Local Political Institutions and Smart Growth

Abstract As a child in Malmesbury, Thomas Hobbes had an opportunity to observe many of the social and political phenomena that he considered in his later work. Contemporary sources reveal that Hobbes lived in a community that was wracked by marked animosity between different social groups, frequent disorder and a lack of consensus about the legitimacy of local political institutions. There was tension between the town’s elite and a proletariat of impoverished workers. Different members of the elite clashed, sometimes violently, as they competed for local ascendancy. Hobbes’s extended family was heavily involved in these events. His hometown was deeply troubled. It was also a place where people had access to some “political” vocabulary which they used when describing their discontents and conflicts. The possible influence of Hobbes’s early experiences on his intellectual development has attracted little previous attention.

The Ties That Bind: Building Civic Capacity for the Tennessee Achievement School District

American Educational Research Journal ◽

10.3102/0002831218763088 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 55 (5) ◽

pp. 928-964 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Joshua L. Glazer ◽

Cori Egan

Keyword(s):

School District ◽

Market Orientation ◽

Local Control ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Poor Performance ◽

Disadvantaged Students ◽

Underperforming Schools ◽

Civic Capacity ◽

Educational Failure ◽

Local Political Institutions

The Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD) is among several state-run districts established to turn around underperforming schools. Like other such districts, the ASD removes schools from local control and is not accountable to local political institutions. Despite its authority, the ASD has encountered opposition within Memphis where its schools reside. For those inclined to its market orientation and suspicious of traditional districts, the ASD is an innovative effort to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students. For those that see educational failure in Memphis as the result of social and economic isolation, the ASD appears motivated by profit, paternalism, and racism. A third narrative, largely hidden from view, encompasses people who reject state takeover but seek to confront structural causes of poor performance.

Can America Nation-Build?

World Politics ◽

10.1353/wp.2007.0019 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 59 (2) ◽

pp. 314-340 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Jason Brownlee

Keyword(s):

Political Institutions ◽

Prior Experience ◽

Nation Building ◽

Democracy Promotion ◽

New Democracies ◽

Antecedent Conditions ◽

Local Political Institutions ◽

External Intervention ◽

The U.S ◽

Invasion Of Iraq

Post-9/11 security concerns and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq have renewed scholarly interest in nation-building as a form of externally fostered democratization. The selected works assess Iraq and its precursors, seeking general lessons for establishing new democracies. They principally conclude that successful nation-building depends on sustained commitments of time, materiel, and manpower. Although this thesis improves upon earlier studies of democracy promotion, which often treated intentions as determinative, it does not fully reckon with the effect of antecedent conditions on external intervention. As this review addresses, American efforts at nation-building have historically been enabled or constrained by local political institutions. Rather than autonomously reengineering the target society, nation-builders have buttressed bureaucracies and parliaments where they were already available (Germany, Japan) and foundered in countries that lacked such institutions (Somalia, Haiti). In sum, nation-building has been most effective when pursued least ambitiously, amid functioning states with prior experience in constitutional government.

Local Political Institutions and First-Mover Policy Responses to COVID-19

Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy ◽

10.1561/113.00000020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 523-541

Author(s):

Mirya R. Holman ◽

Emily M. Farris ◽

Jane Lawrence Sumner

Keyword(s):

Political Institutions ◽

Policy Responses ◽

Local Political Institutions ◽

First Mover

Introduction to the Special Feature on Dynamic Processes of Rebel Governance

Journal of Conflict Resolution ◽

10.1177/0022002720935153 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 65 (1) ◽

pp. 3-14

Author(s):

Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham ◽

Cyanne E. Loyle

Keyword(s):

Social Services ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Dynamic Processes ◽

Conflict Processes ◽

National Examination ◽

Rebel Governance ◽

Rebel Groups ◽

Local Political Institutions ◽

Conceptual Link ◽

Cross National

Research on conflict processes has recently highlighted the myriad of tactics rebels use which are not violent in nature (cf. Petrova 2019; Ryckman 2020; Cunningham, Dahl, and Frugé 2017). Concurrently, rebel governance has drawn increasing attention from scholars and peacebuilding practitioners. In-depth historical studies of rebel groups highlight the activities and behaviors that rebels engage in beyond making war—such as providing social services and building local political institutions (Mampilly 2011; Arjona 2016a; Arjona, Kasfir, and Mampilly 2015). Complementing these works, studies have sought to provide cross-national examination of trends in these governance behaviors (Huang 2016; Heger and Jung 2017; Stewart 2018). Despite this work, quantitative and formal research in conflict processes often ignores the insights that the rebel governance literature has generated, frequently focusing exclusively on violent tactics or considering governance issues primarily as part of conflict settlement processes. In this special feature, we work to integrate the study of rebel governance with the conflict processes literature, providing a conceptual link between the two while offering novel contributions to advance our understanding of the dynamic processes of rebel governance.

