scholarly journals Making Progress in Northern Ireland? Evidence from Recent Elections

1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Knox ◽  
Paul Carmichael

THE ELECTION OF 582 COUNCILLORS TO NORTHERN IRELAND'S 26 local authorities on 21 May 1997 was eclipsed, to a large extent, by the media focus on the General Election earlier that month (1 May). That little attention is paid to the only elected forum with executive powers in Northern Ireland is neither new nor surprising. Councils in the province have relatively few functional responsibilities, confined principally to the delivery of regulatory services (street cleaning, refuse collection, leisure and tourism and a limited role in economic development); representation on area boards which deliver major services such as education; and a consultative role in relation to planning, roads, water and housing which are delivered through ‘Next Steps’ agencies or similar arm's-length organizations. This minor role is reflected in the level of council budgets. In 1997/98, the estimated net expenditure for local government in Northern Ireland amounts to £230 million, approximately three per cent of identifiable public expenditure.

1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Young

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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
Aodh Quinlivan

Chapter Six focuses on the experience of policy analysis in local government. While there are enormous weaknesses within the system of local government in Ireland, including the lack of constitutional protection; low autonomy; few functions; political, administrative, functional and financial centralisation; there is still policy analysis potential. In individual, often uncoordinated ways, local councils play innovative roles in economic development and policy formulation, with local authorities pushing boundaries with a variety of democratic reforms aimed at enhancing participation in policy processes. This mass of contradictions represents a blend of innovation, incrementalism, but also entrenchment of persistent challenges regarding the form, functioning and financing of policy analysis potential of local government.


2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-369
Author(s):  
Lynda White ◽  
Mark Hart ◽  
Stephen Harvey

Outline This paper focuses on the extent to which EU funding available under the Local Economic Development Measure of the Northern Ireland Single Programme (1994–99) has encouraged local government in Northern Ireland to adopt a new role in local economic development. It also considers whether the implementation of the Measure has effectively addressed its objectives of economic and social cohesion. It discusses the rationale for district council involvement and concludes that the local government structure in Northern Ireland requires adaptation to optimise the impact of the aid on offer.


Author(s):  
Nadia Kulchytska

Introduction. Under conditions of radical social change, a sensitive segment of the development of a modern civilized country is the social sphere, whose activities directly depend on the amount of funding, efficiency and speed of transformational change, which has an impact on the level and volume of local services. The study of experience gained abroad in the socio-economic development of municipal education as a segment of the social sphere, in the context of the budgetary mechanism for state and regional priorities is relevant in terms of organic integration of Ukraine’s economy into the European Union (EU) and rapid changes in geopolitical environment. The purpose of the study is to reveal the specifics of the functioning of the budgetary mechanism of socio-economic development of municipal education, based on lessons learned from foreign countries, and to apply them to the maximum benefit for the development of municipal education in Ukraine. Methods. During the study, methods of data collection and systematization, analysis, synthesis, grouping, comparison, generalization, as well as tabular-graphical method of budget regulation instruments in EU countries, foreign experience in forming sources of local budgets, etc. were used. Results. Under the current conditions, solving financial problems in the field of municipal education is an urgent task for Ukrainian and foreign practice of state and local government. Risky economic conditions, significant budget insecurity and low efficiency of local authorities in the management of financial resources often lead to the emergence and existence of local communities that are financially insolvent. The process of functioning of the budgetary mechanism of socio-economic development at the state and regional levels is accompanied by a number of such factors: the approved model of cooperation between state and local administrations, the current budgeting system, the level of decentralization of revenue and the distribution of responsibilities. Local taxes and fees are an important tool of the budgetary mechanism of socio-economic development of the social sphere at the regional level in foreign countries. Perspectives. Acquired foreign lessons are very useful for Ukraine due to the stimulation of socio-economic development of education in the context of decentralization in the direction of: redistribution of management functions and increase the level of responsibility in favor of local government representatives; granting local authorities and management the right to form budget funds through the regulation of local tax rates, as well as the right to distribute such funds; strengthening the level of diversification of the tax base of the regions, namely: by expanding the revenue base of local budgets.


2021 ◽  
pp. 245513332110476
Author(s):  
Faisal Hassan Issa

National governments set policies that affect local level development and influence the pace and content of development initiatives. Local economic development (LED) initiatives require a more robust focus on issues that places local government authorities at centre stage. For decades, at the local government authority level, much effort has been seen in the social development arena shadowing efforts to promote local businesses through business development services. National level organs set to promote businesses and to support the business agenda are expected to be the change catalysts and to propagate supportive policies for sustainable local economic development objectives. Nonetheless, the desired integration of efforts between national and local authorities and the civil society is yet to be observed. Additionally, frequent policy changes affecting the balance of power and authority between the national and local level authorities impact less positively local capacity to promote businesses despite the national efforts in infrastructure development. It is observed that better integration of efforts between the different actors, increased capacity of local authorities and implementation of local initiatives to surmount local challenges while working on policy attributed gaps, are necessary for promoting businesses at the local authority level.


2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Edward Hutagalung

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.


Author(s):  
Fajar Hardoyono

: Education deals with enlightening people and developing human resources. The reasecher concluded that cultural background of students influences their learning attitude in the school. Therefore, the developing learning process of Natural Sciences insist student to elaborate principles of Natural Sciences without ignoring cultural valuesof local community. The policy of decentralization of Indonesian Government had authorized and legitimated local authorities to develop curriculum based on the local cultures. To do so, each local government through the officers of Education has to create a curiculum by involving some curriculum experts, instructures, natural sciences theachers, and the lectures of universities who adequately understand learning model of Natural Sciences.


e-Finanse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
Adam Mateusz Suchecki

AbstractFollowing the completion of the process of decentralisation of public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented previously by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes to the financing and management methods of the local authorities was the transfer of tasks related to culture and national heritage to the set of tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralisation process, the local government units in Poland were given significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditures on culture. At the same time, they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenues.This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditures on culture covered by the voivodship budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types, between 2003-2015. The location quotient (LQ) was applied to two selected years (2006 and 2015) to illustrate the diversity of expenditures on culture in individual voivodships.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-137
Author(s):  
Sean M. McDonald ◽  
Remi C. Claire ◽  
Alastair H. McPherson

The impact and effectiveness of policies to support collaboration for Research & Development (R&D) and Innovation is critical to determining the success of regional economic development. (O’Kane, 2008) The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the level of success of the Innovation Vouchers Program operated by Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) from 2009 to 2013 and address if attitudinal views towards innovation development should play in a role in future policy design in peripheral EU regions. 


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