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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Local government > General
Originally published in 1987, Cost-Benefit Analysis in Urban and Regional Planning, outlines the theory and practice of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in the context of urban and regional planning. The theory of CBA is developed with examples to illustrate the principles, it also deals with details of the applications and covers issues such as local health and social services provision, local economic development and regional policy evaluation, and planning in less developed countries - as well as the conventional land-use issues of physical planning.
The misery of Zulu people who are not allowed to own land, and are thus perpetually tenants becomes clear as we follow the Dubazana family and the horrors they endure just trying to live honestly, in the midst of the political turbulence and faction violence of the mid 1990s in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Rise of Big Government chronicles the phenomenal growth of local, state, and federal government over the last 100 years. The authors explain this growth by arguing that public and social acceptance of government intervention has allowed government to maintain a presence at all levels of the economy. The authors take issue with the opposing argument that government has grown by itself and by the bureaucracy's constant push for its own expansion.
India's cities are in the midst of an unprecedented urban expansion. While India is acknowledged as a rising power, poised to emerge into the front rank of global economies, the pace and scale of its urbanisation calls for more effective metropolitan management if that growth is not to be constrained by gathering urban crisis. This book addresses some key issues of governance and management for India's principal urban areas of Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. As three of the greatest Indian cities, they have evolved in recent decades into large metropolitan regions with complex, overlapping and often haphazard governance arrangements. All three cities exemplify the challenges of urbanisation and serve here as case studies to explore the five dimensions of urban governance in terms of devolution, planning, structures of delivery, urban leadership and civic participation. London, with its recent establishment of a directly elected Mayor, provides a reference point for this analysis, and signifies the extent to which urban leadership has moved to the top of the urban governance agenda. In arguing the case for reform of metropolitan governance, the book demonstrates that it would be too simplistic to imagine that London's institutional structure can be readily transposed on to the very different political and cultural fabric of India's urban life. Confronting India's urban crisis with a comparative analysis that identifies the limits of policy transfer, the book will be particularly valuable to students and scholars of Politics, Governance, and Urban studies.
Across many parts of the postcolonial world, it is everyday reality for people to cross regularly between state-based and customary governance, institutions and norms. This book examines this phenomenon in the context of the villages of Timor-Leste, and the state-building efforts that have been conducted by the Timorese government and international development agencies since the vote for independence in 1999. Drawing on 5 years of ethnographic fieldwork in the remote, rural areas of Timor-Leste, the book provides a critical analysis of the challenges that communities face when navigating coexisting customary and state-based structures and norms in a context where customary law continues to be the central guiding force. It also explores the various creative ways in which local leaders and community members make sense of their local governance environment. It then draws on these insights to provide a more nuanced, contextualised account of the impact of institutional interventions, state-building and democratisation within these villages. While set in the context of state- and nation-building efforts following Timor-Leste's vote for independence, the book also provides a broader examination of the issues that arise for the postcolonial state adequately meeting the needs of its citizens. Further, it explores the challenges that are met by communities when incorporating state influences and demands into their everyday lives. Expanding the scope of empirical Timor-Leste scholarship by moving beyond anthropological description and providing the first detailed political analysis of local-level governance in contemporary Timorese communities, this book is a valuable contribution to studies on Asian Politics, Governance and International Studies.
Originally published in 1981 but now with a new preface, this volume provided the first detailed comparative analysis of how local authorities in the UK and W. Germany faced up to the challenge of trying to help local industry and improve employment prospects. Based on the results of case-studies the book considers the powers and resources available to local authorities and examines how the authorities are organized for this type of economic activity. The authors' analysis of the interplay of political and administrative factors will be particularly important for student and professionals in comparative public policy and public finance. The study shows how economic policy making in local government is constrained both by the higher levels of government in both countries and by the conditions in the economy operating both locally and nationally.
"This book will inspire people to work with and for their neighbors in all kinds of ways!" --Bill McKibben, author of Falter Heather Lende was one of the thousands of women inspired to take an active role in politics during the past few years. Though her entire campaign for assembly member in Haines, Alaska, cost less than $1,000, she won! And tiny, breathtakingly beautiful Haines isn't the sleepy town it appears to be. Yes, the assembly must stop bears from rifling through garbage on Main Street, but there is also a bitter debate about the fishing boat harbor and a vicious recall campaign that targets three assembly members, including Lende. In Of Bears and Ballots we witness the nitty-gritty of passing legislation, the lofty ideals of our republic, and the way our national politics play out in one small town. With her entertaining cast of offbeat but relatable characters, the writer whom the Los Angeles Times calls "part Annie Dillard, part Anne Lamott" brings us an inspirational tale about what living in a community really means, and what we owe one another.
