Better Local Government

Some of the very best writings on issues involving local government can be found in journals published by the American Society for Public Administration or journals with which ASPA is associated. This volume includes thirty of the most outstanding articles that have been published over the past sixty years in these journals. Local Government Management is an ideal supplement for any course in local management and administration, whether the audience is students or practicing professionals.

The federal government and its policies transform Canadian cities in myriad ways. Canada in Cities examines this relationship to better understand the interplay among changing demographics, how local governments and citizens frame their arguments for federal action, and the ways in which the national government uses its power and resources to shape urban Canada. Most studies of local governance in Canada focus on politics and policy within cities. The essays in this collection turn such analysis on its head, by examining federal programs, rather than municipal ones, and observing how they influence local policies and work with regional authorities and civil societies. Through a series of case studies - ranging from federal policy concerning Aboriginal people in cities, to the introduction of the federal gas tax transfer to municipalities, to the impact of Canada's emergency management policies on cities - the contributors provide insights about how federal politics influence the local political arena. Analyzing federal actions in diverse policy fields, the authors uncover meaningful patterns of federal action and outcome in Canadian cities. A timely contribution, Canada in Cities offers a comprehensive study of diverse areas of municipal public policy that have emerged in Canada in recent years.

Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide: An introduction to sustainable development planning

Over the past three decades the developing world has seen increasing devolution of political and economic power to local governments. Decentralization is considered an important element of participatory democracy and, along with privatization and deregulation, represents a substantial reduction in the authority of national governments over economic policy. The contributors to Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries examine this institutional transformation from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives, offering detailed case studies of decentralization in eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda. Some of these countries witnessed an unprecedented "big bang" shift toward comprehensive political and economic decentralization: Bolivia in 1995 and Indonesia after the fall of Suharto in 1998. Brazil and India decentralized in an uneven and more gradual manner. In some other countries (such as Pakistan), devolution represented an instrument for consolidation of power of a nondemocratic national government. In China, local governments were granted much economic but little political power. South Africa made the transition from the undemocratic decentralization of apartheid to decentralization under a democratic constitution. The studies provide a comparative perspective on the political and economic context within which decentralization took place, and how this shaped its design and possible impact. Contributors Omar Azfar, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Pranab Bardhan, Shubham Chaudhuri, Ali Cheema, Jean-Paul Faguet, Bert Hofman, Kai Kaiser, Philip E. Keefer, Asim Ijaz Khwaja, Justin Yifu Lin, Mingxing Liu, Jeffrey Livingston, Patrick Meagher, Dilip Mookherjee, Ambar Narayan, Adnan Qadir, Ran Tao, Tara Vishwanath, Martin Wittenberg