Can Citizens Set City Policy? Evidence from a Decentralized Welfare State

2020 ◽  
pp. 107808742091624
Author(s):  
Benjamin Egerod ◽  
Martin Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Local Fiscal Policy ◽  
City Policy ◽  
Municipal Level

Municipal governments supposedly empower citizens, giving them the ability to shape the political organization of their local community. In spite of this, we know little about whether municipal governments are in fact responsive to the policy views of municipal electorates. In this study, we look at whether the policy implemented by local politicians actually respond to changes in the ideological mood of the electorate. In particular, we compile a unique and comprehensive data set of local fiscal policy in Denmark, which we use to construct municipal-level estimates of fiscal policy conservatism. These detailed policy data are then linked to an indicator of local ideological sentiment. Based on these data, we find strong evidence for dynamic responsiveness: When local preferences change, local public policy responds.

Measuring Municipal Participation in Homeless Governance

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
Charley E. Willison
Keyword(s):  
Housing Policy ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Supportive Housing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Housing Policies ◽  
Chronic Homelessness ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Municipal Level

Chapter 4 examines national variation in municipal responses to chronic homelessness, identifying the prevalence of municipal-level supportive housing policies among municipalities affected by homelessness in the United States and identifying and examining factors associated with the presence of a municipal-level supportive housing policy. The presence of municipal-level supportive housing policies is an indication of evidence-based policy adoption to address chronic homelessness effectively in urban areas. To date, there has been almost no research on the political predictors of the adoption of these evidence-based policies. Results demonstrate that most municipalities facing homelessness challenges do not have supportive housing policies. Of the municipalities in the data set, only 40% had a municipal-level supportive housing policy. These municipalities tend to be: more liberal; sanctuary cities; have fewer but better funded nonprofit health organizations; lower rates of municipal governmental fragmentation; and located in states without Medicaid expansion.

Fiscal Perception and Voting

1993 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Bosch ◽  
J Suárez-Pandiello
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Local Fiscal Policy

The effect of local fiscal policy perception on the electoral process in a representative democracy is investigated. The test is made by using an ordinary least squares regression on a sample of fifty Spanish municipalities. The dependent variable is the relative increase in the number of votes in support of the political party in power between the two previous local elections, and the independent variables are public investment and taxes collected by local government. The empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that fiscal perception affects voters’ behaviour.

scholarly journals Effect of political corruption on municipal tax revenues

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-240
Author(s):  
María Dolores Guillamón ◽  
Javier Cifuentes ◽  
Ursula Faura ◽  
Bernardino Benito
Keyword(s):  
Government Spending ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Tax Revenues ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Municipal Level

La mayor parte de la investigación sobre la corrupción se ha realizado a nivel nacional, porque su estudio a nivel regional o local es más complejo. Aunque hay muchos estudios sobre la relación entre la corrupción y el gasto público, muy pocos examinan la influencia de la corrupción en los ingresos públicos, y no hemos encontrado ninguno a nivel subnacional, excepto el reciente de Liu y Mikesell (2019). Nuestro objetivo es analizar la corrupción política a nivel municipal, estudiando si el nivel de ingresos de los gobiernos municipales se ve afectado por los casos de corrupción que involucran a los políticos locales. Otros factores que se toman en cuenta son la ideología política, el gobierno de mayoría absoluta y el ciclo electoral. La muestra es un panel de datos de todos los municipios españoles con una población de más de 50.000 habitantes para el período 2002-2013. Most research on corruption has been at the national level, because its study at the regional or local level is more complex. Although there are many studies about the relation between corruption and government spending, very few examine the influence of corruption on government revenues, and we have not found any at the subnational level, except the recent Liu & Mikesell (2019). Our aim is to analyze political corruption at the municipal level, studying whether the level of revenue of municipal governments is affected by the cases of corruption involving local politicians. Some of the other factors taken into account are political ideology, absolute majority government and the electoral cycle. The sample is a data panel of all the Spanish municipalities with a population of over 50,000 inhabitants for the period 2002-2013. Our results reveal that municipalities with higher levels of corruption have higher tax revenues in per capita terms.

Our universities away from partisan Altsarat

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
أ.د.عبد الجبار احمد عبد الله
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Moral Duty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Office ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The University

In order to codify the political and partisan activity in Iraq, after a difficult labor, the Political Parties Law No. (36) for the year 2015 started and this is positive because it is not normal for the political parties and forces in Iraq to continue without a legal framework. Article (24) / paragraph (5) of the law requires that the party and its members commit themselves to the following: (To preserve the neutrality of the public office and public institutions and not to exploit it for the gains of a party or political organization). This is considered because it is illegal to exploit State institutions for partisan purposes . It is a moral duty before the politician not to exploit the political parties or some of its members or those who try to speak on their behalf directly or indirectly to achieve partisan gains. Or personality against other personalities and parties at the expense of the university entity.