Influence of Local Political Institutions on Policy Punctuation in Three Policy Areas

Politics &amp Policy ◽

10.1111/polp.12295 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 300-325 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sung‐Wook Kwon ◽

Sylvia Gonzalez‐Gorman

Keyword(s):

Political Institutions ◽

Local Political Institutions

Ensuring Sustainable Development of Local Self-Government: Foreign Experience for Ukraine

European Journal of Sustainable Development ◽

10.14207/ejsd.2021.v10n4p167 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 167

Author(s):

Viktor Ladychenko ◽

Olena Gulac ◽

Karim Yemelianenko ◽

Yurii Danyliuk ◽

Volodymyr Kurylo

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Local Governments ◽

Action Plan ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Foreign Experience ◽

Foreign Countries ◽

Local Political Institutions ◽

The Status ◽

The Government

In order to build effective democratic governance under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine, local governments and elected representatives must have the knowledge and tools to manage modern and efficient resources, and local governments in general must increase their transparency, activities to strengthen citizens' trust in local political institutions. In its ambitious plans to implement effective governance, the Government of Ukraine is working to create a modern system of local self-government that promotes the dynamic development of regions and transfers as much power as possible to the level closest to citizens - communities. The article is devoted to the issue of ensuring the sustainable development of local self-government in Ukraine on the basis of the experience of building the system of local self-government in the European countries. Foreign experience with the existing system of local governments of Ukraine is compared. Local governments are classified into representative and executive. The practice of organizing their activities is studied. Both regional and local representative bodies and municipalities were studied. Different types of individual and collegial executive bodies of local self-government of foreign countries, methods of their formation, management models are given. The real state of the results of the reform of local self-government and decentralization, as well as the administrative-territorial system in Ukraine has been established. The main positive features of the system of local self-government bodies of foreign countries are identified and options for implementing sustainable development methods for self-government of Ukraine are proposed, including through effective state control, election of key local government officials, codification of local self-government legislation and balancing the status and powers of representatives and executive bodies of local self-government.

Fleeting Glory in a Wasteland: Wealth, Politics, and Autonomy in Northern Chad

Comparative Studies in Society and History ◽

10.1017/s0010417515000262 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 57 (3) ◽

pp. 723-752 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Julien Brachet ◽

Judith Scheele

Keyword(s):

Political Institutions ◽

Selection Process ◽

Point Of View ◽

Distribution Of Wealth ◽

Power And Control ◽

Local Point ◽

Local Political Institutions ◽

State And Local ◽

Postcolonial States ◽

And Control

AbstractIn January 2012, a newderdé(traditional leader) of the Teda in northern Chad was officially appointed. Held in the Tibesti, a remote, notoriously unruly but strategically important part of the Sahara, the investiture ceremony was attended by Teda from throughout the country and neighboring Libya and Niger, as well as by an impressive number of Chadian civil servants and international diplomats. Yet the ceremony itself was short and messy. Similarly, the historical underpinnings of the institution of thederdéand the selection process were unclear, leaving much room for debate. This uncertainty appears to lie at the heart of the institution of thederdé. Far from a resurgence of “traditional authority” to make up for “state failure” or to partake in the restructuring of postcolonial states—as observed elsewhere on the African continent—the investiture ceremony confirmed the decentralized nature of Teda social organization and the absence of even attempted governance, both with regards to the Chadian state and local political institutions. What mattered from a local point of view were not long-term strategies of power and control, but rather the immediate and gloriously wasteful distribution of wealth. Admiring eyes were turned not toward thederdéor the state officials who appointed him, but instead toward high-ranking military officers, well-dressed urban Libyan Teda, and trans-border smugglers, models of rapid but often short-lived success. This provides a counterexample to the current emphasis on governance and power in the analysis of African states and politics.

County and Township Government in 1939

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1948195 ◽

1940 ◽

Vol 34 (6) ◽

pp. 1145-1166 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Clyde F. Snider

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Intergovernmental Relations ◽

State Legislatures ◽

Cumulative Effect ◽

Government Organization ◽

Local Political Institutions ◽

Township Government

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the problems of local government in rural areas. Increasing demands upon the taxpayer for the support of government and its services have emphasized the need for modernization of our local political institutions. Although advances in this direction are inevitably slow, each year brings some progressive steps, the cumulative effect of which, over a number of years, should be considerable. In 1939, with most state legislatures in session, numerous statutes were enacted which had as their purpose the readjustment of governmental areas or functions, the improvement of local-government organization or finance, or the promotion of coöperation among various governmental units. At the same time, there were instances in which local units themselves sought, under existing authority, to undertake the performance of new services or to provide their inhabitants with governmental forms or procedures better suited to present-day needs. As in previous years, the developments of 1939 will be summarized under the following headings: (1) areas; (2) organization and personnel; (3) functions; (4) finance; (5) optional charters; and (6) intergovernmental relations.

New and established mayoralties: lessons for local governance in constructing new political institutions – the English and Polish cases

Directly Elected Mayors in Urban Governance ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447327011.003.0013 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Colin Copus ◽

Alasdair Blair ◽

Katarzyna Szmigiel-Rawska ◽

Michael Dadd

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Local Government ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Institutional Design ◽

Central Government ◽

Local Politics ◽

Local Governance ◽

Political Actors ◽

Local Political Institutions ◽

Institutional Architecture

Reforming local government is a policy tool of central government when faced with local, national and international pressures for change and this is no more so than in times of political, social and economic crisis. The re-design of the institutional architecture of local political decision-making is therefore driven as much by the needs of the centre as by the needs of the localities, with a series of arguments for change propagated by the centre that reflects a set of central policy preferences. Once the shape, size, decision-making process, functions, purpose and tasks of local government are re-designed at the macro level, local political actors are the faced with opportunities for micro-level re-engineering of the systems bequeathed by the centre. The chapter employs the findings of separate research conducted among political leaders in England and Poland to explore how institutional design by central government, aimed at solving one set of policy problems, can energise further local re-design of local political institutions. Central government re-design of local politics can create a pattern of unfinished business which leads to further central interference in the architecture of local politics.