Laws as an Instrument of Policy: A Study in Central-Local Government Relations

1985 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Page
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Direct Reference ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Local Services

ABSTRACTLaw is an instrument which can be used by central government to influence its environment, including other levels of government. This paper examines a number of fundamental questions about the nature of legal influence upon local authorities in Britain. Legislation affects local authorities in a variety of ways: through making direct reference to local authority organisations and the services they provide; through affecting all large organisations, public or private; and through affecting the organisations and individuals with which local authorities interact. In the 1970s a large proportion of legislation was concerned with the financial aspects of local services. Relatively few laws make substantive changes in the legal framework within which local authorities operate and much legislation can be categorised as ‘anodyne’. However, particular items of legislation can produce such substantive changes in public policies and in the powers of different organisations within government.

Economic Development in Britain: A Vacuum in Central-Local Government Relations

1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Young
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Employment Goals

Local authority involvement in economic matters has become widespread since the early 1970s. Recent developments in the pattern of local economic activity have been the increasing use of section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972 to fund local programmes, the spread of local authority involvement from the Assisted Areas to the more prosperous regions, and the increasing interest shown by the smaller shire districts, often in rural areas. The portfolio of possible interventions has also changed, bringing a new diversity to the practice of local economic development. Whereas central government has in the past eschewed the temptation to exercise close controls over these activities, the new diversity of local economic initiatives presents it with new dilemmas. It can no longer be assumed that such initiatives will be supportive of central government's spatial or sectoral policies. This vacuum in central-local relations is unlikely to remain, and renewed pressures to grant specific economic development powers to local authorities can be expected. If these claims are accepted, central government will be drawn inexorably into local economic affairs by the need to develop the capacity of local authorities to intervene effectively in pursuit of economic and employment goals.

scholarly journals A reassessment of local government’s financial position and performance: The case of Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Gerard Turley ◽  
Rémi Di medio ◽  
Stephen McNena
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Financial Performance ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
Operating Performance ◽  
Fiscal Sustainability ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Financial Position ◽  
And Performance

AbstractGiven the changes in the Irish economy since the economic crisis and, more specifically, reforms in the local government sector, this paper reassesses the financial position and fiscal sustainability of local authorities in Ireland. To do this we employ a local government financial performance framework that measures liquidity and solvency, but also operating performance and collection rates, for different sources of revenue income. Using financial data sourced from local council income and expenditure accounts and balance sheets, we report and analyse the financial position and performance during the 2007–17 period. The results indicate an improvement in the financial performance of local councils since the early 2010s. Cross-council differences persist, in particular, between large urban local authorities and smaller rural local authorities, albeit only for the liquidity and operating performance measures. Among the small rural councils, Sligo County Council’s financial position, although improving, remains a serious matter with ongoing consultation with and monitoring by central government. To help improve the measurement of local authority financial performance we recommend inclusion of this framework in the local authority Annual Financial Statement and also in the Performance Indicator Report with a view to making financial reports more accessible and transparent to citizens and taxpayers and, ultimately, to help improve performance and service delivery by the local authorities.

Local Authority Provision versus Club Provision

10.1068/c9855 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N King ◽  
Yue Ma
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Mode Of Delivery ◽  
The Other ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Government Provision

The main purpose of this paper is to distinguish clearly between local authorities and clubs and to consider the circumstances in which individual consumers would prefer to have services provided by one or the other. We also consider the circumstances in which consumers would prefer individual or central government provision. There are also some hybrid positions between different types of provision. We end with some examples of cases where the mode of delivery in Great Britain has changed, or is changing, from traditional local government provision to other forms. Our model suggests a rationale for these changes.

Local Authority Responses to Grants: Different Types of Response and Equilibrium

1989 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
M M Barrow
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Government Grants ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Game Theoretic

Game theoretic techniques are used to examine the case of local authorities facing a system of closed-ended central government grants. A diagrammatic exposition of the results from a previous paper is provided, and the results extended to cover alternative types of equilibrium. It is shown that local government behaviour may be Pareto inefficient in response to grants, the inefficiency being manifested in too high a level of local government spending. It is also shown that authorities which try to protect their local tax rate may be at a disadvantage relative to those which make a commitment to high spending.

scholarly journals OTONOMI DAERAH DAN PENGELOLAAN SUMBERDAYA ALAM : KASUS PENGELOLAAN HUTAN DI SULAWESI SELATAN

PERENNIAL ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Baharuddin Nurkin
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The Other ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
South Sulawesi

Decentralization has been regarded as a best way to utilize natural resources for local people benefit and to distribute development results fairly through out of entirely of the country. However, experience has shown that in some cases decentralization in forest management policy was not implemented by local authorities in balancing way of both utilization and conservation. On the other hand, local government complained that even though power transfer to local authority has been implemented since the Indonesian reform politic, central government is still maintaining control over the forest management policy. This article describes decentralization experiences of forest management policy in South Sulawesi. Their impacts followed by some suggestions are also outlined. Key words : Decentralization, Forest management, Local Authority, Central Goverment

scholarly journals Legal and Institutional Framework: The “Achilles Heel” Of Local Authorities and Raison D’etre of Ministerial Intervention in Zimbabwe

