, density, centrality and structural equivalence measures. This methodology allowed the research to identify points of resistance to change and to assess the level of expertise involved in the policy-making process and subsequently of the presence of relevant forms of governance. More centralized networks (Ireland and Poland; Portugal in regional policy; Hungary in environmental policy) were associated with the concentration of power in state actors; More dense networks (Ireland, Poland and Portugal), however, enabled better levels of informational flows and knowledge exchange. Structural equivalence revealed pattern similarities among central state actors on the one hand, and more peripheral ones on the other. On the basis of these findings, a new research program is proposed to address unanswered questions, with recourse to more sophisticated SNA methods.

Recent changes in Public Administration brought local government management to a new era. In recent years we witnessed a huge transformation in this reality. Early forms of organization, control and coordination of public goods have been replaced by other forms of organization such as contracting-out, private/public partnerships and public enterprises and agencies. Using a transactions cost framework, along with financial situation analysis, environmental complexity and political degree of stability we seek to find relevant factors that drive local government choices regarding the coordination mechanisms in the provision of public services.

In the last decades of twentieth century, the subject of the administrative reform started to be in the agenda of great part of the governments of the industrialized countries. It is in a change context and of new challenges of the Administration that the New Public Management appears as a model of the Administrative Reformation. Thus, the introduction of market mechanisms and the adoption of tools of private administration are presented as a model on the basis to solve the problems of efficiency of the public administration. The New Public Management appears as a microeconomic perspective of privatization and puts stress on private management style in Public Administration. It argues an alteration on the organisational structures and relations, the introduction of management processes and tools, and the delimitation of performance indicators. The main objectives are the specialization, the decentralization, the fragmentations and autonomy of public structures and the increase of the efficiency. Thus, the followed way is the differentiation, which is a natural trend of the different areas of Public Administration to seek a higher identification of values and procedures within working environment. If this identification is a way for the efficiency, according to Lawrence and Lorsh (1967), it has to be complemented with an inverse movement of integration. Then, after a first phase of specialization, the creation of new economic agents, imposes a phase of higher need of coordination to really achieve sustained efficiency (Rhodes, 1996). In this line of reasoning, the agenda to public administration reforms has a new issue, the management by networks. This means that, in a macroeconomic perspective, the delivery of public services is made through partnerships between multiple agents (private, public and non-profit) - The Virtual Organizations -. The solution to the production and coordination mechanisms of any services had been, during much time, underlying in the Hierarchic Market dichotomy (Coase, 1937; Williamson, 1996). The enterprise strategies were centered in the horizontal integration, the market competition and the knowledge specialization. Nowadays, hybrid solutions are preferred, where the strategy is the creation of partnerships and sharing information. The knowledge and the information are dispersed through the market and each agent uses them in their most profitable way. Thus to get higher levels of efficiency and satisfaction of the customer, the competition must give place to complementary structures between organizations. That is, the performance and the levels of innovation of each one of these organizations are dependent of its capacity of cooperation and share of information, what for itself leads to the creation of a virtual organization. Since Government is under a great pressure to accomplish higher levels of efficiency in Public Administration, it is its tasks and responsibility to encourage the creation of Virtual Organizations, that can be defined as an association of some specialized agents in a way to produce a final output that maximizes the utility of the citizen. It matters therefore to analyze this new model of public management. Our work is to understand the valences and the feasibility of the creation and implementation of the Virtual Organizations as well as its impact in the installment of the Public Service. It is our intention to consider it a new conceptual model of public administration and to clarify some inherent dimensions, such as the factors that are in the basis of its origin and creation; the role played for the State and public agents; the financial mechanisms; the evaluation and control methods; the analysis of the inter- organizational relations; the role of the citizen in these new forms of organization.

This database is related to the voter turnout in five election cycles (2001, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017). The data was used in the original in the article "The effects of amalgamations on voter turnout: Evidence from sub-municipal governments in Portugal" (DOI:10.1016/j.cities.2020.102685). The evolution of turnout in Portuguese sub-municipal units (SMUs) has followed the trend of western democracies and recorded a continuous drop. The 2013 territorial reform of SMUs contributed to the increment of the gap of electors that choose not to cast a vote in the elections. Data provides further details on how the territorial reform had an impact on the level of electoral participation. It also adds data on SMUs turnout divided by type and whether or not SMUs were merged.