What explains contemporary variations in African legislative institutions - including their strengths and weaknesses? Compared with the more powerful executive branches, legislatures throughout the continent have historically been classified as weak and largely inconsequential to policy-making processes. But, as Ken Ochieng' Opalo suggests here, African legislatures actually serve important roles, and under certain conditions, powerful and independent democratic legislatures can emerge from their autocratic foundations. In this book, Opalo examines the colonial origins of African legislatures, as well as how postcolonial intra-elite politics structured the processes of adapting inherited colonial legislatures to local political contexts and therefore continued legislative development. Through case studies of Kenya and Zambia, Opalo offers a comparative longitudinal study of the evolution of legislative strength and institutionalization as well as a regional survey of legislative development under colonial rule, postcolonial autocratic single-party rule, and multiparty politics throughout Africa.
Keen Johnson was governor of Kentucky from 1939 to 1943 -- years that spanned the end of the Depression and the initial involvement of this country in the Second World War. The account of Johnson's administration is chronicled here through a collection of his public papers. The material, organized by subject and arranged chronologically within each area, presents a rather clear picture of Governor Johnson's plans and concerns for Kentucky and of the actions he took as chief executive on behalf of the state. In contrast to contemporary procedures concerning the preservation of governors' papers in university and state archives, many of the Johnson papers were difficult to locate and, apart from a few complete speech manuscripts, were reconstructed in large part from cards containing outlines and notes for speeches, along with many state and local newspaper accounts of speeches he made and of events in which he participated. Many speeches have been extensively footnoted by the editor to provide the reader with supplementary information. Also included in this volume is a perceptive evaluation of the Johnson administration by H. Clyde Reeves, who served in it as a commissioner of revenue. The appendix offers as complete a listing as was possible to reconstruct of the speeches delivered by Governor Johnson during his term of office.
Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and health services, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and co-operation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity. Winner of the 1992 Louis Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Since the publication of the first edition of A South African Renewable Energy Guide for Local Government, the costs related to non-renewable energy generation have increased exponentially, and coal-based energy systems have continued to generate large quantities of dangerous emissions. Conversely, sustainable energy generation has become more cost-effective, and in many instances renewables are now more economically viable than non-renewables. This narrowing gap in costs, coupled with an increased awareness of the environmental benefits of renewables, has greatly stimulated the sustainable energy market. Over the last several years, metropolitan municipalities have engaged with innovative, cost-effective sustainable energy projects and solutions. Medium and smaller municipalities are beginning to understand the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in the energy sector. They are learning how to work within the confines of the South African national, provincial and local policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks; how to embed renewables within local integrated development plans and strategies; how to utilise appropriate technologies and how to apply financing mechanisms and leverage partnerships for successful project delivery. It is critically important therefore that (particularly) small, medium and rural municipalities continue to explore, and receive capacity-building and support for, renewable and energy-efficient solutions In line with these developments, this second edition provides useful information and solid examples of how politicians, city managers and government officials, in partnership with communities, can facilitate the adoption of renewable energy systems and technologies to achieve a more sustainable energy future for all.
Regionalization in general and regional integration in particular have taken place at a growing pace since the end of the Cold War, when states were set free from various security overlays. Regional integration is 'logical' as it is supposed to advance wealth and peace. Still, the picture is far from clear and the process of regional integration is not automatic; disintegration takes place, as we saw in the cases of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia to mention a few. This is the case not only in states recently brought together but also in traditional states like Britain, The Netherlands and Spain where strong groups strive for independence. In some places regionalization is flourishing, but regional integration is not. Some regional integration projects like the North American Free Trade Agreement and Mercosur seem to stagnate. Certainly there are limits to regional integration. This comprehensive volume, written by high profiled academics, covers these themes by examining eleven cases ranging from the lack of integration in the Arctic and the Middle East, to ongoing or progressing integration in Europe to uncover what 'blocks' regional integration, the results of which are used for developing new theoretical insights.
With the demise of the Old Regionalist project of achieving good regional governance through amalgamation, voluntary collaboration has become the modus operandi of a large number of North American metropolitan regions. Although many researchers have become interested in regional collaboration and its determinants, few have specifically studied its outcomes. This book contributes to filling this gap by critically re-evaluating the fundamental premise of the New Regionalism, which is that regional problems can be solved without regional/higher government. In particular, this research asks: to what extent does regional collaboration have a significant independent influence on the determinants of regional resilience? Using a comparative (Canada-U.S.) mixed-method approach, with detailed case studies of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Montreal and trans-national Niagara-Buffalo regions, the book examines the direct and indirect impacts of inter-local collaboration on policy and policy outcomes at the regional and State/Provincial levels. The book research concentrates on the effects of bottom-up, state-mandated and functional collaboration and the moderating role of regional awareness, higher governmental initiative and civic capital on three outcomes: environmental preservation, socio-economic integration and economic competitiveness. In short, the book seeks to highlight those conditions that favor collaboration and might help avoid the collaborative trap of collaboration for its own sake. More specifically, this research concentrates on the effect of bottom-up, state-mandated and functional collaboration, the moderating role of regional awareness, governmental initiative and civic capital on environmental preservation, socio-economic integration and economic competitiveness. In short, the book seeks to understand whether and how urban regional collaboration contributes to regional resilience.
