scholarly journals Is Decentralisation in Ghana pro-poor?

1970 ◽  
pp. 120-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin Obeng-Odoom
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Government Funding ◽  
Local People ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
Expenditure Patterns

There is a popular belief among decentralists that if local governments have the power to generate and spend revenue, without relying on central government funding, their expenditure will be pro-poor and will improve the lives of local people. Such views have influenced recent calls for greater decentralisation in developing countries in general and Africa in particular. However, evidence from Ghana casts some doubts on this view. A brief comparison of the expenditure and revenue patterns of the poorest and richest local governments there suggests that local governments are not inherently pro-poor and that locally generated funds might be used in ways that do not reflect the needs of the locality as a whole. Thus the fiscal devolution view of decentralisation appears to be out of kilter with reality. To discuss this issue, the three sections in this paper summarise the assumptions and perceived benefits of decentralisation, describe decentralisation in Ghana, and analyse the revenue and expenditure patterns of the Kumasi Metropolitan Authority and the Kasena Nankana District Assembly.

scholarly journals Building Effective Clusters and Industrial Parks

2019 ◽  
pp. 290-308
Author(s):  
Xiaobo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Industrial Park ◽  
International Firms ◽  
Know How ◽  
Industrial Parks ◽  
Informational Advantage

This chapter discusses some of the strategies that are commonly used to build effective clusters and industrial parks. Industrial districts (clusters) offer three major advantages: better access to suppliers and markets, labour market pooling, and spillovers of technological know-how. Compared to the central government, local governments are in a better position to identify and solve the bottlenecks that affect clusters and industrial parks, mainly because of their informational advantage. The chapter first provides an overview of clusters and industrial parks before analysing the experiences of—and the lessons learned by—developing countries such as China in building them. Four strategies to increase the chances of success of a cluster and industrial park are highlighted: targeting international firms, targeting grouped businesses, incentivizing first movers, and adopting a step-by-step approach. The chapter also considers a number of reasons why clusters and industrial parks failed in countries like India, Egypt, and Senegal.

Public Expenditure Decentralization in Developing Countries

1986 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
R W Bahl ◽  
S Nath
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
International Agency ◽  
The Public ◽  
Level Of Economic Development ◽  
Using Data

The objective of this paper is to investigate the extent of public expenditure decentralization among developing countries, and to identify its determinants. Using data compiled from international agency sources, and from primary sources, it is shown that fiscal decentralization has gone significantly farther in developed than in developing countries. The use of factor analysis and regression analysis indicates three general explanations for the wide variation in fiscal decentralization among countries. The public expenditure share of subnational governments appears to be greater where the level of economic development is higher, in countries with larger populations, and in countries whose central government budgets carry less of a defense burden. The results also suggest that where central governments mobilize more resources through the revenue system, the subnational government's share of expenditures may be lower—taxes are more likely to stick where they hit than to be passed through as grants to local governments.

OPTIMALISASI PERAN PEMDA DALAM MENGATASI KENDALA PELAKSANAAN KONSERVASI KEANEKARAGAMAN HAYATI DI DAERAH (STUDI KASUS PROVINSI BENGKULU)

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antung Deddy Radiansyah
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Conservation Areas ◽  
Conservation Area ◽  
Conservation Policies

Gaps in biodiversity conservation management within the Conservation Area that are the responsibility of the central government and outside the Conservation Areas or as the Essential Ecosystems Area (EEA) which are the authority of the Regional Government, have caused various spatial conflicts between wildlife /wild plants and land management activities. Several obstacles faced by the Local Government to conduct its authority to manage (EEA), caused the number and area of EEA determined by the Local Government to be still low. At present only 703,000 ha are determined from the 67 million ha indicated by EEA. This study aims to overview biodiversity conservation policies by local governments and company perceptions in implementing conservation policies and formulate strategies for optimizing the role of Local Governments. From the results of this study, there has not been found any legal umbrella for the implementation of Law number 23/ 2014 related to the conservation of important ecosystems in the regions. This regulatory vacuum leaves the local government in a dilemma for continuing various conservation programs. By using a SWOT to the internal strategic environment and external stratetegic environment of the Environment and Forestry Service, Bengkulu Province , as well as using an analysis of company perceptions of the conservation policies regulatary , this study has been formulated a “survival strategy” through collaboration between the Central Government, Local Governments and the Private Sector to optimize the role of Local Government’s to establish EEA in the regions.Keywords: Management gaps, Essential Ecosystems Area (EEA), Conservation Areas, SWOT analysis and perception analysis

