New development: The crisis and European local government reforms

Meneguzzo, Marco; Sancino, Alessandro; Guenon, Marcel; Fiorani, Gloria

doi:10.1080/09540962.2013.836010

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…We, however, want to focus especially on the impacts of such measures on subnational democracy, including measures taken at both the national and subnational levels. The inherent centralizing tendencies of crisis and emergency response make subnational jurisdictions especially vulnerable, as they are often forced to cede authority, autonomy, and capacity to a national government (see, for example, Meneguzzo et al 2013). And the role of subnational tiers of government in the backsliding and autocratizing process too often overlooked as an important location for regime consolidation and antidemocratic practice.…”

Section: Crisis As Pretextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calling in "Sick": COVID-19, Opportunism, Pretext, and Subnational Democracy

Stenberg¹,

Rocco²,

Farole³

2021

Preprint

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As governments sought to manage the Coronavirus pandemic, many pursed a temporary increase in centralized authority, a general tactic of crisis management. However, in some countries, centralization in the name of public health was not the only motive. The COVID-19 response coincided with broader worldwide trends towards democratic backsliding and authoritarian consolidation. Some of these efforts happened while the world was preoccupied with responding to the pandemic without concretely referencing Coronavirus; however, in other cases, public health rationales are clearly and explicitly invoked as a pretext for actions that instead aid the consolidation of regime authority. This has been especially pernicious in subnational democracy, where efforts have been made to undermine the ability of opposition parties to fairly contest in local and regional politics. This paper looks at four cases in which political actors either opportunistically used worldwide distraction from the COVID-19 pandemic or explicitly invoked public health while seeking to undermine long-term domestic contestation in their jurisdictions: Hong Kong, Hungary, Uganda, and the United States. We examine the use of public health as a pretext for undermining opposition parties, recentralizing political authority in dominant actors, and inhibiting the fair contestation of elections.

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Section: Crisis As Pretextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calling in "Sick": COVID-19, Opportunism, Pretext, and Subnational Democracy

Stenberg¹,

Rocco²,

Farole³

2021

Preprint

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“…Budgetary stability is linked to the present control of financial risks which arose in the context of the 2008 financial crisis as an important requirement for LGs, assuming that is a challenge to LGs, which are introducing reforms in order to better manage [30].…”

Section: The Spanish Legal Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Reliability of Financial Sustainability. The Case of Spanish Local Governments

2020

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Local Governments (LGs) have strengthened the financial control as a consequence of mandatory requirements to ensure financial sustainability in their management. The aim of this study is to determine whether financial indicators about financial conditions defined in Spanish regulation are backed by worldwide generally accepted financial benchmarking indicators. For this purpose, we analyze the relationship between Spanish indicators of financial sustainability based on European Union (EU) regulations and Financial Trends Monitoring System Indicators (FTMS) of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). For this purpose, two methodologies are applied: discriminant analysis and logistic regression, where the dependent variables are each of the Spanish financial indicators and the independent variables are ICMA indicators. The evidence supports that variables that are related to the control of expenditures, debt and the revenues show a greater explanatory power of financial sustainability, being the most important elements which offer relevant information about the financial sustainability measurement of LGs.

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“…This is one of the reasons why during the crisis the role of the prime minister and the role of the Minister of Finance became stronger. Post-crisis recovery demands long-term structural and fiscal reforms and an accountable system that promotes public value creation and improves the overall performance of central and local governments (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011; Cepiku and Bonomi Savignon, 2012; Meneguzzo et al , 2013; Raudla et al , 2013; Christensen et al , 2014; Pollitt, 2014). In emerging and developing economies, where institutions are still in early stages of development, designing successful decentralization policies has been difficult (Rodriguez‐Pose and Krøijer, 2009).…”

Section: What Public Management Model Has Been Implemented In See Countries?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Local government modernization in Albania

Guga

2018

IJPSM

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Purpose An attempt will be made to shed light on the course and pattern of the decentralization process by analyzing the historical development of local government and the territorial-administrative reform of 2015-2020 in Albania and the factors that have been shaping it. The scope is to understand the impact of the reform elements on the subnational governments and in general their overall impact on the government. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the existing literature for Albania and at offering some insights on the administrative-territorial reform. Furthermore, it will contribute to the current debate on fiscal decentralization in South Eastern European (SEE) countries and the public management model implemented after the last reforms. Design/methodology/approach The first section analyzes the historical development of local government reforms from the 1990s to today and will help to identify if there is instrumentalism advocacy. The second section explains the determinants of the local government’s fiscal autonomy in Albania of the period from 2003 to 2016. Three indicators are used as proxies for fiscal decentralization: the proportion of subnational expenditure over national expenditure, of total subnational revenues over total revenues of central government and the indicator of own subnational revenues over total revenues of the central government. The data from the budget and the revised budgets are then compared. Findings Despite Albania’s commitment to decentralize its government functions, there is still work to do. The territorial and administrative reform has not generated the expected results. Almost 90 percent of the revenues still come from the central government’s unconditional transfers. Therefore, the Albanian Government should build capacities and skills, and train the employees of each level of government that currently benefit from international assistance. Research limitations/implications The analysis represents a single case study on the territorial-administrative reform in Albania. Its implementation started in 2015 and it is probably too early to discuss outcomes. However, it might be useful to analyze the first results after a two-and-a-half-year period of implementation of reforms. Despite contributing to the existing gap in the literature, additional research will be necessary to better understand the decentralization process not only in Albania, but in all SEE countries. Practical implications It is necessary to first understand the lack of initial output, as well as the various challenges faced, in order to take the corrective measures on time. Originality/value This paper discusses in detail the reform adopted and the progress made by the Albanian local government units. The reform attempts to develop better relationships between the central and local governments and hence improve their service delivery, transparency and accountability. This paper is the first one that is attempting to analyze the initial output of the territorial-administrative reform of 2015-2020.

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New development: The crisis and European local government reforms

Cited by 11 publications

References 7 publications

Calling in "Sick": COVID-19, Opportunism, Pretext, and Subnational Democracy

Calling in "Sick": COVID-19, Opportunism, Pretext, and Subnational Democracy

Testing the Reliability of Financial Sustainability. The Case of Spanish Local Governments

Local government modernization in Albania

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