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MacIver, Patricia. "Increasing trust in Vancouver's municipal government /." Burnaby B.C. : Simon Fraser University, 2006. http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/2707.
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Reynecke, Ashwin Jermain. "Testing the boundaries of municipal supervision: an analysis of Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act and provincial legislation." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2012. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_2468_1370594290.
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Katopol, Patricia Fields. "Information culture of support staff in municipal government and implications for managerial decision-making /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/7179.
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Dolan, Rob (Robert Rex) Carleton University Dissertation Journalism. "A reporter's guide to municipal government in Ontario." Ottawa, 1993.
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Shaidi, Elisante Walter. "Investigation into causes of service delivery protests in municipalities :a case study of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011153.
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This study investigates the causes of the service delivery protests in South African municipalities that occurred between 2005 to 2013. In a sense, the recent widespread service delivery protests which, in many instances, have turned violent, have sounded an alarm that cannot be ignored. The study is premised on the fact that no political democracy can survive and flourish if the mass of its people remain in poverty, and in a state of inequality and unemployed without tangible prospects for a better life. In this regard, the presence of service delivery protests, especially violent ones, is a threat to South Africa’s young democracy and its sustainability. This study is based on the assumption that the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, like other municipalities in South Africa, could be confronted with the possibility of further violent service delivery protests if the current causes were not scientifically investigated and solutions found. The study adopted a hypothesis with a view that South African municipalities could succeed in rendering effective public services if matters of poor public participation, corruption, service delivery inhibiting systemic factors, a cumbersome legislative environment, political infighting, poor intergovernmental fiscal regime and the low capacity of municipalities were adequately addressed. The study proposed to provide a brief literature review on the emergence of service delivery protests against the backdrop of a theoretical investigation on the new local government developmental mandate. The empirical survey and research methodology employed in the study is described, followed by the operationalisation of the survey questionnaire used for gathering field data. The research findings of the empirical survey are then statistically analysed, interpreted and reported. Some of the findings on the causes of service delivery protests includes slow pace of service delivery, especially in the delivery of sustainable human settlements, poor public participation and other underpinning systemic factors. Recommendations flowing from, inter alia, the results of the empirical study, are presented on how the existing status quo can be changed to enhance service delivery and development. If adopted, these recommendations will enable the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, as a development agent, to fulfil its developmental mandate thereby addressing the causes of the service delivery protests currently facing it.
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Durand, Stephane. "Pouvoir municipal et société locale dans les petites villes de l'Hérault aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles le cas de Mèze de 1675 à 1815 /." Lille : Atelier national de reproduction des thèses, 2004. http://books.google.com/books?id=BFeNAAAAMAAJ.
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Wampler, Brian Douglas. "Private executives, legislative brokers, and participatory publics : building local democracy in Brazil /." Digital version accessible at:, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
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Papademetriou, Stylianos-John S. "A study of governmental forms in cities with populations between fifty thousand and one hundred thousand." Instructions for remote access. Click here to access this electronic resource. Access available to Kutztown University faculty, staff, and students only, 1993. http://www.kutztown.edu/library/services/remote_access.asp.
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Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1993.Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2955. Abstract precedes thesis title page as 2 preliminary leaves. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.
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Mishra, Rajalakshmi. "Municipal finance and local self-government : the Indian experience." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.316374.
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Huaxing, Liu. "Why is local government less trusted than central government in China?" Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6162/.
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The public's trust in government is a subject that arouses interest and debate among researchers and politicians alike. This thesis is concerned with public trust in government in China and particularly in local government. It provides insights both on the patterns of public trust in different levels of government and explores the key factors that account for variance in this respect. In light of the findings in this respect, the thesis also makes suggestions about measures that might be taken to improve public trust in local government particularly in the China context. A mixed methods research design has been employed that has included analysis of responses to a major trans-China quantitative survey of public opinions and the conduct of a series of semi-structured interviews with local government officials operating at different governmental levels within one municipal city. The research examines the commonalities and differences between the perspectives of citizens and of officials with regard to the scale, nature and causes of public distrust in local government. The thesis considers the implications of the findings and makes suggestions as to the kinds of policy and practice responses that would seem necessary to improve Chinese's citizens' trust levels in their local government.
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Dodovu, Thamsanqa Simon. "A municipal structure for the KOSH area." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/51581.
