Public/Private Joint Service Delivery in American Counties: Institutional Theory of Local Governance and Government Capacity

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moon-Gi Jeong
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Probit Analysis ◽  
County Level ◽  
Government Capacity ◽  
Alternative Service

The question of who should provide public services has continued to gain attention among scholars and practitioners. Existing studies on public service delivery have primarily focused on the `make' or `buy' decision, resulting in their lack of knowledge in public/private joint service delivery, especially at the county level. This study fills the research lacuna by incorporating the institutional theory of local governance and government capacity. Using the 2002 ICMA Survey on Local Governments' Alternative Service Delivery, this study examines what factors account for the adoption of public/private joint service delivery in American counties. Probit analysis is employed to estimate county choice of joint service delivery in 2002. Overall, the findings suggest that the reformed political structure has a modest influence on joint service delivery. The findings also suggest that government capacity has negative influence on joint service delivery.

scholarly journals Associations between the Mixture of Governance Modes and the Performance of Local Public Service Delivery

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Lei Win Swe ◽  
Seunghoo Lim
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Network Governance ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Market Governance ◽  
Governance Modes

Since the Myanmar central government decentralized some of its power to state and regional governments, few studies investigated the performance of local governments, and no studies investigated the relationships between the types of governance modes and the performance of public service delivery. This study investigates the associations between three types of governance—i.e., hierarchy, market, and network—and the multiple performances of agricultural services in terms of the competing public values of efficiency, effectiveness and equity in southern Shan State. The findings indicate that the three types of governance simultaneously coexist in local agriculture departments and that their associations with the performances of public services differ. Network governance is negatively associated with efficiency, effectiveness, and equity during its initial stage, but these associations become positive when the degree of network governance increases in agriculture departments. In contrast, market governance is positively related to effectiveness and equity during its initial stage; however, increasing the degree of market governance further leads to a negative association with both public service values. This assessment of the performance of public programmes in terms of the trade-offs among public service values contributes to improving the local governance of public service delivery not only in Myanmar but also in other developing countries.

Local Government as a Democracy Actor or a Service Delivery Actor

2014 ◽  
pp. 127-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Demediuk ◽  
Stephen Burgess ◽  
Rolf Solli
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Governance Practice

Local governance occurs where a local government gives citizens a say in things that really matter to them, and e-governance initiatives provide electronic means to enable citizens to participate in this shared governing of the community. The clearer a local government is about the nature and degree to which it needs to act as a democracy actor (better citizens and better government) and/or a service delivery actor (better decision making), the greater the prospect that it can choose appropriate electronic means through an e-governance approach to meet those ends. In order to guide an e-governance practice and inform further research, this chapter: provides models that articulate the elements that constitute better decision making, better citizens, and better government, and presents examples from five local governments of how electronic means can satisfy particular ends.

The Comparison and Revelation of the National Top 100 Counties of Governance Modes

2012 ◽  
Vol 433-440 ◽  
pp. 1771-1775
Author(s):  
Yi Miao
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Great Effort ◽  
County Level ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Governance Modes

Based on the governance experience of governments of National Top 100 Counties on Economy Basis and enlightenment from that, other county-level governments shall scientifically handle the relation between government and market to give full play to the fundamental role of the market in resource allocation, implement cross-regional cooperative governance to promote the flat local administrative system and optimize governance structure to improve public service level of governments with great effort. By the end of 2009, there are totally 2001 county-level economic units excluding county level city districts, among which, there are 367 county level cities, 1462 counties, 117 autonomous counties, 49 banners, 3 autonomous banners, 2 special administrative regions and 1 forest region. Local governance refers the problem solving process of a series of social public affairs & problems via extensive cooperation of local governments, non profit organizations, enterprises, citizens and other governance subjects in order to respond to demand of the people, develop consciousness of community and thus realize good governance of local governments and sound development of the society[1]. The Top 100 Counties on Economy Basis in China refer to those counties, in different regions of China, whose economic competitiveness ranks in the top 100 places in China. The author compares the governance modes of these 100 county level governments and summarizes their governance experience for reference of other county level governments in the governance process.

Service Shedding in Local Governments: Why Do They Do It?

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Lamothe ◽  
Meeyoung Lamothe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The United States ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Management Association ◽  
Alternative Service ◽  
Do So

Using four consecutive International City/County Management Association alternative service delivery arrangement surveys, this study explores the determinants of service shedding by local government in the United States. Our findings indicate that service shedding is fairly common, with almost 70% of jurisdictions experiencing at least one termination between 1992 and 1997. With regards to why jurisdictions shed services, we find that prior delivery mode is very influential. Specifically, services that were contracted out in the previous time period are much more likely to be dropped than are those that were produced in-house. We also find that the behavior of neighboring jurisdictions matters—if your neighbors tend to provide a service, you tend to continue to do so as well. We find little support for the idea that either budget stress or ideology is impactful in the decision to drop services.

scholarly journals Adapting Public Sector Services to Local Delivery

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (Special Edition) ◽  
pp. 359-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ishrat Husain
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Management Policies

This article describes the local government system established in the 2001 Devolution Plan and its evolution over the period 2002-07, with a focus on two essential public services, education and health. We believe that the devolution of service delivery functions, delegation of financial powers, decentralization of authority, and deconcentration of executive powers, can, together, lead to better accountability of results and, hence, to improved public service delivery to the poor and marginalized. The Devolution Plan made inroads toward these goals, particularly in education, but their achievement was incomplete due to a number of factors, among those incomplete fiscal decentralization, limited targeting of backward areas, and centralizing tendencies of the provincial departments and civil service. Recommendations are offered on how to further develop the local government system more generally, with an eye towards increasing accountability and improving coordination both across local governments and between tiers. For this, complementary reforms to simplify business processes and revamp human resource management policies are needed; introducing a district level civil service is among the suggested changes. The article concludes with detailed recommendations on improving the decentralized delivery of education and health services.

Factors influencing perceptions on corruption in public service delivery via e-government platform

foresight ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 628-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuti Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Demographic Variable ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Public Service Delivery ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Services ◽  
The Impact

Purpose With an increasing thrust upon transparency and accountability in government, e-government platforms are being scaled in many countries to bolster trust of the citizens and to bring about efficiency in public service delivery. Recently, India launched its “Digital India” initiative as an e-government measure. This study aims to gauge respondents’ perceptions regarding corruption in public services post-launch of the “Digital India” initiative. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted via email, soliciting inputs from 217 respondents following a convenience sampling technique in selected districts of India. Using an institutional theory lens, this study uses a quantitative approach where correlations and hierarchical regression analysis inform the overall analysis. Findings The results showed that low transparency, high cost incurred in availing public services, inefficiency in government and favoritism in government are the key determinants that influenced the perception of users about corruption in e-government services. Also, one demographic variable, namely, gender, showed a statistically significant relationship with the perception of corruption in e-government services. Originality/value Hitherto, extant literature is replete with conceptual and theoretical studies on the impact of e-government initiatives on curbing corruption, and there is negligible empirical research in developing countries vis-à-vis this dimension – the present study seeks to fill this gap. Second, previous research has not used the institutional theory to investigate the efficacy of e-government initiatives; this study uses the framework of the institutional theory framework to substantiate the arguments.

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