Political instability and the ability of local government to respond to reputational threats in unison

2017 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Howard Grøn ◽  
Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Reputation Management ◽  
Administrative Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
History Of

This article investigates whether local governments are able to act in a unified manner when responding to reputational threats posed by negative media coverage. Based on an argument that local governments facing political instability are less able to perform in unison, the article investigates a number of expectations, including various types of political instability (council, agenda and policy area instability) and their relation to different types of responses to negative media coverage from the political and administrative actors (communication behaviour, responsibility and blame-avoidant behaviour, and sanctioning behaviour). The article finds such relationships for some of these aspects. The analysis also indicates that the reputational history of a local government is related to the degree of unified behaviour. The empirical analysis is primarily based on a survey sent to all Danish public managers in the three upper levels of the local government hierarchy. Point for practitioners Reputation management has become an area for strategic management in the public sector, not least in local governments. This article demonstrates that public managers need to pay attention to the degree of political instability characterizing their local governments when dealing with reputational threats. If the local government is characterized by political instability, the need to address potential disagreements between administrative and political actors becomes vital. Furthermore, public managers need to take into account the reputational history of their organization as it may challenge the ability to coordinate a unified response across the political and administrative leadership during reputational threats.

Organising the Old: Senior Authority and the Political Significance of a Rural Chinese ‘Non-Governmental Organisation’

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 1057-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
METTE HALSKOV HANSEN
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Older Men ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Old People ◽  
Business People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Official Status ◽  
New Strategies

AbstractThis article argues that villagers' weakened trust in local governments has caused the officials to develop new strategies to cooperate with people and groups who enjoy traditional forms of authority. More specifically, the article shows how the officially established Old People' Associations in some areas have gained political influence far beyond what their official status as an “NGO” (minjian zuzhzi) would warrant. Villages of Fujian have a long history of being organised around patrilinear lineage organisations, and especially the older men still enjoys authority among the population. Local authorities, as well as business people, are therefore actively trying to engage and mobilise this traditional senior authority for their own political and economic purposes, thereby creating new relations of local power.

Political Agenda Setting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maurer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
News Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political agenda setting is the part of agenda-setting research that refers to the influence of the media agenda on the agenda of political actors. More precisely, the central question of political agenda-setting research is whether political actors adopt the issue agenda of the news media in various aspects ranging from communicating about issues that are prominently discussed in the news media to prioritizing issues from the news media agenda in political decision making. Although such effects have been studied under different labels (agenda building, policy agenda setting) for several decades, research in this field has recently increased significantly based on a new theoretical model introducing the term political agenda setting. Studies based on that model usually find effects of media coverage on the attention political actors pay to various issues, but at the same time point to a number of contingent conditions. First, as found in research on public agenda setting, there is an influence of characteristics of news media (e.g., television news vs. print media) and issues (e.g., obtrusive vs. unobtrusive issues). Second, there is an influence of characteristics of the political context (e.g., government vs. oppositional parties) and characteristics of individual politicians (e.g., generalists vs. specialists). Third, the findings of studies on the political agenda-setting effect differ, depending on which aspects of the political agenda are under examination (e.g., social media messages vs. political decision making).

DOMINO EFFECT: BORIS YELTSIN'S DECREE ON THE DE-PARTIZATION IN THE CHAIN OF THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
D.G. SELTSER ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
Domino Effect ◽  
Nomenclature System ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
History Of

The purpose of the article is to clarify the place and role of the decree in the general course of the political process and highlight its direct consequences for the fate of the CPSU and the USSR. The scientific literature on the topic is analyzed. It is concluded that scientists draw a direct connection between the final events of the history of the USSR – Yeltsin's decree about departisation, degradation of the CPSU, resistance to the Emergency Committee and the liquidation of the CPSU / USSR. The author describes the stages of the personnel actions of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In his opinion, the nomenclature system was expected: «construction» of the elite (1985–1987), elections in the party (1988–1990), elections in the state (1989–1990), decree about departisation (1991). The decree is seen as the final stage in the denationalization of the party. The CPSU, having lost power and property, ceased to be a state. The content of the decree, the behavior of political actors in connection with its adoption and the political consequences of the decree are considered. In conclusion, it is concluded that the decree was a domino effect, a provocation to the instant collapse of the USSR.