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Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African local government is undergoing a critical process of transformation and restructuring. New structures, institutions and systems which are being established change local government to accomplish the developmental objectives of the society, improve service delivery and ensure optimum governance. The study is aimed at investigating and examining the type of municipal structure that has the capacity to achieve the objectives of local government. In this regard, the status quo of municipalities in the KOSH (Klerksdorp, Orkney, Stilfontein and Hartebeesfontein) area, a metropolitan municipality without sub-councils and an amalgamated Category B Municipality operating in the area of jurisdiction of Category C Municipality is explored and critically examined. The hypothetical statement namely that the KOSH area requires a restructured, rekindled and revitalised municipal structure and the amalgamation of unviable municipalities into a larger jurisdiction to sustain development, are tested. A review of new structures and systems of local government in South Africa is made. In this regard the legal framework and context of the municipal demarcation process, structures and systems is of paramount importance. A critical analysis of all municipalities in the KOSH area including the Southern District Council in relation to their political and administrative components is made. The background and profile of each town and city in the KOSH area is also given. This encapsulates the historical background of the area, its economy and socio-demographic profile. In the final analysis the study highlights the positive and negative effects of amalgamated municipalities whether Category A or B Municipalities. The study concludes that the KOSH area lends itself to the establishment of an amalgamated Category B Municipality operating within the jurisdiction of a Category C Municipality. The study also concludes that it is possible and viable to de-establish the present separate local authorities and create a viable amalgamated Category B Municipal structure that will improve service delivery and provide optimum governance for the KOSH area. Specific recommendations in respect of the development of the KOSH area are made.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid Afrikaanse plaaslike regering ondergaan 'n kritieke proses van transformasie en herstrukturering. Nuwe strukture, instellings en sisteme wat geskep word verander plaaslike regering ten einde die ontwikkelingsoogmerke van die gemeenskap te bereik, dienslewering te verbeter en om optimum regering daar te stel. Die studie is gemik op die ondersoek en ontleding van die soort munisipale strukture wat in staat is om die bogemelde oogmerke te bereik. In hierdie verband, word die status quo van munisipaliteite in die KOSH (Klersksdorp, Orkney, Stilfontein and Hartebeesfontein) gebied, 'n metropolitaanse munisipaliteit sonder sub-rade, en 'n geamalgemeerde kategorie B munisipaliteit wat in die jurisdiksionele gebied van 'n kategorie C munisipaliteite funksioneel ondersoek en krities ontleed. Die hipotese naamlik dat die KOSH gebied 'n gestruktureerde, munisipale struktuur benodig sowel as die amalgamering van nie-lewensvatbare munisipaliteite in 'n groter jurisdiksie om ontwikkeling te handhaaf, word ondersoek. 'n Oorsig word gegee van die nuwe strukture en sisteme van plaaslike regering in Suid Afrika. In hierdie vervand is die regsraamwerk en die konteks van die munisipale afbakeningsproses, strukture en sisteme van kardinale belang. 'n Kritiese ontleding van al die munisipaliteite in die KOSH gebied, insluitende die Suidelike Distriksraad, uitsluitende hul politieke en administratiewe samestelling, is gemaak. Die agtergrond en die profiel van elke dorp en stad in die KOSH gebied work ook weergegee. Dit sluit in die geskiedkundige agtergrond van die gebied, asook die gebied se ekonomie en sosiodemografiese profiel. In die finale ontleding beklemtoon die studie die voor-en nadele van geamalgameerde munisipaliteite, ongeag of hulle kategorie A of B munisipaliteite is. Die studie toon aan dat die KOSH gebied homself leen tot die skepping van 'n ge-amalgameerde kategorie B munisipaliteit wat binne die jurisdiksie van 'n kategorie C munisipaliteit opereer. Die studie het ook aangetoon dat dit moontlik en haalbaar is om die bestaande aparte plaaslike owerhede te hervestig en 'n haalbaar kategorie B munisipale struktuur daar te stel wat dienslewering sal bevorder en optimum regering vir die KOSH gebied daar sal stel. Spesifieke aanbevelings word gemaak met betrekking tot die ontwikkeling van die KOSH gebied.
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Trounstine, Jessica Luce. "Urban empires : causes and consequences of biased electoral systems in American cities /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC IP addresses, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3138826.
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Lemprière, Maximilian William. "Developing a theory of local environmental policy capacity : the case of sustainable homes in England." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7998/.
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Processes of ecological modernisation – where ecological protection becomes increasingly viable and attractive, whether through market forces or by state intervention and regulation – have received considerable attention within the academic literature. However, extant theory in this respect has focused almost wholly on the nation state level and has yet to account for the role played by local governments. This thesis seeks to address that deficiency by developing conceptual tools to study local government behaviour in order to understand why local governments contribute differently from one another to processes of ecological modernisation. A model of local environmental policy capacity is proposed (using insights from new theories of institutionalism, policy entrepreneurship and policy networks) and is applied to the ‘zero-carbon homes’ policy agenda of England in the period 2006 to 2015. This agenda is chosen because it both illustrates ecological modernisation and centres on a key field of responsibility for local government – local planning. Two local governments are chosen for in-depth study to assess the value of the model. Oxford City Council, on the one hand, which showed reluctance in contributing to the agenda, and Cambridge City Council, on the other, which has been more proactive. The research provides useful insights on reasons for the differences between the two cities, these reflecting, above all, the dialectical relationship between policy entrepreneurship and institutions. Empowered entrepreneurs operating within an institutional context conducive to both change, and with a focus on sustainability, are important conditions for action. The key contribution of the thesis lies in its revelations about the processes of ecological modernisation at a local level, and the argument that, if ecological modernisation theory is to be useful in explaining the processes of change in this regard – as it claims to be – then it needs also to take account of local government’s contributions.
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Levitt, Gordon. "Changing Climate, Changing Commitments: Municipal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategies in Oregon." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/20488.