Income inequality, including income poverty, has been a major source of debate and concern in our world. In the last decades, inequality has been increasing in richer countries. The aim of this research is to explain and compare income poverty and/or its control in the European Union 28 Member States, during the crisis years (2007-2013). We use Schmidt and Sickles (1984) time-invariant inefficiency model to estimate a single equation stochastic production frontier model and derive inefficiency measures. The output and inputs of the model are respectively the control of poverty, per capita GDP, and per capita redistributive policies (total public spending on Education, Healthcare, and Social Security, per capita). The estimated frontier mirrors a Kuznets's surface with two input variables, allowing to derive the latter. Results show that per capita GDP and per capita redistributive policies produce a positive effect on controlling income poverty. Results also show that the most efficient Member States in controlling poverty inequality are not necessarily the wealthiest ones.

Public administration is forced to strike a balance between efficiency and democracy in defining its agenda and course of action. One of the characteristics of public administration is that all decisions must reflect democratic values, in addition to being efficient. Nevertheless, administrative reform, motivated by financial stress, tends to highlight the importance of financial performance whilst overlooking the democratic and political aspects of public management. This research seeks to analyze the link and tension between efficiency and democracy in light of the latest global financial crisis. The research uses a quantitative approach and collects data from Portuguese local governments to test the argument of an inverse linear relationship between financial performance and democratic procedures. Findings confirm Waldo's argument (1948) of an inverse relationship while the evidence gathered shows that the financial crisis increased the negative effect of democratic procedures on financial performance. ; La administración pública se ve obligada, en el decurso de su acción, a encontrar un equilibrio entre la eficiencia y la democrácia en la definición de su agenda y curso de la acción. Una de las características de la administración pública es que, además de ser eficiente, todas las decisiones deben reflejar los valores democráticos. Sin embargo, la reforma administrativa, motivada por el estrés financiero, tiende a poner de relieve la importancia de los resultados financieros, pasando por alto los aspectos democráticos y políticos de la gestión pública. Esta investigación busca analizar la relación y la tensión entre la eficiencia y la democracia en el decurso de la reciente crisis financiera global. El trabajo utiliza un enfoque cuantitativo y recoge datos de los gobiernos locales portugueses para poner a prueba el argumento de una relación lineal inversa entre el rendimiento financiero y los procedimientos democráticos. Los hallazgos confirman el argumento de Waldo (1948) de una relación inversa, mientras que la evidencia reunida muestra que la crisis financiera incrementó el efecto negativo de los procedimientos democráticos en el desempeño financiero. ; A administração pública é forçada a encontrar um equilíbrio entre eficiência e democracia na definição da sua agenda e curso de ação. Uma das características da administração pública é que todas as decisões devem refletir valores democráticos, para além de serem eficientes. No entanto, a reforma administrativa, motivada por dificuldades financeiras, tende a destacar a importância do desempenho financeiro, em detrimento dos aspetos democráticos nas políticas de gestão pública. Esta pesquisa visa analisar a relação e tensão entre a eficiência e a democracia à luz da mais recente crise financeira global. O trabalho utiliza uma abordagem quantitativa e recolhe dados de governos locais portugueses para testar o argumento de uma relação linear inversa de desempenho financeiro e procedimentos democráticos. Os resultados confirmam o argumento de uma relação inversa, definida por Waldo (1948). Adicionalmente, os resultados também permitem concluir que a crise financeira evidenciou o efeito negativo dos procedimentos democráticos no desempenho financeiro.

New Public Management reform puts an all-new perspective on public managers and politician's accountability towards citizens. It tends to shift public administration to an open system making citizens an important stakeholder. Public participation has been reported as frequently used in service delivery and management (mostly budgetary) decisions. Public administration scholars and practitioners analysed, in the last decade, the different ways of citizens participation, their motivation, impact on public management and public officer opinion concerning citizen's co-management (Yang & Callaham, 2007; Handely, Milam, & Howell-Moroney, 2010; Wang, 2001). This paper proposes to test the relation between the mechanisms to voce citizen, political responsiveness and citizen political culture. Firstly, we argue that citizens participation is greater and meaningful according to the level of ethical responsibility displayed by politicians. The second explanation is based on the degree of citizen political culture and agues that in jurisdiction where citizens are more aware of and more motivated to follow public policies, there will be a higher level of public participation. Finally, we argue that there are contextual factors, that also play and important role in this accountability process. We gathered data for this paper from a survey conducted among local governments in Portugal. Citizen Participation, as a dependent variable, was studied in two alternative dimensions: on the one hand, use of participation mechanism and on the other decision making process. In the survey respondents were asked to rank how often they use participation mechanism and in which specific decision making process. As independent variables, we use political responsiveness and citizen political culture. Responsiveness to participation values was obtained from a ranking based on respondents' perception on public participation. Citizen political culture was measured using a set of three indicators: concentration of mass media; education level; electoral participation. ; The authors would like to express their appreciation for the research assistance provided by Catarina Magalhães. We acknowledge the support .The Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation provided financial support for this research. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Portuguese Science