This book argues that South Africa is haunted by the spectre of reparation. The failure of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to secure adequate reparation for the victims of colonisation and apartheid continues to drastically undermine the commission’s processes and legacy.

Investigating the TRC’s key processes of amnesty, archiving and forgiveness in turn, the book demonstrates that each process is fundamentally thwarted by the terminal lack of reparation. These multiple forms of the spectre of reparation haunt post-apartheid society in deeply traumatogenic ways. The book proposes a new ethic of "reparative citizenship" as a means of encountering the spectres of reparation in a productive and transformative manner, generating hope even in the face of the irreparable.

This book will be an important read for South Africans interested in overcoming the impasses and injustices that haunt the country, but it will also be of interest to post-conflict transitional justice and politics researchers more broadly.

In the last two hundred years, the earth has increasingly become the private property of a few classes, races, transnational corporations, and nations. Repeated claims about the "tragedy of the commons" and the "crisis of capitalism" have done little to explain this concentration of land, encourage solution-building to solve resource depletion, or address our current socio-ecological crisis. The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty presents a new explanation, vision, and action plan based on the idea of commoning the land. The book argues that by commoning the land, rather than privatising it, we can develop the foundation for prosperity without destructive growth and address both local and global challenges. Making the land the most fundamental priority of all commons does not only give hope, it also opens the doors to a new world in which economy, environment, and society are decolonised and liberated.

This book examines the process, policies, and politics of urban development in China, with particular attention to city region governance, urban redevelopment, and urban-rural interaction through intensive theoretical discussions and extensive case studies. It offers ample data, pictures, and illustrations to provide readers with a deep understanding of urban policies and policies in China. The regional and metropolitan perspective is emphasized to analyze the urban-rural transition and how it affects urban governance. This book develops a well-grounded political economy analysis to examine how city region development and governance evolve in China. Such development is the focal point of China's continuing urbanization, and its impact needs to be carefully analyzed. In the end, this book aims to foster discussions that may lead to serious consideration on China's future urbanization route.

This book investigates the ways in which young people engage with and contribute to civil society, community development, and local peacebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Youth engagement and contribution to civil society and local peacebuilding can play a crucial role in development; however, there is often a lack of effective engagement, policies, and opportunities for young people in policy and practice. This book analyses their experiences of civic engagement and community participation and the challenges they face, across diverse areas including youth empowerment, freedom of expression, mobilization, ideologies, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding. Drawing on cases from Yemen, Syria, Iran, Morocco and the Palestinian Territories, this book offers new insights on how youth not only are shaped by, but also react to policies, conflict, constraints, and challenges. The insights drawn from this interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to researchers of civil society, youth, peacebuilding, and development, as well as to policymakers, donors, and NGO staff.

First published in 1985, Decentralization provides an analytical framework for the comparative study of decentralization in contemporary systems of government. It discusses the structures and processes of all forms of decentralized government and administration, drawing on a wide range of states, developed and developing, capitalist and socialist. The book provides a comparative and theoretical treatment of a subject that for too long has been dealt with in a fragmented and ethnocentric fashion. Decentralization is examined from a theoretical perspective and the political demand for it is analysed. Four key universal themes are then explored: areas, intergovernmental relations, finance and institutions. Decentralization to small-scale communities is discussed and the special claims made for decentralization in developing countries are assessed. Examples are drawn from a wide range of countries throughout the world. The book is intended for courses in public administration, comparative government, urban studies and public policy. It will help both the student and the non-specialist understand an important and topical aspect of government everywhere.

This book examines the impacts of fiscal decentralization reforms on the efficiency of local governments in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. By offering a comparative perspective and by applying econometric methods and regression models, it analyses various reform trajectories and their effects on individual CEE countries. Furthermore, the book discusses input and output indicators for evaluating the efficiency of municipalities. Readers will learn about the common features of these countries, the impact of path dependence, and future prospects for decentralization reforms. In closing, the book discusses modern management and administration methods, opportunities for cooperation between municipalities, co-creative service delivery, and other measures that could improve the efficiency of public service provision.

