Search results for " Government"

Non-competitive Elections at the Local Level and the Incumbency Advantage of Mayors – Research Experiences from Poland

2021

The objective of this paper is an attempt to answer if non-competitive elections to commune councils in Poland may be the result of incumbency advantage of mayors. The author assumes, that the effects of incumbency advantage of mayors in influence not only the competition for the office of mayor, but also the entire local political scene. These effects may weaken the competitiveness of elections and lead to the cartelisation of local political scenes. In extreme cases, it may even cause the degeneration of political pluralism and lead to non-competitive elections at both the executive and legislative levels. The paper analyses relationships between the competitiveness of elections at the lo…

Civic crowdfunding: A new opportunity for local governments

2021

Abstract In civic crowdfunding, local communities are asked to financially contribute to projects aimed at the regeneration of an area. Usually a local government acts as a co-funder. This paper employs a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to discover which conditions are combined and may result in the collection of a significant amount of funds. Five conditions were selected: the nature of project, the number of backers, the number of rewards, the percentage of backers that did not require a reward and the percentage of rewards not required during the fundraising campaign. The study used a sample of 40 Italian successful civic crowdfunding rounds sponsored and match-funded by a loc…

Contract Renewal in Urban Water Services, Incumbent Advantage, and Market Concentration

2020

Contract renewal with the incumbent is common practice in the contracting-out of public services. It could, however, affect competition by reinforcing trends towards market concentration. This article contributes empirical evidence on the determinants of the result of public tenders for the renewal of private provision of the urban water service. A dataset with information on 215 public tenders held in Spain between 2008 and 2019 is employed. The methodology is grounded in logistic regression techniques. The findings indicate that incumbents' size does not play a role in the proba-bility of alternating between service providers. Furthermore, competition−proxied by the number of bidders−and …

Accrual financial reporting in the public sector: is it a reality?

2014

Although modernization of governmental accounting has led to the implementation of accrual financial reporting, budgets in most continental european countries, including spain, continue to be based on cash or modified cash methods. Consequently, cash-based and accrual- based financial information coexist. this may create problems for the full implementation of accrual financial statements. this paper analyzes the differences in practice between the results disclosed in financial and budgetary statements under both bases of accounting in order to identify to what extent accrual accounting has been implemented and to verify whether budgetary and accrual- based financial figures are significan…

Shining castles and humans of metal/floral appearance ? metaphorical language in the Palaiologan romances Kallimachos and Velthandros

2019

About eight centuries after Heliodorus, the Greek novel resurfaced in the twelfth century, in Komnenian Byzantium, and again two centuries later under the Palaiologan dynasty. This latter literary revival was due to the political stability of the imperial Byzantine government, which promoted cultural production, rhetorical education, and patronage networks. Kallimachos and Velthandros, two Palaiologan romances presented as court literature, combine ancient and medieval tropes with rhetorical artistry to blur the boundaries between the artificial and the natural. Castles and objects made of precious metals thus resemble living, natural spaces, and human characters are portrayed in metallurgi…

W. Phillips Davison (2006). A Personal History of World War II. How a Pacifist Draftee Accidentally Became a Military Government Official in Postwar …

2008

Gracia y gobierno en la administración valenciana del seiscientos. Hacia nuevos consensos

2015

Desde 1645 dos miembros de la nobleza local entraron a formar parte de la sala criminal de la Audiencia valenciana. Como consejeros de capa y espada asumieron competencias en materias de gracia y gobierno. Con esta medida se introdujo una moderación del arbitrio virreinal en tales ejercicios. Pero, sobre todo, la corona convirtió a la pequeña y mediana nobleza del reino en nueva colaboradora de su política de control estamental. From 1645 two members of the local nobility came to form part of the Criminal Chamber of the Valencian audience. As Ministers of «capa y espada» took powers in matters of Grace and Government. This measure was introduced a moderation of the Viceregal discretion in s…

Who is willing to pay for science? On the relationship between public perception of science and the attitude to public funding of science.

2012

This article examines the relationship between the general public's understanding of science and the attitude towards public funding of scientific research. It applies a multivariate and discriminant analysis (Wilks' Lambda), in addition to a more commonly used bivariate analysis (Cramer's V), to data compiled from the Third National Survey on the Social Perception of Science and Technology in Spain (FECYT, 2006). The general conclusion is that the multivariate analysis produces information complementary to the bivariate analysis, and that the variables commonly applied in public perception studies have limited predictive value with respect to the attitude towards public funding of scientif…

Data Backup Dilemma

2016

When the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, several municipalities lost their residential data including backup. Since none of them had ever considered the total loss of data, data backup policy had been paid little attention. In many cases, the backup tapes were simply stored inside the server room, just beside the server rack. Following the calamity, the Japanese national government tried to introduce a data backup system to municipalities using the cloud. The purpose was to secure the safekeeping of backup data. However, municipalities were reluctant to go along with this since overcoming the loss of network connectivity during an earthquake remained foremost in their minds. The…

Video surveillance and security policy in France: From regulation to widespread acceptance

2011

This article presents a historical account of the introduction and use of video surveillance cameras in France. Specific reference is made of the introduction of regulatory and legislative arrangements and to political debates surrounding the provision of video surveillance cameras. A feature of the French context has been a desire by national government to install cameras more widely in public places and a resistance to do so by local regions (departments). This highlights a traditional tension between central and local government in France and the significance of political rhetoric to the ongoing installation and operation of video surveillance cameras.