The Study of West African Local Government

1968 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Opeyemi Ola

Writing in 1962, Professor Roland Young of Northwestern University observed, with reference to both rural and urban Africa, ‘In carrying on research in African politics an area which compels attention is the local community, defined however one wishes: tribal cluster, village, or adrninistrative district. One might wish that political scientists had become interested at an earlier date in the study of small political systems indigenous to Africa.’1 There should be little doubt that local government is important in Africa because its operations are more or less coterminous with the rural areas in which the majority of Africans live. Indigenous Africa does not lie in the westernised cities but in the rural areas, where central governments appear remote, impersonal, and incomprehensibly awesome. Because of its closeness to the community, local government is one of the most realistic agencies for the transformation of rural Africa. Local governments are thus strategically placed to playa crucial role in the politics of development.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Constantina Costopoulou ◽  
Maria Ntaliani ◽  
Filotheos Ntalianis

Local governments are increasingly developing electronic participation initiatives, expecting citizen involvement in local community affairs. Our objective was to assess e-participation and the extent of its change in local government in Greece. Using content analysis for 325 Greek municipal websites, we assessed e-participation status in 2017 and 2018 and examined the impact of change between these years. The assessment regards two consecutive years since the adoption of digital technologies by municipalities has been rapid. The main findings show that Greek local governments have made significant small- to medium-scale changes, in order to engage citizens and local societies electronically. We conclude that the integration of advanced digital technologies in municipalities remains underdeveloped. We propose that Greek municipalities need to consider incorporating new technologies, such as mobile apps, social media and big data, as well as e-decision making processes, in order to eliminate those obstacles that hinder citizen engagement in local government. Moreover, the COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the need for enhancing e-participation and policymakers’ coordination through advanced digital technologies.


Yuridika ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Hilda Yunita Sabrie

The cultural heritage of a region is the identity and richness of history for the region. Given the importance of the existence of cultural heritage in an area, the local government should pay special attention to the continuity of its existence. Through inventory, listing the cultural heritages, maintenance until its restoration must be done properly and continuously. This is not only the responsibility of the local government, but it is the responsibility of all parties including the local community. But in practice, local government or society are less concerned about the existence of cultural heritage in the area. This research focuses on cultural heritage buildings in Surabaya because this city is one of the cities in Indonesia which has many buildings of cultural heritage with various conditions. Local governments need to act quickly and effectively to solve the problem, so the solution can be done by including third parties such as insurance companies engaged in the insurance of losses, which can help to cover some form of damage that occurred in the building of the reserve culture in Surabaya. From the problems mentioned above, the research method used is statute approach and conceptual approach.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-259
Author(s):  
Lech Jańczuk

There are “urban-rural municipalities” in Polish administration nomenclature. They are territorial units where urban and rural areas have one name and one local government. There are also urban and rural municipalities that have one name but different local governments. That neighborhood of municipalities in Polish may be described as “municipalities bagel”. The aim of this article was to investigate whether and to what extent the “municipalities bagel” cooperate (coordinate) the exercising public tasks on the economic level. The article attempts to verify the research hypothesis: in “municipalities bagel” there is a lack of coordination of the exercising public tasks”. The research method was a diagnostic survey in which the questionnaire was conducted. In December 2019, questionnaire forms were sent to all “municipalities bagel” in Poland. The results of the research indicated a lack of coordination in the performance of public tasks between “municipalities bagel”. The result is a reduction of the efficiency of performance of public duties in such municipalities. The “municipalities bagel” are functionally related areas. This link is characterized by the subordination of the interests of the rural municipality (especially economic). The development of bagel rural communes is determined by the development and cooperation with their urban counterparts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Ida Susi D ◽  
Didik I ◽  
Asih Marini W

SMEs snacks in Gondangan village has the potential to be developed. The village has the potential to be Gondangan Agro-industry region, although it is still much that needs to be repaired and prepared.This study aims to determine the attitude of the public about the development of SMEs in rural areas Gondangan into Agro-industry clusters and how community participation in the development of SMEs in rural areas Gondangan to be Agroindustri. Respondents in this study were the leaders and local community leaders, citizens, snack home industry in the region.This study is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. The data of this study is primary data and secondary data consists of qualitative and quantitative data. Primary data were obtained with the interview and focus group discussion.The results showed that the attitude of the public, snack ho,e industri actor and local governments support the development of the region as an area of Agro-Industry cluster. In terms of participation, the government showed a high participation and support by facilitating a variety of activities to realize the region of Agro-Industry cluster, while the snacks businessman as the main actor of Agro-industry development of the area did not show a high level of participation.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Smalec ◽  
Agata Niemczyk ◽  
Renata Seweryn