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This thesis examines emerging commitments by local governments in Oregon to address climate change, and situates those efforts within climate policy development at the international, national, regional, and state governmental levels. It also reviews the literature for local climate initiatives and seeks to expand upon that knowledge by surveying “Climate Policymakers” in Oregon. The survey results provide insight into the challenges and opportunities associated with local government and state-level efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon. Considering current climate policies, a broad selection of scholarly analysis, and the opinions of leading climate policy experts in Oregon, this thesis recommends eight categories of strategies to enhance greenhouse gas reduction efforts in Oregon.
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Thérien, Michel. "L'informatisation du travail dans une administration municipale cas : ville de Joliette /." Thèse, Chicoutimi : Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1990. http://theses.uqac.ca.
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Simon, Carl. "La performance dans les administrations municipales et les variables organisationnelles qui y sont associées /." Thèse, Chicoutimi : Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1994. http://theses.uqac.ca.
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Shafer, Michael. "Municipal government revenue forecasting a case study of Dover, DE /." Access to citation, abstract and download form provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company; downloadable PDF file, 90 p, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1459908651&sid=4&Fmt=2&clientId=8331&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Wei, Wenchi. "THREE ESSAYS ON MUNICIPAL STRUCTURE AND GOVERNMENT FISCAL MANAGEMENT OUTCOMES." UKnowledge, 2019. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/msppa_etds/31.
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This dissertation aims to reclassify municipal structures of the U.S. municipalities and investigates the effect of municipal structures on government fiscal management outcomes, including fiscal conditions and fiscal slack balances. This dissertation is comprised of four chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces, and each of the remaining three is an independent research article. The second chapter investigates seven essential structural characteristics of the U.S. municipalities and constructs a municipal structure political-administrative index. It then examines the determinants of municipal structures on a political-administrative dimension. The empirical results show that municipal structure choices are statistically significantly associated with citizens’ socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Citizens’ income levels play a crucial role in determining municipal structure changes during the sample period.
The third chapter examines the effect of municipal structures on government fiscal conditions. Municipal structure is operationalized by the municipal structure political-administrative index, which is the focus of the second chapter. There are a variety of mechanisms through which municipal structures can influence government fiscal conditions, among which managerial professionalism, strategy stance, and managerial accountability versus efficiency are theoretically addressed. Empirical evidence shows that a municipal structure that is more administrative is associated with healthier fiscal conditions in cash solvency, dependence on intergovernmental transfers, and debt level. Particularly, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the municipal structure index and governments’ fiscal conditions. Moreover, municipal structures moderate the influence of external environmental factors.
The fourth chapter investigates the determinants of local government’s fiscal slack in a political-budgetary-managerial framework. The research argues that voters’ preferences, government’s budgetary performance, and government internal management work interactively to influence government fiscal slack, and it proposes appropriate indicators for the three explanatory dimensions. Particularly, government internal management is operationalized by the municipal structure political-administrative index. Empirical results show that voters’ anti-tax and pro-spending sentiment have a negative effect on the size of government fiscal slack, and government’s budgetary performance exerts a positive impact. Moreover, government internal management modifies the effects of voters’ preferences and government’ budgetary performance on government fiscal slack.
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Satu, Shammi Akter. "Foreign aid and capacity building of municipal government selected case studies of Bangladesh /." Thesis, Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2008. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B41680078.
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Hjelmqvist, Ingvar. "Relationer mellan stat och kommun." [Stockholm] : Stockholms universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 1994. http://books.google.com/books?id=yi0FAQAAIAAJ.
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Gardner, Alison. "How are local public services responding to austerity? : English local governance between 2010 and 2015." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32349/.
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This thesis explores how English councils and their public service partners responded to the UK Coalition government’s ‘austerity’-related spending cuts between 2010 and 2015. The research is distinctive in moving beyond a focus on the impacts of cuts to individual services, instead considering responses to austerity ‘in the round’, using a governance perspective. The methodology was innovative, using principles of ‘action research’ and ‘appreciative inquiry’ to design the research collaboratively with Nottingham City Council. Fieldwork was undertaken between 2012 and 2014, including a document review, 34 interviews and two workshops with frontline staff, as well as informal participant observation. The approach aimed to deliver academic rigour, as well as useful findings for practitioners addressing challenges in the field. Taking the locality of Nottingham as an exploratory and revelatory embedded single case study, the analysis combines insights from new institutionalist and interpretive theory. It demonstrates that although the council showed institutional resilience, and was able to maintain a wide range of services, spending cuts were creating pressure to change both the ‘practices’ and ‘narratives’ underpinning service delivery. Tensions in some service delivery partnerships suggested shifts in local ‘traditions’ of governance, viewed by some actors as symptomatic of a wider change in the values underpinning governance institutions. Meanwhile the council was increasingly focussed on strategic forms of community leadership, whilst links with local communities were diminishing. Working with partners, the council had (at least temporarily) mitigated a dramatic reduction in income. Yet although change in service delivery was incremental, the potential for transformation in local governance was clear. These findings are shown to have consistencies with wider comparative studies. Policy implications are discussed for the 2015 Conservative government, as it implements a further round of austerity-related cuts.