Fiscal Decentralization and Local Borrowing in Turkish Provinces

2016 ◽  
pp. 505-519
Author(s):  
Mehmet Serkan Tosun ◽  
Dilek Uz ◽  
Serdar Yılmaz
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Spatial Econometrics ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
Government Structure ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Reforms

There have been important developments in the decentralization of the government structure in Turkey since the early 1980s. This paper examines the link between fiscal decentralization and local borrowing within Turkish provinces. It first discusses local government reforms throughout the history of the Turkish Republic with the focus on recent reform efforts and current local government structure. It then provides an empirical analysis of the effects of decentralization in Turkish provinces using cross-sectional and panel data approaches, and spatial econometrics. The dataset consists of 67 provinces from 1980 to 2000, and separately cross-sectional data on all 81 provinces for the year 2000. Using decentralization measures such as number of local governments per capita and ratio of own-source municipal revenue to total provincial tax revenue, and specific characteristics of the municipalities the analysis examines whether variations in local decentralization across these provinces and across time have had a significant impact municipal borrowing in those provinces.

Elucidating the Linkages Between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Local Government Sustainability Performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Deslatte ◽  
William L. Swann
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences ◽  
And Performance

Linking strategic management to performance has been called essential for public managers to confront pernicious environmental and community problems in the 21st century. This article examines the role that an organization’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) plays in the linkages between organizational capacities, strategies, and perceived performance. An EO is considered a key driver of a public organization’s willingness to engage in risk taking, innovation, and proactivity aimed at enhancing organizational routines, decision-making, and performance. Scholars have provided empirical guidance for the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurialism in bureaucracy, yet we know little systematically about how EO links to strategies that may affect performance in the public sector. To investigate, we employ a mixed methods design using a nationwide survey of U.S. local governments and interviews with local government managers about their experiences in sustainability programs. Quantitatively, we find evidence for environmental factors of political and administrative capacities positively influencing EO, and that strategic activities of performance information use, venturing, and interorganizational collaboration mediate the relation between EO and perceived sustainability performance. Interviews corroborate these findings and illuminate how local government managers proactively engage stakeholders, consider risk taking, build capacity, and pursue innovation in sustainability.

Political Agenda Setting and the Mass Media

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefaan Walgrave ◽  
Peter Van Aelst
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Individual

Recently, the number of studies examining whether media coverage has an effect on the political agenda has been growing strongly. Most studies found that preceding media coverage does exert an effect on the subsequent attention for issues by political actors. These effects are contingent, though, they depend on the type of issue and the type of political actor one is dealing with. Most extant work has drawn on aggregate time-series designs, and the field is as good as fully non-comparative. To further develop our knowledge about how and why the mass media exert influence on the political agenda, three ways forward are suggested. First, we need better theory about why political actors would adopt media issues and start devoting attention to them. The core of such a theory should be the notion of the applicability of information encapsulated in the media coverage to the goals and the task at hand of the political actors. Media information has a number of features that make it very attractive for political actors to use—it is often negative, for instance. Second, we plead for a disaggregation of the level of analysis from the institutional level (e.g., parliament) or the collective actor level (e.g., party) to the individual level (e.g., members of parliament). Since individuals process media information, and since the goals and tasks of individuals that trigger the applicability mechanism are diverse, the best way to move forward is to tackle the agenda setting puzzle at the individual level. This implies surveying individual elites or, even better, implementing experimental designs to individual elite actors. Third, the field is in dire need of comparative work comparing how political actors respond to media coverage across countries or political systems.