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alois Madhekeni ◽  
Gideon Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Independent Media

Centre-local relations have been an area of controversy in Zimbabwean local governance both as a discipline and as a practice. Local authorities have traded blows with central government particularly accusing the responsible Ministry of reducing them to spectators in their own field through excessive ministerial intervention. Meanwhile the ministry of local government has cracked the whip on local authorities accusing them of mismanagement and compromised service delivery. The independent media has described the scenario as a “Bloodbath” in local authorities. What appears to be misconstrued by many however is the fact that the governing legal and institutional framework of local governance in Zimbabwe provides room for the responsible Minister to legally enable or disable local authority administration. This governing framework has been and is still the “Achilles heel” of local authorities and the raison d’être of ministerial intervention in Zimbabwe.

PERIMBANGAN KEUANGAN ANTARA PEMERINTAH PUSAT DENGAN PEMERINTAH DAERAH DALAM PENGELOLAAN KEUANGAN DAERAH

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Edward Hutagalung
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Fiscal Capacity ◽  
Regional Autonomy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Delegation Of Authority ◽  
Regional Authority ◽  
Local Sources ◽  
Tax Sharing

The fi nancial relationship between central and local government can be defi ned as a system that regulates how some funds were divided among various levels of government as well as how to fi ndsources of local empowerment to support the activities of the public sector.Fiscal decentralization is the delegation of authority granted by the central government to theregions to make policy in the area of   fi nancial management.One of the main pillars of regional autonomy is a regional authority to independently manage thefi nancial area. State of Indonesia as a unitary state of Indonesia adheres to a combination of elementsof recognition for local authorities to independently manage fi nances combined with the element oftransferring fi scal authority and supervision of the fi scal policy area.General Allocation Fund an area allocated on the basis of the fi scal gap and basic allocation whilethe fi scal gap is reduced by the fi scal needs of local fi scal capacity. Fiscal capacity of local sources offunding that comes from the area of   regional revenue and Tax Sharing Funds outside the ReforestationFund.The results showed that the strengthening of local fi scal capacity is in line with regional autonomy.

scholarly journals Outsourcing or Giving all Out? Experience from Tanzania Local Government Revenue Collection

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukio Mrutu ◽  
Pendo Mganga
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Clear Picture ◽  
Government Revenue ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Fiscal Autonomy ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Revenue Collection ◽  
Expected Outcome

Outsourcing revenue collection in Local Government Authorities  has been adopted as a mechanism to solve the previous problems of revenue collection which resulted into loss and missmanagement of the whole process. One of the expectations was to increase revenue collection which will  provide a room for fiscal autonomy. However, experience from few local government authorities which have outsourced their revenue collection shows that, the whole process of outsourcing has not yielded the expected outcome especially on enabling local authorities to have fiscal autonomy instead it has turned to benefit the private agent who collect Tax. By using secondary data this paper attempts to show how the process of outsourcing is benefiting the private agent and therefore it is like giving everything out. It concludes that, though outsourcing seems to benefit local authorities by reducing some tasks especially on tax collection, outsorcing benefits much a private agent and therefore quick meausures should be adopted including building the capacity of Local Authorities in identifying the sources of revenue and  in estimating the actual collections so as to have clear picture of how much will be generated by the agent and what should be the appropriate amount to be submitted to the Local authority.

Studies of Central–Provincial Relations in the People's Republic of China: A Mid-Term Appraisal

1995 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 487-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Ho Chung
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
The One ◽  
Central Level

Spatial aspects of power have been relatively neglected in the field of political science in general, with the notable exception of federalism. Many have argued that the study of political power has generally confined itself to the national level and paid scant attention to the interactions between the central government on the one hand and regional and local authorities on the other. Several tendencies have worked against the flourishing of political research on central-local government relations in the last three decades. First, in methodological terms, the “behavioural revolution” that swept the discipline caused a sudden premature end to the institutional analysis so crucial to central-local government relations. Secondly, in thematic terms, political scientists have been overly preoccupied with central-level processes of decision-making while neglecting the politics of central-local relations. Thirdly, in conceptual terms, the rise of “state” as an encompassing concept was facilitated largely at the expense of complex intra-governmental dynamics.

Blue, White, and Red Heat

Boom Cities ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 35-63
Author(s):  
Otto Saumarez Smith
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Central Area ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Initial Reaction ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Area Redevelopment ◽  
Planning Group ◽  
City Centres

This chapter looks at central government’s role in directing the way in which local authorities enacted central-area redevelopment schemes. It shows how modernist ideas were sustained by a broadly consensual cross-party political culture in central government. It shows how the Joint Urban Planning Group, set up within the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, provided guidance to local authorities in how to form public–private partnerships to redevelop their city centres. The last section discusses the fate of these ideas during Labour’s first term after the 1964 election, and argues for an economic explanation of the initial reaction against modernist approaches to the built environment.

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