The independence of territorial self-governments in the process of implementing the tasks imposed on them does not mean that they have to implement them independently. Achieving the assumed goals of action often requires skillful cooperation with other entities, including non- governmental organizations. Local government is the closest partner of non-governmental organizations, not only through action in the local community, but above all through a community of purpose, which is to meet the needs of residents. NGOs represent the local community. The basis for the functioning of the state is social dialogue. The guarantee of successful cooperation between partners is cooperation based, on the one hand, on the awareness of local governments of jointly diagnosing and solving local problems, and on the other ‒ on the awareness of non-governmental organizations to jointly implement their goals. It should be emphasized that territorial self-government ‒ fulfilling statutory tasks and non- governmental organizations (voluntary associations of people devoting their time and energy to achieve social goals) are two different types of entities. Dialogue and cooperation between them should aim to integrate and mobilize entities to improve the quality of life in small homelands. The main goal of the article is therefore to draw attention to the importance of cooperation between territorial self-governments and non-governmental organizations in order to achieve positive results. It emphasizes the principles on which such cooperation should be based. The areas of this cooperation were indicated, giving examples of practices. The work mainly uses the desk research method in the form of literature analysis, reports and exploitation of online resources, as well as case analysis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jože Benčina ◽  
Srečko Devjak

The paper presents the challenge of establishing a substantial governance framework of local government provision of tasks and services. The assumption that this end is highly dependent on the implementation of total quality management paradigm has led us to base our work on the Common Assessment Framework model. The research discusses the case of pre-school education. The main research question is how the representatives of the municipality, responsible for pre-school education, understand their role and accountability in the process of the provision of local government genuine services and tasks. As the main methodological result of the research is approved that the questionnaire based on the CAF model can help to discover the main opportunities for improvement of governance of genuine local government tasks. The results of the survey on pre-school education show that local governments are in control of financial matters and that their strategic focus is limited to the investment aspect. The accountability for quality management was approved as a key opportunity for improvement of local government governance.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-219
Author(s):  
A A Maksimov

Local government is a form of self-organization of citizens for the purpose of addressing issues of local importance in the interests of the population. Key elements of this process - socially active, concerned the responsibility of local community. Based on the practice of the electoral process, electoral behavior in the municipal elections little activity. Based on the current situation has been suggested that this passivity is caused by the legislative authority disabilities and the population on issues of local importance, especially in terms of his participation in the work of local governments. System formulated proposals to expand the share of participation in the work of local governments, as well as subject to analysis and evaluation of the individual elements of the local government reform in 2014.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Jarosław Kempa ◽  
Artur Roland Kozłowski

AbstractAlthough three decades have passed since the fall of communism in Poland, the observed level of social activity in the country is relatively low. Participatory budget emerged as an idea to increase the involvement of citizens in decision-making processes concerning their immediate surroundings. In addition to their inclusion in the activity of local government, this form of citizen participation is expected to have a positive impact on residents’ involvement in activities for the benefit of the local community. The aim of this article is to indicate the conditions that influenced the implementation of the idea of the first participatory budget in Poland and emphasizing the importance of the civic budget in managing public administration through partial decentralization involving local communities in social dialogue for local investment initiatives, especially in large provincial cities in Poland. The following research question was adopted in the paper: has the introduction of a participatory budget in Poland increased social activity and has it been conducive to the development of civil society. In Poland, the initiative to create a civic budget met good political conditions in the relatively small city of Sopot, which had the resources to implement the project. After successful implementation, this initiative was relatively quickly adopted by other Polish local governments, which then on their own introduced social consultations called the civic budget. Not all poviats introduced the civic budget of their own volition. The government, seeing the possibility of political discounting of this new solution, decided to introduce a mandatory participatory budget in town counties and ordered the allocation of funds from their budgets, no less than 1 % of budget expenditure. The article relies on the case-study method, comparative analysis and trend analysis, qualitative and quantitative methods of description, document analysis and statistical data. The analysis focuses on the town of Sopot and provincial capitals. Local conditions are important for understanding the processes of shaping active civic attitudes in Poland, because cities are the poles of development of civil society and give impetus to innovative changes in the entire socio-economic system. The materials used in the article include reports, documents and legal acts regarding the functioning of the town of Sopot.The study showed that the participatory budget indeed activates the local community around various projects. At the same time, the question of directly translating this activity into an increase in the number of organizations, associations and foundations remains debatable. The introduction of the participatory budget to administrative management practice in local-government units in Poland should be considered in terms of the soft power impact of administration on the shaping and development of civil society, which is still in the development stage in Poland.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-55
Author(s):  
Boris Voronin ◽  
Yana Voronina

This article examines the problems of the activities of local governments in the development of a multifunctional rural economy (using the example of the Sverdlovsk region). The purpose of this study is to conduct a scientific analysis of the state of the rural economy as a multifunctional system and the participation of local governments in its development. The topic of this article is relevant, because not in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the positive development of the rural economy testifies to the effective activity of local governments in this area. In some regions, the municipal management of agriculture functions, in local government bodies such management functions and departments are carried out. In many rural areas of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, work is being carried out to organize non-agricultural activities as an integral part of the rural economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Rahmat Salam

The budgeting process is central to every administration be it the central government, local governments and the private sector because financial control is perhaps the most effective coordination tool. The scope and nature of government operations as a whole are determined by the allocations for the various programs. In fact, human nature has never been proven compared to when humans struggle to get a larger than usual share of the funds. This paper examines budgeting at the local government level, its preparation, problems and prospects. The study found that there was a wide gap between the budget plan and its implementation which resulted in the failure to fulfill political promises and the increasingly high expectations of society. The widespread dissatisfaction of the masses with the local government contributed greatly to the slow pace of local community development. This paper makes several recommendations that will reduce the incidence of budget deficits in the Government.


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