This book looks at experience in government restructuring and devolution from a variety of national and international perspectives, both within the European Union and elsewhere, focusing on lessons learned and ways forward.Since the 1980s, there has been a global trend to give more power to local governments. Even in Korea and the United Kingdom, the most centralised countries in the OECD, local government powers have increased, with substantial economic benefits. Within the European Union, the principle of subsidiarity has enshrined the idea of devolution. New member states, particularly in central and eastern Europe, have significantly created new and self-sufficient local and regional governments. However, this process has been complicated. Devolution is not a panacea in its own right, and need not lead to economic growth. While it can encourage savings through collaboration, it can also lead to confused lines of authority and can complicate policy formation and implantation. Devolution can strain local budgets, forcing local governments to rely on their own sources of finance, rather than central government transfers. Suburbanisation, rural depopulation, the growth of some regions, and the decline of others have raised new problems, particularly related to inter-governmental cooperation among local governments and different levels of government. In many cases, an increased number of governments has increased administrative costs.

This book analyzes Latin American regional integration with a novel conceptual approach grounded in extensive field research. Using the UNASUR (Union de Naciones Suramericanas) as a case study, the author investigates the process of policy-making in regional public policy fields in South America. The project focuses on intergovernmental structures of regional organizations as an institutional framework for a variety of independent processes in regions. It also challenges the perspective of democratic states as unitary actors and seeks to analyze the factors which favor or obstruct regional processes in different policy-fields. This work will appeal to researchers, graduate students and anyone interested in Latin American politics and policy-making.

This book presents the changing roles of urban governments and how local governments struggle to gain administrative, fiscal, and political power to combat current urban challenges in Kazakhstan. Focusing on the cities and regions selected by the national government of Kazakhstan to be the drivers of national economic development, the author analyses the impact of decentralization on the role of local governments. The book examines the practical experiences of city and regional governments with an emphasis on urban planning, public investment in national projects, and management of urban transport. Due to the complexity and irregular distribution of political reforms at different levels of local government in Kazakhstan, three separate studies are presented, each looking at a specific aspect of decentralization reform and local government function related to physical urban development and distribution of public investment. The author argues that, if the national government of Kazakhstan wants to concentrate economic resources in urban agglomerations, it is not enough to assume that local governments are ready to play the role of efficient planners and managers of urban development. A useful analysis illustrating cities and urban conglomerations as engines of growth in economic development, this book will be of interest to academics studying Central Asian Studies, in particular political and economic development, Development Studies, and Urban Studies.

Local government innovation has become one of the most important topics on China's policy agenda in recent decades. This book explains why some local governments are more innovative than others. This book uses a novel theoretical framework and points out that in China's multi-level government structure, the administrative hierarchy and the span of control could shape local governments' innovation motivation, innovation capability, and innovation opportunity, thus influencing local government innovativeness. The author systematically analysed the 177 winners and finalists of the biennial Innovations and Excellence in Chinese Local Governance (IECLG) Awards Programme from 2001 to 2015 to provide convincing empirical evidence to support this theory. This book adopts an institutional approach to explaining local government innovativeness in China and may be a useful reference to help us learn more about local government decisions and behaviours.

The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance explores the concepts, methodologies, and implications of collective intelligence for democratic governance, in the first comprehensive survey of this field. Illustrated by a collection of inspiring case studies and edited by three pioneers in collective intelligence, this handbook serves as a unique primer on the science of collective intelligence applied to public challenges and will inspire public actors, academics, students, and activists across the world to apply collective intelligence in policymaking and administration to explore its potential, both to foster policy innovations and reinvent democracy. The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance is essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners of public policy, public administration, governance, public management, information technology and systems, innovation and democracy as well as more broadly for political science, psychology, management studies, public organizations and individual policy practitioners, public authorities, civil society activists and service providers.