As more Africans get online, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly hailed for their transformative potential. Yet, the fascination for the possibilities of promoting more inclusive forms of development in the information age have obfuscated the reality of the complex negotiations among political and economic actors who are seeking to use technology in their competition for power. Building on over ten years of research in Ethiopia, Iginio Gagliardone investigates the relationship between politics, development, and technological adoption in Africa's second most populous country and its largest recipient of development aid. The emphasis the book places on the 'technopolitics' of ICTs, and on their ability to embody and enact political goals, offers a strong and empirically grounded counter-argument to prevalent approaches to the study of technology and development that can be applied to other cases in Africa and beyond.
The lasting effects of slavery on contemporary political attitudes in the American South Despite dramatic social transformations in the United States during the last 150 years, the South has remained staunchly conservative. Southerners are more likely to support Republican candidates, gun rights, and the death penalty, and southern whites harbor higher levels of racial resentment than whites in other parts of the country. Why haven't these sentiments evolved or changed? Deep Roots shows that the entrenched political and racial views of contemporary white southerners are a direct consequence of the region's slaveholding history, which continues to shape economic, political, and social spheres. Today, southern whites who live in areas once reliant on slavery-compared to areas that were not-are more racially hostile and less amenable to policies that could promote black progress. Highlighting the connection between historical institutions and contemporary political attitudes, the authors explore the period following the Civil War when elite whites in former bastions of slavery had political and economic incentives to encourage the development of anti-black laws and practices. Deep Roots shows that these forces created a local political culture steeped in racial prejudice, and that these viewpoints have been passed down over generations, from parents to children and via communities, through a process called behavioral path dependence. While legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act made huge strides in increasing economic opportunity and reducing educational disparities, southern slavery has had a profound, lasting, and self-reinforcing influence on regional and national politics that can still be felt today. A groundbreaking look at the ways institutions of the past continue to sway attitudes of the present, Deep Roots demonstrates how social beliefs persist long after the formal policies that created those beliefs have been eradicated.
The Routledge Handbook of International Local Government conducts a rigorous, innovative and distinctive analysis of local government within a comparative, international context. Examining the subject matter with unrivalled breadth and depth, this handbook shows how different cultures and countries develop different institutions, structures and processes over time, yet that all have some features in common - the most obvious of which is the recognition that some decisions are better made, some services better delivered, and some engagement with the state better organised if there is structured organisational expression of the importance of the local dimension of all these factors . Thematically organised, it includes contributions from international experts with reference to the wider context in terms of geographies, local government modes, recent developments and possible further lines of research. It has a wide academic appeal internationally and will steer a course between the two dimensions of mono-jurisdictional studies and 'cataloguing' forms of comparison. The Routledge Handbook of International Local Government will be essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners involved in, and actively concerned about, research on local government.
Social scientists have regularly proclaimed the end of territory under successive waves of modernization, yet it continually re-emerges as a key principle of social, economic, and political organization. Rather than a de-territorialization we are witnessing a rescaling of social life as functional systems, identities, and political expression migrate to new levels. This is not new, but is a recurrent feature of the European state. States have sought to reassert control over these new spaces, while political and social movements have sought to politicize them and open them up to popular influence. The result has been the emergence of the meso-level or region as set of contested spaces, and increasingly as a level of government. Social and economic interests are refracted at these new territorial levels to reshape the policy agenda and create new social alliances and conflicts. Regions have emerged as spaces for public policy, with significant divergences over economic development, welfare policies, public services and environmental issues. Rescaling poses important normative questions about self-determination and social solidarity. These cannot definitively be resolved but are reframed, with new forms of self-government being possible and social solidarity emerging at new levels. Competitive regionalism has become a dominant theme but there is no generalized race to bottom as regions respond to the challenge in multiple ways. Regions are not going to replace the nation-state as they remain loosely-bounded and contested spaces but territory continues to reshape European polities. Drawing on a rich interdisciplinary literature and on original research, the volume provides a fresh and engaging analytical approach to the understanding of territory and power in contemporary Europe.