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Selee, Andrew Dan. "The paradox of local empowerment decentralization and democratic governance in Mexico /." College Park, Md. : University of Maryland, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/3373.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.Thesis research directed by: Public Affairs. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.
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Grigoriadou, Despoina. "Explaining institutional dynamics within local partnerships : the case of 'EQUAL II' and 'LEADER+' in Crete." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2013. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13055/.
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This neo institutional study analyses the dynamic interaction between formal/informal rules and agents’ behaviour inside a political institution, examining these relationships through primary research on local partnerships in Greece. The theoretical assumptions of this analysis derive mainly from normative neo institutionalism but also include insights from rational choice and the historical institutionalism. Consideration is also given to the way in which theories of the structure/agent duality are related to neo institutional propositions on the relationship between rules and agents’ strategic behaviour. The neo institutional approach to local partnerships is also situated in relation to concepts and empirical observations from the literature on urban governance, urban regimes and Europeanisation. This research adopts the critical realism stance which acknowledges a reflexive approach to reality and it applies an embedded case study strategy. The case study consists of two local partnerships in the region of Crete, which were established under the EU Community Initiatives Programmes EQUAL II and LEADER+ and coordinated by the Local Development Agency of Heraklion. A triangulation method is selected, making use of interviews, storytelling, a short questionnaire, direct observation and secondary analysis of documentation. The research data reveal that the formal rules of the partnerships are not indicative of what actually happens. It is the configuration of formal and informal rules that offers a deep understanding of partnership. It is concluded that some formal rules are realised (albeit with deviations along the way), like partnership and programming, while others are remained mostly on paper, like community participation, decentralisation and innovation. In these cases, the informal rules appear to be conflicting with the formal rules, leading to different results than those expected. The research also shows the importance of agents' intentionality in the process of institutional change. Specific actors within the partnership, such as established local leaders and institutional entrepreneurs, select and reinforce particular features of formal rules that restrict partners’ freedom and promote values of efficiency within the partners. Moreover, the findings confirm a gradual changing of local policy making and an increase of local social capital. EQUAL II and LEADER+ partnerships create new possibilities for the empowerment and participation of new actors such as NGOs and vulnerable groups in the local policy-making process. They also promote the establishment of policy networks and enhance the development of collaborative learning processes (trust building and sharing understanding). Finally, they lead to the re-articulation of mayors-chief executives’ relationship inside local authorities and of central state’s position by creating new possibilities for broadening local authorities’ autonomy.
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Wang, Guohui. "Tamed village 'democracy' : elections, governance and clientelism in a contemporary Chinese village." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2008. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/251/.
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The thesis is an exploration of the elections and governance in a contemporary Chinese village. It is a qualitative case study of one village in Shandong Province, China, using in-depth interviews with villagers, village candidates, township officials as well as national, provincial, township and village documents. It reveals how the clientelist system functions in and shapes the process of the village elections and governance. Drawing upon the qualitative data and empirical evidence collected in the field site, the thesis challenges the liberal-democratic view that the implementation of direct village elections and self-governance, which is generally considered to be “village democracy”, has empowered villagers to resist the state and may mark the beginning of a bottom-up democratization in China. In contrast, it argues that even procedurally “free and fair” village elections largely fail to deliver meaningful results, and that village governance, although in the name of self-governance, actually continues to be dominated by the Chinese local state. This is because clientelist structures, embodied in vertical patron-client alliances between political elites and villagers, have strongly influenced the actors and functioned to facilitate and supplement the authoritarian control of the state. The thesis also contests interpretations of village elections and self-governance that stress the state’s formal administrative capacity over controlling and manipulating village politics. While it shows some of the formal mechanisms by which township government control village affairs, it demonstrates also that after the implementation of the “village democracy” the state is still able to maintain its authoritarian capacity by taking advantage of the informal clientelist interaction between local state officials and the village elites.
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Porras, Sánchez Francisco Javier. "Broadening understandings of governance : the case of Mexican local government." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2005. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2602/.
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This dissertation is an evaluation of some of the basic assumptions of the literature on governance and their utility for understanding a specific case - that of Mexico. It argues that Mexican municipalities, like their counterparts in Europe and the United States, have experienced a change towards a way of policy-making based on broader policy-networks, fragmentation in governmental and societal bodies, participation of an increasing number of self-organised actors, and the resulting blurring boundaries between the public and private spheres. Mexican urban municipalities are evolving from traditional patterns of governmental interventions to dynamisms of local governance. This shift, however, has taken place in an uneven way, shaped by factors such as the complexity of urban problems, the political alternation, the federal policies on transfers, the different policy areas and issues, the looseness of networks and the way in which they operate. As a result, Mexican local governance has been developed in policy sectors that have a high legitimising potential or that are in great need for citizens’ resources. This has generated a picture of ‘patches’, where stronger policy networks and citizens’ involvement in policy-making coexist with traditional governmental mechanisms. The dissertation is a contribution to the differentiated accounts of local governance recently developed, which use diverse contexts to argue that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ form of governance. It is a reconsideration of the importance of local contexts in shaping policy-making through networks, as opposed to the initial context-free governance understandings. The conclusion recognises the relevance of the main arguments of governance literature. The thesis makes use of empirical evidence gathered in three urban municipalities. It employs qualitative methodological criteria, discussed in the methodological appendix. The main research techniques used were elite interviewing and documental analysis.
