Local Governance In The Global Context

Local governance has become a subject of particular interest, even in the context of globalization. As a bottom-up strategy, it aims is to increase the opportunities for civil society to engage in affairs of their own. As a top-down strategy, it wants to mobilize all endogenous potential available to improve political steering capacity. This book examines the theoretical approaches towards citizens' participation and provides case studies that indicate a varied menu of contemporary local democracies, urban and regional governance in Europe (Germany, Sweden, and Italy), Asia (Korea and Taiwan) and the US. (Series: Politikwissenschaft - Vol. 172)

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the role of local governments around the world in the management of the migration, integration and development nexus. Drawing on case studies from the Global North and South, this comparative work fills a lacuna in the existing literature which has focused largely on migration as addressed by European and North American cities. Further, it widens the current debate by confronting northern experiences with attitudes and strategies observed in sending countries; clearly demonstrating that international mobility has become a global issue for cities at both end of the migration spectrum. This innovative work will provide a valuable resource for students and scholars working in the social sciences, public policy and development; in addition to practitioners and policymakers.

"Good local governance" reflects the dual functions of local government. On the one hand, democratic regimes gain input legitimacy by responsiveness and by being inclusive towards the preferences of their citizens. On the other hand, they achieve output legitimacy by effectively delivering public goods and services. Their governance strategies follow three major paths - "decentralisation," "political administrative reforms" and "participatory reforms". But national contexts, actors, political culture and path dependency matter a lot. In this book continent-wide developments are compared by using relevant country studies. This comparative approach focuses on "developing countries" in Asia, Africa and Latin America, comparing and contrasting their experience with that of European countries

Contributors provide insights into key themes impacting local governance in two federations with much in common historically, culturally, and politically: Australia and Canada. These essays examine changes in the Australian and Canadian systems through four thematic lenses: citizen participation in government systems, the restructuring and reform of local governments, the use of performance measures and management systems in the administration of local governments, and the relations of local governments within higher levels of governments.

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

This book provides a new institutional economics perspective on alternative models of local governance, offering a comprehensive view of local government organization and finance in the developing world. The experiences of ten developing/transition economies are reviewed to draw lessons of general interest in strengthening responsive, responsible, and accountable local governance. The book is written in simple user friendly language to facilitate a wider readership by policy makers and practitioners in addition to students and scholars of public finance, economics and politics.