Reclaiming Participatory Governance offers empirical and theoretical perspectives on how the relationship between social movements and state institutions is emerging and developing through new modes of participatory governance. One of the most interesting political developments of the past decade has been the adoption by social movements of strategies seeking to change political institutions through participatory governance. These strategies have flourished in a variety of contexts, from anti-austerity and pro-social justice protests in Spain, to movements demanding climate transition and race equality in the UK and the USA, to constitutional reforms in Belgium and Iceland. The chief ambition and challenge of these new forms of participatory governance is to institutionalise the prefigurative politics and social justice values that inspired them in the first place, by mobilising the bureaucracy to respond to their claims for reforms and rights. The authors of this volume assess how participatory governance is being transformed and explore the impact of such changes, providing timely critical reflections on: the constraints imposed by cultural, economic and political power relations on these new empowered participatory spaces; the potential of this new "wave" of participatory democracy to reimagine the relationship between citizens and traditional institutions towards more radical democratic renewal; where and how these new democratisation efforts sit within the representative state; and how tensions between the different demands of lay citizens, organised civil society and public officials are being managed. This book will be an important resource for students and academics in political science, public administration and social policy, as well as activists, practitioners and policymakers interested in supporting innovative engagement for deeper social transformation.

Most librarians are unaware of the laws governing the retention of library records. In addition, librarians often assume that state confidentiality laws offer more protection than they, in fact, do. The proper management of library records is an important legal issue for all librarians. This professional reference work outlines laws regarding the retention and confidentiality of library records. Part I explains why some library records should be saved and not routinely discarded. It also explains why public record retention laws apply to library records, and it then examines the variety of laws state by state. Part II discusses the need for strong confidentiality laws and traces the evolution of current laws. It then examines the current status of state confidentiality laws and demonstrates their weaknesses. While librarians often believe that confidential records are privileged and may be destroyed at will, this book clearly explains that this is not the case.

This book explores hitherto unaddressed dimensions in federalism studies in India. It traces continuities and changes in Indian federalism since independence and especially economic liberalization. Beginning with the 1990s, due to the emergence of multi-party system, coalition governments, change in judicial temper and the onset of privatization and globalization in the economy, there has been a trend towards greater federalization in India. However, in the context of one-party majority in a coalition government since 2014, new aspects have emerged in Indian federalism. The volume engages with several facets of federalism: administrative federalism; environmental and resource federalism; changing dynamics of fiscal federalism; and multi-level governance. With comparative data and case studies across different states of India, it brings together a range of issues, including Article 356 and its dysfunctions; land acquisition; decentralized governance; tribal rights; the roles of central and state governments; concerns regarding Citizenship Amendment Act; recent abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A; Delhi and statehood; climate change; MGNREGA; implementation of ICDS and the cooperative and competitive nature of Indian federalism. Comprehensive and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of political science, federalism, comparative federal studies, political studies, comparative politics, public administration, governance and development studies. It will also interest policy makers, bureaucrats, government organizations, NGOs, and civil society activists.

Local government affects us all. Wherever we live, in towns, cities, villages or in the smallest of communities, there are locally elected councils tasked with representing people's interests in the running of the local area. This involves, inter alia, providing public services, maintaining local spaces and acting as a level of democratic governance within the broader constitutional and executive structure of the state. To fulfil these responsibilities, though, local government must be democratically legitimate; it must have at its disposal reasonable means and resources to function; and it must enjoy a healthy and balanced relationship with central government. This book explores and analyses the extent to which local government in the different parts of the UK is able to function effectively and democratically. It draws from local councillors' views in analysing the state of local government under the current constitutional and governmental arrangements, discussing issues such as councils' relationship with central government; citizen engagement; finance and public services; and the impact of recent reforms. It contrasts and compares the different approaches adopted in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, also setting out and discussing possible reforms of local government in the United Kingdom. While the focus is on the UK, the work includes a comparison with other relevant jurisdictions.