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Fane-Hervey, Angus. "Why governance matters : a comparative study of the causes of deforestation in the miombo woodlands of Zambia and Mozambique, 1990-2010." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/709/.
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Between 1990 and 2010 sub-Saharan Africa experienced some of the highest levels of deforestation anywhere in the world. The problem has been particularly acute in what are known as the miombo woodlands of southern Africa. These occupy a unique ecological niche and are crucial to the livelihoods of millions of people in the region, yet are disappearing rapidly. The aim of this thesis is to identify the structural causes of this phenomenon in two of the miombo countries, Zambia and Mozambique. Standard ‘resource based’ explanations for deforestation in both countries tend to focus primarily on demographic and economic factors, emphasising the impact of economic reforms, population growth, rural migration, poverty, minimal access to electricty and a lack of institutional resources. However I argue that these explanations do not account for Mozambique’s relatively better record on deforestation during the period in question, and that a more convincing account is offered by a ‘governance based’ explanation, which emphasises different forms of forest governance and institutional arrangements affecting the forest sector in each country. Specifically, Mozambique has fared better than Zambia thanks to its more secure system of traditional land tenure, the implementation of more progressive legislation and a sustained commitment to community based natural resource management. The implication is that future initiatives to curb deforestation in these countries should concentrate on addressing institutional and policy based shortcomings before implementing market based mechanisms designed to encourage conservation.
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Olubodun, O. F. "An empirical approach to the evaluation of factors in local authority housing maintenance requirements in the City of Manchester." Thesis, University of Salford, 1996. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2195/.
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The thesis is concerned with the evaluation of factors in Local Authority housing maintenance requirements in the City of Manchester. Since 1982, expenditure in housing maintenance and repair works has consistently accounted for more than 50% of total expenditure on maintenance and repair work. In turn, maintenance and repair work accounts for almost 50% of total construction output in the UK. Given this level of sectorial contribution, it is apt to understand the factors which affect defects in dwelling buildings and hence maintenance requirements. This thesis reviews the catalogue of building defect causative factors leading to the conclusion that social and tenants' characteristics are equally important. The study is based, chiefly, on a postal questionnaire survey of building surveyors involved in day-to-day identification of defects as well as tenants of the sampled dwellings; and computer cost records of maintenance on dwellings within the sample. A total of 45 completed questionnaires from building surveyors, and 252 Council tenants with corresponding computer cost records formed the data base for the analyses conducted. The building surveyors' questionnaire assisted in the identification of defect-cause criteria which relate to the internal attribute of the dwelling building. The consistency of the resulting data was confirmed by the use of Kendall Coefficient of Concordance. An analysis is described of the manipulated data set using regression analysis. The analysis found that Changing standard contributes (38%) of (building structure related factors') impact on maintenance requirement variance, construction factors (23%), design factors (22%), vandalism (12%) and age factors (6%). The intercorrelations among these five defect-cause criteria within the building object necessitated further analysis using the principal component analysis. This resulted in the extraction of nine significant factors showing how the initial five factors combine to exert their influence on the building. In all, this family of building structure related factors contribute 32% of the variation in maintenance requirements. Combining the data from the tenants' questionnaire, computer cost information and dwelling survey, regression model testing was employed to identify the significant factors. This was facilitated with the use of three indices of housing maintenance requirements as the dependent variables, namely; reactive maintenance cost, property condition and satisfaction among tenants. Nine factors (six of which relate to tenant's characteristics) pertaining to tenant, environmental and housing management were significantly influential.
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Jones, Benjamin. "Local-level politics in Uganda : institutional landscapes at the margins of the state." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2005. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/662/.
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Uganda has been considered one of Africa's few "success stories" over the past decade, an example of how a country can be transformed through a committed state bureaucracy. The thesis questions this view by looking at the experiences of development and change in a subparish in eastern Uganda. From this more local-level perspective, the thesis discusses the weakness of the state in the countryside, and incorporates the importance of religious and customary institutions. In place of a narrow view of politics, focused on reforms and policies coming from above, which rarely reach rural areas in a consistent or predictable way, the thesis describes political developments within a rural community. The thesis rests on two premises. First, that the state in rural Uganda has been too weak to support an effective bureaucratic presence in the countryside. Second, that politics at the local-level is an "open-ended" business, better understood through investigating a range of institutional spaces and activities, rather than a particular set of actions, or a single bureaucracy. Oledai sub-parish, which provides the empirical material for the thesis, was far removed from the idea of state-sponsored success described in the literature. Villagers had to contend with a history of violence, with recent impoverishment, and with the reality that the rural economy was unimportant in maintaining the structures of the government system. The thesis shows that the marginalisation of the countryside came at a time when central and local government structures had become increasingly reliant on funding from abroad. Aside from the analysing the weakness of the state bureaucracy, the thesis goes on to discuss broader changes in the life of the sub-parish, including the impact of a violent insurgency in the late 1980s. The thesis also looks at the role of churches and burial societies, institutions which have been largely ignored by the literature on political developments in Uganda. Religious and customary institutions, as well as the village court, provided spaces where political goals, such as settling disputes, building a career, or acquiring wealth, could be pursued.
