Search results for "Local Government"
showing 10 items of 140 documents
Territorial fragmentation in post-communist Romania: the not so curious case of a de-amalgamation reform
2021
Abstract The efficiency-driven trend towards amalgamation characterising local government reforms in Europe seems to have escaped Romania, which displays a significant increase in the number of local governments post-1989. This is the result of rural first-tier local governments splitting into smaller units. The paper examines objective factors and subjective motivations that have shaped the behaviour of both national and local actors in dealing with territorial reform. First, it explores the rationale and rationality of a central government initiative to facilitate municipal splits against a set of criteria derived from the literature. Second, it examines the municipal splits occurring bet…
Urban Blight and Redevelopment: An Urban Participation Path
2018
This paper pays particular attention to one of the many participatory models present in the landscape of urban and territorial planning. Specifically, the ACTION PLANNING model was chosen; a model used in Anglo-Saxon countries to identify the problems and needs of the inhabitants of a given territory, through the involvement of interested parties or stakeholders. The model is applied in Sicily, to Villaseta, a small rural settlement, located southwest of the city of Agrigento, which consists primarily of affordable and social housing. It is a suburb without identity, left to itself, where – despite the valuable cultural, historic, scenic, and most importantly human resources – one notes the…
E-Government Challenges and the Role of Political Leadership in Indonesia: The Case of Sragen
2008
In general, developing countries are lagging behind in e-government adoption compared to developed countries. Within Indonesia, there is a huge disparity in e- government implementation between districts. This study presents e-government challenges and the role of political leadership in the rural district of Sragen, one of the leading districts in implementing e-government in the country. The study focuses on the supply-side of e- government, and categorises the challenges in three main areas; management, infrastructure, and human factors. Initiatives taken to deal with these challenges are presented and strong political leadership is found to play an important role.
The Governance of Metropolitan Areas: Problems and Alternatives in the Spanish Case
2013
In federalist thinking, a constant is the tension in defining optimal levels of government, its territorial scope and functions. These questions are particularly difficult at the local level. This is where we find that the differences between various forms of structuring local governments are vast. This is the case from the point of view of their legal status. In Spain, for example, we find municipalities, provinces, island authorities, counties, metropolitan areas, communities, consortia, local entities below the municipal level and other juridical forms. However, it is also the case from the point of view of their socioeconomic characteristics. Thus, for instance, it is difficult to compa…
EA as a tool in change and coherency management - A case of a local government
2010
In order to lead a local government towards its politically set strategic objectives, the vision of the overall status quo, as well as of the desired target state of the complex multi-agent system have to be clear. To encounter the challenges of the change management in merging six former local governments into one, in forming a new NPM related operation model, in planning and leading strategic political objectives, and in order to leverage on the information usability produced in everyday governance practices, a Government Enterprise Architecture (GEA) method has been adopted in the city of Kouvola in Finland. The study is a case study by action research adopting the Finnish GEA method in …
Assessment of Socio-Economic Status Relevance for Latvian Electoral Participation
2016
In many countries, there is increasing concern about the decrease in the level of electoral participation in all types of elections. The situation in Latvia is not an exception. Despite the fact that the first scientific studies of electoral participation analysis date back to the 1940s–1950s, it is still relevant today to understand and explain the factors that affect the citizen’s choice (not) to participate in elections. The goal of this chapter was to find the factors that influence participation in elections in Latvia, and indirectly how it may affect local government and urban governance processes in the country. Using data from two elections in Latvia—local elections in 2013 and elec…
Local Government Reforms in Latvia, 1990-2003: Transition to a Democratic Society
2004
This case study of Latvian local governments focuses on the qualitative aspects of reform legislation passed and implemented between 1990 and 2003 as the best available measures of changes made. Special attention is given to historical influences and inherited Soviet practices, the uncertain and conflicting value systems of reformers, and a gradual shift to concerns about the services provided. Power relationships are examined, together with the funding of local governments and minority relations. It is anticipated that in 2005 Latvia will adopt new elected regional development boards to work with the EU and other external institutions, leading to more democratic and cooperative modes of go…
Quality of government and economic growth at the municipal level: Evidence from Spain
2021
This paper analyzes the relationship between quality of government and economic growth at the municipal level in 1,820 Spanish municipalities during the period 2008–2015. At this level of dis- aggregation, the literature is virtually non-existent due to severe data constraints. To address this limitation, we proxy institutional quality with a measure of local government efficiency, which provides an accurate indicator of how good local authorities are at managing their budgets. This variable is expected to be highly correlated with other more traditional quality of government indicators such as corruption. After computing our measure, we then use it in a growth regression framework. We find…
Public choice of urban water service management: a multi-criteria approach
2013
Local policy makers in developed countries have to make decisions in increasingly complex scenarios. Consequently, they should use all the tools available when deciding which management option is the most suitable for urban water service, given how important that service is and the variety of criteria involved in making such a decision. This article employs ‘analytic hierarchy process’ techniques to perform an ex post analysis of the decision to transfer the management of the urban water service in Granada (in southern Spain) to a public-private partnership. The main conclusion is that the decision was rational, in that it was the best possible alternative considering the hierarchy of prefe…
Bartomeu de Tresbens, metge i astròleg de Pere el Cerimomiós : aproximació biogràfica i diplomatari
2019
Aproximació biogràfica a Bartomeu de Tresbens, físic i astròleg al servei del rei Pere el Cerimoniós i del seu fill l'infant Joan, futur Joan I el Caçador. Ho fem a partir del conjunt de la documentació sobre aquest personatge que fins ara ha estat descoberta als arxius, fonamentalment a l'Arxiu de la Corona d'Aragó, i també a partir de les notícies que apareixen en el conjunt de les seves obres sobre astrologia. Hem situat Tresbens en els seus orígens occitans, així com en el context de les activitats econòmiques, polítiques i socials durant el temps que el tenim documentat en terres de la Corona d'Aragó, mostrant l'home que hi ha al darrere de la més important obra astrològica en català. …