Fixing Broken Cities explores the planning, execution, and impact of urban repopulation and investment strategies that were launched in the wake of two crises: late twentieth-century economic disinvestment and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because past practices could no longer serve as a reliable guide to future outcomes in this uncertain environment, any new initiatives had to involve a significant level of risk-taking. Based on the author's experience as a policymaker and practitioner, this book provides detailed insights into the origins and outcomes of these high-risk strategies, along with an explanation of why they succeeded or failed. This new edition examines policy initiatives from a fresh perspective, based on an awareness that (1) real estate ventures are best evaluated over the long term, rather than shortly after the completion of construction activity; (2) policies that had guided the allocation of public-sector resources during past decades of urban disinvestment need to be reconsidered in light of the economic resurgence that many American cities are now experiencing; and (3) the places described in this book are representative of other municipalities, of all kinds, where the pandemic has led to a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between home and workplace. A key theme of the book is equitable development, the question of who should benefit from the allocation of scarce public capital, and what investment policies are most likely to support this principle over the long term. The author provides realistic guidance about pursuing the best opportunities for improvement in highly disadvantaged, resource-starved urban areas, with reference to several key issues that are pressing concerns for members of urban communities: enlivening downtown and neighborhood commercial areas, stabilizing and strengthening residential communities, eliminating industrial-age blight, and providing quality public education options. This new edition will be of great use to planning, housing and community development professionals, both regionally and nationally, as well as to students on Urban Politics and Planning courses.

Fixing Broken Cities explores the planning, execution, and impact of urban repopulation and investment strategies that were launched in the wake of two crises: late twentieth-century economic disinvestment and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because past practices could no longer serve as a reliable guide to future outcomes in this uncertain environment, any new initiatives had to involve a significant level of risk-taking. Based on the author's experience as a policymaker and practitioner, this book provides detailed insights into the origins and outcomes of these high-risk strategies, along with an explanation of why they succeeded or failed. This new edition examines policy initiatives from a fresh perspective, based on an awareness that (1) real estate ventures are best evaluated over the long term, rather than shortly after the completion of construction activity; (2) policies that had guided the allocation of public-sector resources during past decades of urban disinvestment need to be reconsidered in light of the economic resurgence that many American cities are now experiencing; and (3) the places described in this book are representative of other municipalities, of all kinds, where the pandemic has led to a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between home and workplace. A key theme of the book is equitable development, the question of who should benefit from the allocation of scarce public capital, and what investment policies are most likely to support this principle over the long term. The author provides realistic guidance about pursuing the best opportunities for improvement in highly disadvantaged, resource-starved urban areas, with reference to several key issues that are pressing concerns for members of urban communities: enlivening downtown and neighborhood commercial areas, stabilizing and strengthening residential communities, eliminating industrial-age blight, and providing quality public education options. This new edition will be of great use to planning, housing and community development professionals, both regionally and nationally, as well as to students on Urban Politics and Planning courses.

English local government is in a state of decline after 40 years of incremental but cumulative centralisation by central government. This book is the first to directly address this trend's impact upon the institution of local government, a crucial element in the democratic viability of a unitary state. The process of centralisation, and its corrosive effect on the status and responsibilities of local government, have been widely recognised and deplored among politicians and senior officers within local government, and by academics with an interest in this field. However, there has been no study exploring in detail its impact, and, equally important, suggesting ways in which the growing imbalance between the powers of central and local government should be rectified. This book fills this gap. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of local government, and more generally to those interested in what has been happening to British politics and governance.

* 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.