Engagement Through the Diaspora Channel

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Danielson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Statistical Models ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Municipal Level

The first empirical task is to identify the characteristics of municipalities which US-based migrants have come together to support financially. Using a nationwide, municipal-level data set compiled by the author, the chapter estimates several multivariate statistical models to compare municipalities that did not benefit from the 3x1 Program for Migrants with those that did, and seeks to explain variation in the number and value of 3x1 projects. The analysis shows that migrants are more likely to contribute where migrant civil society has become more deeply institutionalized at the state level and in places with longer histories as migrant-sending places. Furthermore, the results suggest that political factors are at play, as projects have disproportionately benefited states and municipalities where the PAN had a stronger presence, with fewer occurring elsewhere.

Taken For A Ride

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Rizzo
Keyword(s):  
Public Transport ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Bus Rapid Transit ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Experience ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Informal Economies

The growth of cities and informal economies are two central manifestations of globalization in the developing world. Taken for a Ride addresses both, drawing on long-term fieldwork in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and charting its public transport system’s journey from public to private provision. The book investigates this shift alongside the increasing deregulation of the sector and the resulting chaotic modality of public transport. It reviews state attempts to regain control over public transport, the political motivations behind these, and their inability to address its problems. The analysis documents how informal wage relations prevailed in the sector, and how their salience explains many of the inefficiencies of public transport. The changing political attitude of workers towards employers and the state is investigated: from an initial incapacity to respond to exploitation, to political organization and unionization, which won workers concessions on labour rights. A longitudinal study of workers throws light on patterns of occupational mobility in the sector. The book ends with an analysis of the political and economic interests that shaped the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit in Dar es Salaam and local resistance to it. Taken for a Ride is an interdisciplinary political economy of public transport, exposing the limitations of market fundamentalist and postcolonial scholarship on economic informality and the urban experience in developing countries, and its failure to locate the agency of the urban poor within their economic and political structures. It is both a contribution to and a call for the contextualized study of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’.

scholarly journals Local Candidates, Place-Based Identities, and Electoral Success

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Schulte-Cloos ◽  
Paul C. Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Unique Feature ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Matching Strategy

AbstractWhile a large body of literature empirically documents an electoral advantage for local candidates, the exact mechanisms accounting for this effect remain less clear. We integrate theories on the political geography of candidate-voter relations with socio-psychological accounts of citizens’ local attachment, arguing that citizens vote for candidates from their own local communities as an expression of their place-based identity. To test our argument, we exploit a unique feature of the German mixed-member electoral system. We identify the causal effect of candidates’ localness by relying on within-electoral-district variation coupled with a geo-matching strategy on the level of municipalities ($$\hbox {N}=11175$$ N = 11175 ). The results show that voters exhibit a strong bias in favor of local candidates even when they are not competitive. More than only expecting particularistic benefits from representatives, citizens appear to vote for candidates from their own local community to express their place-based social identity.

scholarly journals Love is blind: partisan alignment and political corruption in Spain

SERIEs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel Borrella-Mas ◽  
Martin Rode
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Real Estate Industry ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Boom And Bust ◽  
Boom And Bust Cycle ◽  
Regional Elections ◽  
Municipal Level ◽  
Do So

AbstractEver since the spectacular boom and bust cycle of the Spanish real estate industry, endemic corruption at the local level has become a widely recognized problem in the national public discourse. In an effort to expose an under-explored political determinant, this paper investigates the effect of local and regional alignment in fomenting corruption at the Spanish municipal level. To do so, we construct an ample panel dataset on the prevalence of corrupt practices by local politicians, which is employed to test the possible impact of partisan alignment in three consecutive joint municipal and regional elections. Findings show aligned municipalities to be more corrupt than non-aligned ones, an effect that is further associated with absolute majorities at both levels of government and higher capital transfers. By contrast, we also show that “throwing the rascals out” could be an effective strategy for curbing the corrupt practices of aligned municipalities. This indicates that the democratic political process may be effective in corruption control if agreements can be reached to remove corrupt politicians or parties from power.

The Role of Politics in the Historical Transport Networks of the Iberian Peninsula and the Pyrenees from Roman Times to the Nineteenth Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-260
Author(s):  
Pau de Soto ◽  
Cèsar Carreras
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Transport Network ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Transport Networks ◽  
Political Economic

AbstractTransport routes are basic elements that are inextricably linked to diverse political, economic, and social factors. Transport networks may be the cause or result of complex historical conjunctions that reflect to some extent a structural conception of the political systems that govern each territory. It is for this reason that analyzing the evolution of the transport routes layout in a wide territory allows us to recognize the role of the political organization and its economic influence in territorial design. In this article, the evolution of the transport network in the Iberian Peninsula has been studied in a broad chronological framework to observe how the different political systems of each period understood and modified the transport systems. Subsequently, a second analysis of the evolution of transport networks in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula is included in this article. This more detailed and geographically restricted study allows us to visualize in a different way the evolution and impact of changes in transport networks. This article focuses on the calculation of the connectivity to analyze the intermodal transport systems. The use of network science analyses to study historical roads has resulted in a great tool to visualize and understand the connectivity of the territories of each studied period and compare the evolution, changes, and continuities of the transport network.

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