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Rappaport, Malcolm Howard. "Strategy and leadership : an elite study of the strategy process in local authority." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2002. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/97/.
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Over the last 20 years or so, local government in Britain has been experiencing a relentless, rapidly changing environment. With successive Conservative governments introducing policies to encourage a new and improved managerialist approach during the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a shift away from the bureaucratic and professionally dominated type of administration to a more customer-focused, private sector style of management and service delivery. The impact of these changes has provoked many local authorities to adopt a more strategic approach. This thesis examines the strategy process in one such authority, a London Borough, during the mid-nineties following the appointment of its new chief executive. The process is seen as one essentially driven by the need for the authority to respond more effectively to the internal and external exigencies facing local government. As a case study, it explores the way the leadership, both executive and the political, moved the authority away from the former professional bureaucracy towards a more corporate way of working and management style. The thesis traces the perceptions, speculations and behaviour of the senior elected members of the political administration as well as those of the new chief executive and describes how these influenced the strategy process.
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Chamchong, Pobsook. "The initiation and sustainability of collaboration between small local governments : a comparative analysis of England and Thailand." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6529/.
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Collaboration provides a way of increasing the capacity of small local governments in providing services without reducing the quality of local democracy. The Thai government has been promoting cross-council collaboration with limited success while it has been widely implemented in England for decades. In the literature, little attention has been paid by scholars to the way in which the formation of collaboration and its implementation interacts. To generate new insights of academic and practical relevance, this study aims to generate insightful explanations about the role of collaborative entrepreneurs and collaborative managers in the initiation and institutional embedding of small council collaboration policy. It employs comparative empirical analysis of two pairs of cases in England and Thailand, set within an original theoretical framework built on the integration of policy-making models, the typology of collaboration on a continuum, and the notion of factors influencing sustainable collaboration. The thesis adds to the literature by distinguishing between and empirically demonstrating two roles – ‘collaborative entrepreneurs’, who initiate collaboration to solve immediate shared problems of resource scarcity and dependency facing small councils, and ‘collaborative managers’, who maintain sustainability of the collaboration and facilitate further integration across councils. It also reveals that the converse of resource/power dependency applies where the council with larger resources can become locked-in to disadvantageous relationships controlled by small councils with fewer resources. Furthermore this thesis shows that collaboration is more likely to occur where it does not challenge the vested interests of citizens and councillors. Building a coalition for change and developing collaborative culture are essential for enduring collaboration.
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Cho, Incheul. "The impact of Korean performance budgeting on budgetary programmes." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/988/.
Full textAbstract:
This study examines the impact of the Korean system of performance budgeting on government spending programmes. It sets out to examine the associations between a programme’s future budget and its past performance and also the impact of performance budgeting on managerial practices. Much of the study uses quantitative techniques – particularly regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Regression analysis is used to examine the links between budget decisions and performance, by analysing the impact on budget changes of SABP (Self-Assessment of Budgetary Programmes) scores (or grades) of programmes which the SABP assessed from 2005 to 2007. Secondly, ANOVA is used to examine changes in seven managerial practices: goal clarity, goal difficulty, budget adequacy, budget flexibility, budget participation, procedure formalization, and support from higher management, using perceptual data of 807 administrators in the Korean central government. This thesis found evidence of two main effects of Korean performance budgeting on government operations. Firstly, budget decisions have a statistically significant correlation with the performance of programmes or SABP scores (or grades). Secondly, Korean performance budgeting tends to initiate changes in programme-managerial practices within spending organizations, and to improve programme performance.
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Phelps, Alan James. "An examination of the Relationship between rationale, Practice and Outcomes in Municipal Property Asset Management – A Comparative Study of the UK and Russia." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/390/.
Full textAbstract:
Local government globally is evolving in response to rising public expectations, changing socio-demographic factors and a growing focus on efficiency. The asset base used by municipalities in its service provision is changing to reflect this evolution. A new discipline of asset management has emerged prompted by a range of resource and policy influences. Its emergence reflects emphasis on a more strategic, entrepreneurial use of public assets rather than the more technical, stewardship role of property management from which it originated. In the past management of public property has received little critical attention but this has changed and a growing body of material is contributing to the advance of this new discipline. This thesis examines the relationship between rationale, practice and outcomes in asset management in order to understand the change factors that are a feature of this evolution of property management to asset management. An analytical framework was developed to measure why organisations do asset management; how they do it and what they achieve. This framework was applied through case studies to identify the change factors and to derive a simple typology of asset management to position organisations in the transformation process in terms of their approach and results. The case studies identified four change factors. These can be described as: strategic focus, organisational will, portfolio intelligence and an entrepreneurial culture. These characteristics were more evident in cases where organisations had advanced furthest from a traditional, paternalistic stewardship role of assets towards one of public entrepreneurialism.