* A classic study of urban politics praised for the clarity of its writing, careful research, and distinctive theme - that urban politics in the United States has evolved as a dynamic interaction between governmental power, private actors, and a politics of identity. * Offers persuasive explanation, anchored in careful attention to historical detail, of the structural reasons for the spatial polarization and racial and ethnic segregation evident across and within American urban regions. * Includes a number of important updates, including the #MeToo Movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the Coronavirus pandemic, the November 2020 US presidential election, climate change, inequality in the public education system, and police reform. * The most recent census data has been integrated throughout the text to provide up to date figures for analysis, discussion, and a nuanced understanding of current trends. * Can be taught as a core text for undergraduate and graduate students or as a resource for well-established researchers in the discipline. May be used on its own, or supplemented with optional reader American Urban Politics in a Global Age (also forthcoming in a new edition) for more advanced readers.
The concept of governance has evolved into one of the most important but also controversial concepts in urban politics. While it encourages co-operation, participation and collective construction, at the same time, it has brought about new forms of public demission, oligarchic regimes and less local democracy. The dilemmas accompanying these changes are particularly relevant when observing the cities of Southern Europe, whose socio-cultural specificities very much structure local political and policy materialisations. Bringing together a team of leading scholars from across the social sciences, this volume examines the issues of urban governance in the Southern European context. Illustrated by case studies of several main cities and metropoles on the North Mediterranean coast, it introduces and critically analyses the latest theories and approaches to urban governance. It questions how the 'real' or socio-cultural notion of city seems to have been separated from that of the 'political' city and explores how more integrated socio-political forms might be developed. It looks at current structures, dynamics and cultures of governance in urban development and questions whether they are well adapted to new realities and challenges or whether there are significant imbalances causing limited or fragmented political-administrative visions. By considering both the long Mediterranean history along with the recent but enduring global economic and political developments, this book argues that Southern European cities will have to depend greatly upon its own socio-cultural networks, dynamics and cosmopolitan evolution, making the most of the region's characteristic urban strengths, as trading hubs, with rich hinterlands and large and varied population.
There are many reasons why it is important to study local politics -- political culture, government, political process -- in Communist party states. As in all politics, local politics in Communist party states are the political articulation of the local community. This is the political arena where policies concerning local issues are formulated by the officials. This is where the officials are approached by citizens with their particular demands. This is where citizens articulate their preferences, aspirations, and values through political participation. And this is where officials, both elected and appointed, are recruited. In this volume, Daniel N. Nelson has assembled a team of international scholars to consider local politics in Communist party states including the U.S.S.R., China, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Romania. Together, they explore how local social and political forces are articulated in the national and party organizations; they also reveal how the study of comparative local politics provides vitality for the study of national politics. Rather than treating local communities as receivers and translators of national inputs, the contributors demonstrate that the local dimension and national politics mutually influence one another and illuminate the social reality in communist societies.
Michael J. DeLor focuses on the fact that the operation and regulation of private electric utilities has become complicated and contentious in the United States in part because of environmental impact. As a consequence, Congress rarely passes substantive economic-based legislation dealing with the topic, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the primary federal economic regulator of private electric utilities must act often without clear legislative guidance.
Bargaining between states in the international system is governed by rules which shape and constrain their bargaining behavior. However, these rules can be changed. When, why, and how do states bargain differently? Drawing on original qualitative and quantitative evidence, this book demonstrates how the rules of the game influence the cooperative or coercive nature of the strategies adopted by all states in a negotiation. These effects influence each state's incentives regarding whether to play by the rules or to change them. Examining these incentives, as well as the conditions under which states can act on them, McKibben explains the wide variation in states' bargaining strategies. Several bargaining interactions are analyzed, including decision-making in the European Union, multilateral trade negotiations, climate change negotiations, and negotiations over the future status of Kosovo. This book provides a rich understanding of the nuances of states' behavior in international bargaining processes.
Despite the destabilizing potential of governing of a vast territory and a large multicultural population, the centralized government of the People's Republic of China has held together for decades, resisting efforts at local autonomy. By analyzing Beijing's strategies for maintaining control even in the reformist post-Mao era, Centrifugal Empire reveals the unique thinking behind China's approach to local governance, its historical roots, and its deflection of divergent interests. Centrifugal Empire examines the logic, mode, and instrument of local governance established by the People's Republic, and then compares the current system to the practices of its dynastic predecessors. The result is an expansive portrait of Chinese leaders' attitudes toward regional autonomy and local challenges, one concerned with territory-specific preoccupations and manifesting in constant searches for an optimal design of control. Jae Ho Chung reveals how current communist instruments of local governance echo imperial institutions, while exposing the Leninist regime's savvy adaptation to contemporary issues and its need for more sophisticated inter-local networks to keep its unitary rule intact. He casts the challenges to China's central-local relations as perennial, since the dilution of the system's "socialist" or "Communist" character will only accentuate its fundamentally Chinese-or centrifugal-nature. |
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