scholarly journals The Political-administrative interface in South African municipalities: Assessing the quality of local democracies

2010 ◽  
pp. 86-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaap De Visser
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
South African ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Administrative Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Executive Authority ◽  
Political Interference ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level

South African municipalities experience serious challenges in dealing wit the interface between politicians and officials. Inappropriate political interference in administrative matters as well as strained relations between key political and administrative officials in the municipalities appear to be the order of the day. Oftentimes, the lack of a separation of powers between legislative and executive authority at local government level is blamed for this. This contribution has attempted to draw the attention away from the conflation of legislative and executive authority in the municipal council while still recognising it as an important background. It is suggested that, instead of spending energy on examining a possible separation of powers in local government, the relevant stakeholders (i.e. national lawmakers, municipalities and supervising provinces) should consider smaller institutional changes to the governance makeup of municipalities. Even more importantly, the political and administrative leadership of municipalities and political structures that surround them should be acutely aware of the consequences that inappropriate political leadership has on the functioning of municipalities and therefore on service delivery.

scholarly journals Critique of the functional assignment architecture of Punjab’s local governance legislation of 2013 & 2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moazzam Ali Janjua ◽  
Rainer Rohdewohld
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Functional Assignment ◽  
Institutional Strengthening ◽  
Government Legislation ◽  
New System

In 2013 and 2019, the local government legislation of the province of Punjab in Pakistan saw two rounds of major changes – each of which led to a new local government Act being passed. In 2013 the changes were driven by constitutional and judicial requirements and in 2019 by the political will of Pakistan’s new coalition government. This article analyses and compares the functional assignment (FA) architecture of the two Acts against a set of parameters. The study finds that marginal improvements to the FA architecture introduced by the 2019 Act are offset by continuing inconsistencies and lack of clarity over ‘who does what’ in the functions assigned to local governments. The authors suggest that improving the functionality of local governments requires full implementation of the design features of the new system, including institutional strengthening of provincial-level entities which regulate and oversee the local government system.

Pensions in the Trenches: How Pension Spending Is Affecting U.S. Local Government

2020 ◽  
pp. 107808742096486
Author(s):  
Sarah F. Anzia
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Significant Variation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Government Services ◽  
Almost Everywhere ◽  
Key Features

Some experts claim that U.S. local governments are experiencing dramatic increases in pension expenditures and that pension spending is crowding out government services. Others maintain that serious pension problems are limited. This issue is important to political scientists, urban scholars, and policy practitioners, but no existing studies—nor the datasets they rely on—allow evaluation of whether pension expenditures are rising or how they are affecting local government. This article analyzes a new dataset of the annual pension expenditures of over 400 municipalities and counties from 2005 to 2016. I find that pension expenditures rose almost everywhere over this period, but there is significant variation in that growth. On average, local governments are not responding to rising pension spending by increasing revenue. They are instead shrinking their workforces. Moreover, I find that the magnitude of the employment reductions due to pensions varies with key features of the political environment.

Political Hostility and Local Government Crisis in Bangladesh: Ruling Party’s Supremacy and Opposition Party’s Costs of Being Outside of the State Power

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Khandakar Farid Uddin
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Legal Process ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ruling Party

Bangladesh has a history of political unrest and supremacy of the ruling party. Recently, representatives of the local government were suspended for being accused in cases of political violence. The ruling party is defining the suspensions as a legal process; on the contrary, the opposition political parties are claiming it as political hostility and a way of controlling local governments. There are shortages of research on contemporary political challenges and its consequences. Thus, this study considered local government representative suspensions as a case to exemplify the political hostility and local government crisis in Bangladesh. This study also demonstrated some theoretical points to frame the conceptual thoughts, likewise explained the status and some historical illustration of governmental intrusion over local government. Besides, this study applied the qualitative method to discover the research queries. Consequently, the analysis outlined substantial political supremacy and hostility in Bangladesh and its adverse impact on local governance.

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