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Ewbank, Mark. "The blended separation of powers and the organisation of party groups : the case of English local government." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1556/.
Full textAbstract:
In the Local Government Act 2000, central government mandated a change in political arrangements within English local authorities. Through introducing a blended separation of powers to the majority of local authorities, with a leader, cabinet and overview and scrutiny committees, the legislation moved the constitutional structure from a form of assembly government to a Westminster-style split between decision-makers and those who scrutinise those choices. One of the goals was to remove the party group grip on decision-making. Given the evidence of the strength of groups in authorities (Maud 1967, Widdicombe 1986, Copus 1999a) there are questions but no clear answers about how group behaviour has changed since this legislation (OPDM, 2002, Ashworth 2003, Copus & Leach, 2004, ELGNCE, 2004, 2006). This research assesses the impact of the change on major political parties. Due to the shift in the institutional environments, this thesis uses a rational choice institutionalist approach to consider how the legislation has affected groups; through assessing methods used to satisfice their goals. Using a mixed-methods approach incorporating survey research and case studies, the research has discovered that despite the reform to remove group influence, the legislation served to make local government more prone to domination by party groups.
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Kugonza, Sylvester. "Influence of formal and informal institutions on outsourcing of public construction projects in Uganda." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1045/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines how the process of outsourcing of public construction (OPC) projects is influenced by institutions and why. Extant literature focuses on explaining how outsourcing through competition improves efficiency with limited treatment of how institutions actually influence the OPC projects. The thesis develops an analytical framework for process-tracing that integrates institutional and social capital (SC) theories to examine what have hitherto been disparately employed to study their influence in policy reform implementation. By deploying this integrated framework, actors’ decision making in outsourcing process is analysed based on plural rationality at central (CG) and local government (LG) contexts. The thesis argues that actors in OPC simultaneously pursue material gains and SC investments while trying to minimise their transaction costs, in the process engaging in ‘forum shopping’ between formal and informal institutions. Depending on degree of social embeddedness, the process of outsourcing will incline to formality or informality. In the case of Uganda, findings indicate that the informal institutional regime dominates and no major difference in informal practices for both CG and LG levels exist although at CG level it may appear like formal institutions dominate in decision making. The thesis proposes that public policies should take cognisance of informal institutions as well as social structure in their design.
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Munro, Hugh Alasdair David. "When do community leaders make a difference? : exploring the interaction of actors and institutions." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2008. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/184/.
Full textAbstract:
There are an increasing number of opportunities for community leaders to be involved in governing processes. However, the community leader literature fails sufficiently to distinguish the interaction of structure and agency. The thesis establishes a theoretical approach which places community leaders as ‘situated agents’. The thesis establishes a ‘reading-acting-effect’ model to examine how the readings of actors are translated into action and how they interpret the difference this makes. Case studies of two neighbourhoods in Sheffield reveal the changing influence of the community and of the state upon community leaders’ behaviour. In the early stages of development community leaders concentrate on the substantive difference their actions have in their community. The state plays a more significant role as community leaders begin to operate in governance arenas, making compromises to access state resources. State actors play important roles as rule makers and interpreters that affect how community leaders behave. Community leaders face a central dilemma between: modifying their behaviour to work with the state thereby increasing their opportunities to receive funding; and the freedom of working at a distance from the state without such support. Conflict can arise between community leaders as they adopt different positions in relation to the state based on their distinct interpretations of this dilemma.
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Campbell, Douglas. "What was the political difference made by the introduction of Executive Mayors in England?" Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/966/.
Full textAbstract:
The creation of eleven directly elected mayors in England between 2002 and 2005, as part of the Labour Government's wider local government reform, altered local governance in those localities. The 1998 White Paper Modern Local Government identified three key weaknesses in the previous local government system: a lack of leadership, legitimacy and accountability. The main question the thesis sought to answer was: what was the political difference made by the introduction of executive mayors in England.? The key issue in this study was to assess if executive mayors have improved the efficiency, the transparency or the accountability of local government. The investigation of the executive mayoral option employed an analytical framework to measure change on three dimensions of efficiency, transparency and accountability. To aid the investigation seven hypotheses were constructed from the government’s White Papers to explore various aspects of executive mayors and assist in providing generalisable conclusions about the introduction of directly elected mayors. Leadership and representation theories were used to operationalise the concepts of leadership, legitimacy and accountability. Models were developed which mapped the locus of power in the council's political space. Given the population of executive mayors was eleven local authorities for the period of the field research, a qualitative approach was adopted relying primarily on interviews augmented with documentary sources and observations. Election results were also analysed using conventional quantitative methods. With regard to elections, the study demonstrates that voters differentiate the office of executive mayor from other political posts. Other findings in this study indicate that one of the main political differences made by the introduction of executive mayors is the creation of a new balance between politicians and officials with the former being more dominant when determining policy matters while the senior officials taking the lead in administration and management. In addition, executive mayors have developed a better capability to challenge professional officers. The strength of executive mayors as leaders within their local authorities over the policy making process demonstrates a change from the operation of the previous system in England. The key person driving policy is now is the directly, clearly identifiable and more accountable executive mayor. This research has shown that directly elected mayors have made positive political differences which can be measured against the core goals of effective, transparent and accountable local government. Executive mayors demonstrate a continuity of governance in local government and have made a difference in the way local councils are run.