This book, first published in 1992, examines the attitudes of local elites - the hinge between Indian state and rural society - towards protest and participation in development, illuminating arguments about the nature of the state as well as the development process. It looks at the role of local elites in India both as the representatives of the state and of the rest of rural society, and explains their importance in the country's development. The book deals with the elites' contribution to the credibility of the state and examines the strategies through which they manipulate the allocation of resources and influence the pace and direction of social change. It contrasts the rural elites in two areas, one more economically advanced than the other. The elites in the first area were shown to be capable of combining institutional participation with radical protest, whilst in the other they tended to rely on state channels to achieve reform. The author concludes that despite the different settings, both groups were informed, active and responsive to political conditions. This contrasts with the conventional view that local elites of the dominant castes oppress the lower ones by obstructing reforms, for reasons of self-interest.

Handbook of Civil Society and Social Movements in Small States depicts the way civil society encompasses social movements, which are considered to be loosely organized collective campaigns in pursuit of social goals. These two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, however, some authors argue that social movements tend to engage in 'contentious politics' including protests, while NGOs engage through more organized and institutional routes. The volume deals with particular characteristics of small states, including limited ability to reap the benefits of economies of scale, high degree of exposure to forces outside their control, and the proximity of politicians to the voters, often leading to clientelistic relationships and patronage networks. The small island developing states have the additional problem of high environmental vulnerability, with some also dealing with disproportionate ecological footprints. These factors have a bearing on the organization and performance of civil society organizations and social movements, as explained in several chapters of this book.

This book seeks to trace the main dimensions of recent conflicts between central departments of governments and local authorities and to reveal something of their significance. It does so by focusing on the role of law in shaping the central-local government relations which is neglected in many contemporary studies and yet is of vital importance in identifying the character of that relationship. Precisely why they should be so is not self-evident. The main objective of this introduction therefore is to highlight the importance of this dimension to the study of central-local relations and then to explain the way in which the key themes of the study are to be addressed.
One highly significant aspect of the study is the identification of a process of juridfication which is only gradually becoming clear. This has not only been a major undertaking, it has also been a highly complex, ambiguous, confusing, and frustrating activity. This has caused problems for government and for the judiciary and not surprisingly there have been expressions of discomfort on all sides. This book helps to explain where the process may have gone wrong and why ultimately it may be an objective which cannot be realised.
Ultimately what the book seeks to demonstrate is that the issues raised by the government of central-local relations transcend the institution of local government and are directly linked to our system of parliamentary democracy. Furthermore the author argues that the system of central-local government relations has evolved in such a way that it reveals a great deal about our tradition of public law. An examination of these issues through an explication of the themes of legality and locality therefore requires the reader to address basic questions about the nature of contemporary British government.

Examines the sources behind state-local conflict to better understand where critical intergovernmental relationships may be breaking down Offers a framework for understanding possible sources behind state-local conflict, with a recognition that intergovernmental relationships have historical roots, are place-based, and dependent on context Defines the basic institutional structures and offices and addresses the intergovernmental legal environment Explores concrete issues that have become ensnared in intergovernmental conflict via case studies including environmental (plastic bags, climate change), social and constitutional (confederate statues, transgender bathrooms), and economic (living wage, affordable housing) to name a few Identifies solutions and policy tools that build upon the strengths of state and local governments, mitigate conflicts, and improve the quality of life for citizens

What are the roles of governments and other actors in solving, or alleviating, collective action problems in today's world? The traditional conceptual frameworks of public administration and public policy studies have become less relevant in answering this question. This book critically assesses traditional conceptual frameworks and proposes an alternative: a complex governance networks (CGN) framework. Advocating that complexity theory should be systematically integrated with foundational concepts of public administration and public policy, Goektug Morcoel begins by clarifying the component concepts of CGN and then addresses the implications of CGN for key issues in public administration and policy studies: effectiveness, accountability, and democracy. He illustrates the applicability of the CGN concepts with examples for the COVID-19 pandemic and metropolitan governance, particularly the roles of business improvement districts in governance processes. Morcoel concludes by discussing the implications of CGN for the convergence of public administration and public policy education and offering suggestions for future studies using the CGN conceptualization. Complex Governance Networks is essential reading for both scholars and advanced students of public policy, public administration, public affairs, and related areas.