Asymmetrical Attribution of Performance in China

Asian Survey ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 978-1003
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Chen Chen ◽  
Jun Xiang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Multilevel Mediation ◽  
Dual Pathway ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Impact

Existing studies of the impact of economic development on political trust in China have two major gaps: they fail to explain how economic development contributes to the hierarchical trust pattern, and they do not pay enough attention to the underlying mechanisms. In light of cultural theory and political control theory, we propose adapting performance theory into a theory of “asymmetrical attribution of performance” to better illuminate the case of China. This adapted theory leads to dual pathway theses: expectation fulfillment and local blaming. Using a multilevel mediation model, we show that expectation fulfillment mainly upholds trust in the central government, whereas local blaming undermines trust in local governments. We also uncover a rural–urban distinction in the dual pathway, revealing that both theses are more salient among rural Chinese.

scholarly journals Current Status of Traditional Korean Medicine Services in Public Sector: A Study for Integrating Traditional Korean Medicine into Community Care System

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 493
Author(s):  
Soo-Hyun Sung ◽  
Minjung Park ◽  
Jihye Kim ◽  
Sun-Woo Jeon ◽  
Angela Dong-Min Sung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Community Care ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Traditional Korean Medicine ◽  
Korean Medicine ◽  
Service Programs ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Care System

Korea is currently executing a pilot program for community care of its aging population and aims to implement community care systems on a national scale by 2025. This study examines the traditional Korean medicine (TKM) service to be provided within community care by understanding the current status of TKM services. The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MoHW) sent official letters to 242 local governments (cities, districts, and counties) from October to November 2019 to survey the status of the public TKM services provided in 2018. The items of the survey included basic demographic information as well as information that could reveal how the program was implemented. In 112 local government jurisdictions (response rate 46.3%), a total of 867 TKM service programs were in place. As a result of the survey, it was revealed that they did not have any service manuals or evaluation results. To provide home-care-based TKM service for the elderly as an integrated part of a community care system, it is necessary to develop, distribute, and evaluate a standard service manual including an evaluation index by the central government.

The Chengba site in Quxian County, Sichuan Province

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-68
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Local People ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Functional Zoning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Bamboo Slips ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City

AbstractIn 2014 through 2018, Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and History Museum of Quxian County conducted a systematic archaeological survey, detection, and excavation to the Chengba site in Quxian County. The excavation uncovered 4,000sq m in total, from which 444 various features were recovered and over 1,000 artifacts were unearthed. The functional zoning of this site has been roughly made clear; the excavations of the western gate and important building foundations of the Guojiatai city site are important archaeological discoveries of the city sites of the Han through Western Jin dynasties, and at the checkpoint site on the waterway of this period was uncovered for the first time in China. The large amounts of bamboo slips and wooden tablets unearthed in the excavation provided important materials for the explorations on the management of the central government of the Han and Jin empires to the administrative areas of commandery and district levels and the social lives of the local people at that time.

scholarly journals Public Policy Analysis on Watershed Governance in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6615
Author(s):  
Tri Sulistyaningsih ◽  
Achmad Nurmandi ◽  
Salahudin Salahudin ◽  
Ali Roziqin ◽  
Muhammad Kamil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Government Regulations ◽  
Institutional Control ◽  
Watershed Governance

