Direct Democracy at the Local Level

Municipalities of Liechtenstein enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy. There are matters which, according to the Municipality Act, must be decided by the entirety of the municipality's citizens who are entitled to vote. Furthermore, a referendum can be held against decisions of the municipal council by collecting signatures, or a popular vote on certain issues can be triggered through a citizens' initiative. In such ballots, citizens who are entitled to vote and reside in the municipality are admitted. In case of votes on the naturalisation of foreign nationals, only those who are resident in and have citizenship of the municipality in question are entitled to vote. Votes on naturalisation are more frequent than votes on matters of substance. Initiatives at municipal level, on the other hand, are rare. Municipal citizens can also exert direct influence at national level. Direct democratic instruments at national level can be taken by a nationwide collection of signatures or three or four identical municipal resolutions.

Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Flood Resilience Plan for Urban Sustainability of Ratnapura Municipal Council Area

Natural disasters adversely affect urban built-up areas all over the world. Flood is the most destructive natural disaster that affects Ratnapura, the provincial capital of the Sabaragamuwa Province in Sri Lanka. This monsoonal flooding is a prolonged problem that arises mainly due to the overspill of River Kalu and other water bodies connected to the river during heavy rainy seasons. It causes short-term and long-term damages to human lives, properties, the economy, and the environment. Floods cause severe damages to private residential buildings. Hence, the availability of a flood resilience plan is a significant feature of the good governance of the Local Authorities. There are many factors to consider when preparing a flood resilience plan. This study aims to assess the factors affecting the effectiveness of the existing flood resilience plan in the Ratnapura Municipal Council Area. The main data instrument used is a questionnaire survey from residents in the flood-prone area. It assessed the effectiveness of actions taken by the government pre-disaster, during a disaster, and post-disaster. Various factors affecting the flood resilience plan were identified and categorized: community resilience, economic resilience, ecological resilience, emergency readiness and responsiveness, infrastructure resilience, and social and cultural resilience. Findings revealed that the respondents were more satisfied with emergency readiness and responsiveness out of the five main categories. In addition, respondents address the effectiveness of the existing flood resilience plan and its affected factors like community resilience, economic resilience, emergency readiness and responsiveness, infrastructure resilience and social, and cultural resilience. Findings will be helpful for town planners and the Municipal Council of Ratnapura to identify flood resilience strategies through community perspectives to mitigate the flood hazard and propose innovative strategies to achieve urban sustainability and build resilient communities.

Government agencies overseeing municipal council funds: رقابة الأجهزة الحكومية على أموال المجالس البلدية

The research aims to identify the main internal and external monetary supplies to municipalities and their role in turning municipalities to development institutions. IN addition, this research identified the main supervision practices over the municipal councils, which are carried out by some government agencies. The effect of such practices on the adequacy of work has also been identified. the descriptive approach has been used to handle these monetary supplies based on the legislations and regulations that are related to them. the analytical approach has also been employed by analyzing some legal provisions that are related to the research. In conclusion, after having handled the surveillance of the government agencies over municipal councils funds. It is essential to show the main results that we concluded as well as stating some recommendations, which are five. Among the most important results of the study: The financial autonomy that municipalities have is not absolute and relative, which emphasizes the idea that municipalities funds are subject to control by the central authority. this can sometimes lead to imposing some restrains on the jurisdiction of the municipal councils. The study recommended Increasing the financial autonomy of the municipalities as imposing censorship over the financial autonomy may be a cause of shortage of funds.

influence of internal organizational mechanisms on gender mainstreaming effectiveness Morogoro region, Tanzania

The paper sought to analyse the influence of the existing internal organizational mechanisms on gender mainstreaming effectiveness (GME). The study used cross sectional research design where a total sample of 368 respondents was drawn from population of 4481 by using systematic sampling from employees of the Morogoro Municipal Council, whereby questionnaire was the main tool used to collect data. The linear multiple and hierarchical regression models were used analyse data. The study found that a positive and significant influence of existing internal organizational mechanisms on gender mainstreaming effectiveness at Morogoro municipal council. The paper concludes that the GME was influenced greatly by the internal organizational mechanisms. Therefore, it is recommended that the Local Governmental Authorities to increase efforts of committing resources on the internal organizational mechanisms for gender mainstreaming effectiveness in the work place.