This paper, which is focused on evaluating the policies and institutional control of the Brantas River Basin, East Java, Indonesia, aims to review government regulations on watershed governance in Indonesia. A qualitative approach to content analysis is used to explain and layout government regulations regarding planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, evaluation, and accountability of the central and local governments in managing the Brantas watershed, East Java, Indonesia. Nvivo 12 Plus software is used to map, analyze, and create data visualization to answer research questions. This study reveals that the management regulations of the Brantas watershed, East Java, Indonesia, are based on a centralized system, which places the central government as an actor who plays an essential role in the formulation, implementation, and accountability of the Brantas watershed management. In contrast, East Java Province’s regional government only plays a role in implementing and evaluating policies. The central government previously formulated the Brantas watershed. This research contributes to strengthening the management and institutional arrangement of the central government and local governments that support the realization of good governance of the Brantas watershed. Future research needs to apply a survey research approach that focuses on evaluating the capacity of the central government and local governments in supporting good management of the Brantas watershed.

Transfer-based decentralisation, economic growth and spatial inequality: Evidence from China’s 2002–2003 tax sharing reform

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 806-826
Author(s):  
Fan Fan ◽  
Ming Li ◽  
Ran Tao ◽  
Dali Yang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Interregional Inequality ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Tax Sharing

China has adopted a transfer-based fiscal decentralisation scheme since the mid-1990s. In the 1994 tax sharing reform, the central government significantly raised its share of government revenue vis-à-vis local governments by taking most of the newly created value-added tax on manufacturing. One aim for the adoption of the transfer-based fiscal scheme was to channel more funds to less developed regions and rural areas, and to alleviate growing interregional inequality and urban–rural income disparity. In 2002 and 2003 the Chinese central government further grabbed 50% and 60%, respectively, of the income taxes previously assigned only to local governments while providing more fiscal transfers to the country’s poor regions and the countryside. Utilising the 2002–2003 change in China’s central–local tax sharing regime as an exogenous policy shock, we employ a Simulated Instrumental Variable approach to causally evaluate the effects of the policy shock on growth, interregional inequality and urban–rural disparity. We find the lower local tax share dis-incentivised local governments and led to lower growth. Although higher central transfers helped to reduce interregional inequalities in per capita GDP and per capita income, the equalising effects were only present for urban incomes. We argue that transfer-based decentralisation without bottom-up accountability was detrimental to economic growth and had limited impact on income redistribution.

scholarly journals Does the “Miracle Drug” of Environmental Governance Really Improve Air Quality? Evidence from China’s System of Central Environmental Protection Inspections

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruxin Wu ◽  
Piao Hu
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
The Media ◽  
Positive Effect

Central environmental protection inspections have completed their goal of full coverage of 31 provinces in China, and more than 17,000 officials have been held accountable. The media has evaluated the effectiveness of central environmental protection inspections using the notions of “instant results” and the “miracle drug of environmental governance.” Can this approach effectively promote local environmental governance? This paper takes the treatment effect of central environmental protection inspections on air pollution as an example. Using the method of regression discontinuity, central environmental protection inspections are found to have a positive effect on the air quality index (AQI), but this effect is only short term and unsustainable. Additionally, there are inter-provincial differences. Judging from the research results on sub-contaminants, the treatment effect of central environmental protection inspections on air pollution is mainly reflected in PM10, PM2.5 and CO. Under the current situation in which PM10 and PM2.5 are the main assessment indexes, this phenomenon indicates that due to the political achievements and promotion of local officials and for reasons of accountability, it is more effective for the central government to conduct specific environmental assessments through local governments than to conduct central environmental protection inspections.

scholarly journals Rising Central Spending on Public Security and the Dilemma Facing Grassroots Officials in China

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Xie
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Public Security ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
Grassroots Level

In response to worsening social instability in China, among grassroots communities in the poorer central and western provinces in particular, the Chinese central government has made budgetary arrangements, since 2003, to increase investment at the grassroots level to improve the capacity of local governments to maintain social order. However, this action by central government has created a dilemma for local cadres: how to perform their duty to maintain social stability while also balancing a heavy fiscal burden caused in part by the receipt of insufficient additional budgetary subsidies from higher government. This paper is an account of and an analysis of how local cadres in China perform their official duties when faced with this dilemma.

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