Colonialism, Cosmopolitanism, and Nationalism: The Performativity of Western Music Endeavours in Interwar Shanghai

This article examines the meaning of Western music performances in interwar Shanghai through the theoretical framework of performativity that originated in John Austin's speech act and Judith Butler's notion of identity as performed. The early concerts of the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra (SMO), I suggest, were an assertion of settler sovereignty in a treaty port such as Shanghai. Therefore, Chinese musicians performing Western music – propagated through the establishment of the National Conservatory of Music by Chinese elites in Shanghai's French Settlement in 1927 – was the embodiment of three contradictory ideals: colonialism, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism. Zooming in on four SMO concerts that featured Chinese musicians in 1929, I argue that they were sites of identity and power negotiation, the SMO and the Chinese musicians asserting quite distinct performative utterances. On the one hand, the performing Chinese body enacted the cosmopolitan outlook that the Municipal Council was eager to project, not only for the sake of ideology but also to increase SMO's concert revenue by appealing to the increasing number of Chinese concert attendees. On the other hand, it meant national glory to Chinese residents in Shanghai, marking Chinese musicians participating in a global musical network. Lastly, this study draws attention to the diverse geographies of Western music in the twentieth century and its coeval development beyond the West, testifying to the timely need for a global music history in which the musicking of Western music in so many Asian cities should be interwoven into its narrative.

The Slapstick Routine of Parisian Monumentalism: Robert Desnos and Jacques-André Boiffard’s “Pygmalion and the Sphinx” (1930)

This essay considers the 1930 essay “Pygmalion and the Sphinx” by Robert Desnos, originally published alongside Jacques André-Boiffard’s photographs of Parisian monuments in the journal Documents. I focus on Desnos and Boiffard’s tragicomic depiction of the municipal council of Paris’ failure to reconcile a fragmented sense of national identity through the erection of public monuments. As implicated by its title, “Pygmalion and the Sphinx” compares the “statuemania” of the Third Republic to the Greek myth. As Desnos and Boiffard reveal, within the monumental form is an antagonism between the civic ideal of ‘Pygmalion’ and the brute substance of the statue’s material, or the Sphinx. This tension inevitably collapses the idealist endeavour of monumentalism; a moment of folly opened by the laughter it evokes. Boiffard focuses the pedestal of the monument, and the rigidity of its material when exposed against the urban landscape. These photographs launch a base materialist perspective repeated by Desnos in his comic imagination. This term is further contextualised by the writings of Georges Bataille in Documents, whereby laughter is integral to the critique of idealism. In this essay, I read Desnos and Boiffard alongside Bataille to illuminate how monumentalism prepares its toppling in the ‘fall’ of the slapstick’s laugh.

The Influence of the By-Laws in Shaping Intended Societal Behaviour: A Case Study in Kelantan

Local government is the closest level of government to the local community and identified as the third level of government after the federal and the state government. Local government are regulated under the Local Government Act 1976 and each has their own power to enact by-laws under their respective administration area. By-laws is a formulation of the law under the jurisdiction of local government in performing its duties and functions covering the administrative area that has been identified by the state government. Some of the by-laws play a part in shaping the behavior of the societies, especially in local government areas which are quite different approach such as Kota Bharu Municipal Council of Islamic Cities (MPKB-BRI) and others local government located at Kelantan. By-laws implemented by local government in Kelantan are very much different compared to local government in other states in Malaysia which is the provisions of the by-laws that focused on Islamic by-laws such as ban on unisex salons, enforcement of board guidelines advertisement that prohibit an advertisements that do not cover the aurat and the enforcement of proper clothing covering the aurat among the Muslim community and dressing politely for non-Muslims that suggests the aurat closure and wearing appropriate clothing among traders, business premises owners and also the societies. The objective of this study is to review the extent and impact of the by-laws implemented by local government at Kelantan in influencing and shaping the behavior of the local societies to become guideline for the other local government at Malaysia. Keywords: Local Government, By-laws, Islamic By-laws & Jurisdiction

Factors affecting the selection of instructional materials in the teaching and learning of basic science in secondary schools, Imo State Nigeria

This study was conducted to assess the factors affecting the selection of instructional materials in the teaching and learning of basic science in secondary schools, Imo State Nigeria. The study employed a descriptive survey design to find out how factors affecting the selection of instructional materials in the teaching and learning of basic science in public secondary schools in Owerri Municipal Council, Imo State. Two hundred (200) respondents comprising teachers and students from seven (7) public secondary schools in the council were interviewed using a modified five-point Likert instrument (questionnaire). The data collected were coded into SPSS and analyzed with descriptive statistics. The results showed that 103 persons strongly reported they don’t have availability instructional materials, 68 persons agreed that unfavourable time allocation affects instructional materials used by teachers to develop lesson plan, 69 persons strongly agreed that lack of skills is one of the factors affect instructional materials used in the teaching and learning of basic science in secondary schools. Also, 148 persons strongly agreed that instructional materials should be made available in schools and teachers should be encouraged in using materials during teaching. Then, lack of instructional materials/facilities and non-utilization were among the major causes of poor performance of students in basic science in Owerri Municipal Council. In conclusion, it was understood that non availability of instructional materials, unfavourable time allocation, lack of skills, lack of facilities like basic science laboratory were major factors affect teachers, school administrators and government in teaching and learning of the basic science. Therefore, Government or public school authorities should help to provide instructional materials such as modern textbooks, charts, posters, computers, flip chart, and audio recordings, because basic science in secondary schools cannot be adequate learned without instructional materials.

Spatiotemporal Land-Use Changes of Batticaloa Municipal Council in Sri Lanka from 1990 to 2030 Using Land Change Modeler

Land-use change is a predictable and principal driving force of potential environmental changes on all spatial and temporal scales. A land-use change model is a tool that supports the analysis of the sources and consequences of land-use dynamics. This study aims to assess the spatiotemporal land-use changes that occurred during 1990–2020 in the municipal council limits of Batticaloa. A land change modeler has been used as an innovative land planning and decision support system in this study. The main satellite data were retrieved from Landsat in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. For classification, the supervised classification method was employed, particularly with the medium resolution satellite images. Land-use classes were analyzed by the machine learning algorithm in theland change modeler. The Markov chain method was also used to predict future land-use changes. The results of the study reveal that only one land-use type, homestead, has gradually increased, from 12.1% to 34.1%, during the above-mentioned period. Agriculture land use substantially declined from 26.9% to 21.9%. Bare lands decreased from 11.5% to 5.0%, and wetlands declined from 13.9% to 9.6%.

Accounting Systems and Practice in Pre-New Public Management Era of Malaysian Local Government: A Historical Case Study of Kota Kinabalu Municipal Council-1979-1999

This paper provides an overview of the Kota Kinabalu Municipal Council (at present it is now known as Kota Kinabalu City Hall (KKCH) after the elevation of status in year 2000) through the years 1979 to 1999. The main focused is to highlight the accounting systems and practice of KKMC during those years. Qualitative method was employed with the data collection mainly used the semi-structured interviews, archival document and content analysis, participations and observations. The findings reveal that since elevated from the town board to municipal council status in 1979, KKMC as the governing body for the town of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah has not seen much differences in terms of its administration and financial management systems and practices but gradual changes were taking place. Overall, the use of management accounting as a tool for management in the process of planning, directing, controlling and organizing is very rare. The belief for KKMC existence as a body for providing the service and the guardian for the town of Kota Kinabalu at the most effective and efficient cost has been materialized with very little use of management accounting techniques and tools. Management accounting as a main language in the running of the management meetings at all levels has also been seen as unpopular and unnecessary.