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Bonina, Carla. "On public values and information technology in government : a critical discourse analysis of trade regulations in Mexico." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/584/.
Full textAbstract:
The use of the internet and related information and communication technologies (ICT) in public administration (known as 'e-government') has gained notable space within the processes of public sector reform. Arguably, ICT provide an attractive strategy to reorganize internal government tasks, routines and processes and to make them more efficient, responsive as well as accountable to citizens. Yet, the linkages between public values and e-government programmes remain understudies or taken for granted. My research focuses on this particular aspect of public sector reforms and organising. It engages with the debates towards modernisation of central government services while contributing to discussion of the relation between technologically induced programmes and public values over time. Using critical discourse analysis, I trace the discourses on public values and technology within a longitudinal case of a technology-enabled platform to facilitate foreign trade regulations in Mexico - the Mexican Single Window for Foreign Trade. In my empirical analysis, I examine a combination of key government texts and extensive data from fieldwork to address two related questions: what public values are presented, enacted or marginalised during the trajectory of the case, and how these values are enacted and operationalised into technology over time. The analysis reveals four distinctive discourses on public values and technology: 'technical efficiency', 'legality and honesty', 'robustness' and '(forced) cooperation'. The analysis shows that while the technical efficiency cluster - commonly associated to the new public management ethos - is dominating, it cohabits with and is reinforced by other values more broadly related to traditional public administration and the bureaucratic ethos - that is, legality and honesty. In addition, the analysis shows that these four distinctive discourses have been materialised in technology in different degrees, giving rise to tensions and contestation over time. In light of the findings, I draw implications for theorizing public values and technology innovation within public sector reforms in a given context.
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Tew, Simon. "Organisational learning in the Welsh government : an exploratory analysis and wider implications." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/58702/.
Full textAbstract:
It has been recognised that organisational learning (OL) possesses considerable potential for developing workers and, through them, organisations. Although its relevance to the public sector has been acknowledged, a relatively small amount of empirical work has been undertaken. Where it has been, emphasis on learning embedded in daily practices has been lacking. This study fills a significant gap by providing a holistic and empirically-based exploration of OL within the public sector based on three diverse case studies in the Welsh Government. This study illustrates how OL practices in the Welsh Government emerged from mediations between individuals and six structures – namely physical, accountability, development, management intervention, workplace social and work task-based. OL is shown to be a locally formulated and pluralist phenomenon, based on the capacities of individuals involved and the highly nuanced dynamics created by and among the six structures. A new framework for the comprehensive investigation and analysis of OL emerges from the analysis. Some key findings from the study are that learning involving identifying and assessing new ways of doing things was neither practised nor required in all areas, that engagement in change during the undertaking of day-to-day work activities was a stimulant for learning, that different work tasks presented different possibilities for making and remedying mistakes, that the absence of a target-driven environment was an important enabler for staff to pursue off-the-job learning, that different work tasks presented varying opportunities for engaging with people, that engagement with people tended to happen only when staff felt that it would result in them being able to perform their roles more effectively, that inter-OL was not generally part of working life and that efforts to capture knowledge were generally not made unless there was a clear purpose or value seen for doing so.
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Birchmore, Ian. "Understanding public sector risk : a study into the nature and assessment of strategic risk in English local authorities." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/65694/.
Full textAbstract:
The research establishes a context-specific sense of strategic risk in English local authorities. Uncertainty is found to be central to understanding risk but current practice is found not to reflect this, presenting risks with a false and misleading precision. Risks are identified to have varying, multiple characteristics. Risk assessment models which embrace these characteristics are developed and tested using a consistently applied bespoke risk data set developed for the research. Issues of control confidence and the betrayal of stakeholder trust are explored within these risk assessment models. The research proposes an accessible, fuzzy risk assessment model with an ability to inform decision-making beyond the mere ranking of risks provided by current practice approaches.
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Li, Jinliang. "Governance in rural China : an ethnographic case study in two suburban villages in Guangdong Province, China." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42695/.
Full textAbstract:
This PhD research focuses on rural governance in the context of Mainland China. It focuses on three aspects of the changing rural governance: 1) internalization of the state-sponsored reforms for rural democratization, 2) external intervention and mediation of the human agents for policy implementation, and 3) dispute settlement. Drawing upon the three above-mentioned aspects, this study aims to dissect the interactive processes of China’s rural governance over the ongoing urbanisation of small-to-medium-sized cities. The fieldwork utilizes iterative-inductive ethnography as the research methodology. It additionally adopts the theoretical framework of social constructionism and actor-oriented perspectives to interpret the changing rural governance and employs interface analysis to examine the ethnographic data. It finds that the outcome of rural governance in the selected villages is greatly influenced by the interaction of the human agents’ capabilities and the (emerging) structural forces. In particular, various actors not only construct the emerging power structure but make use of their own knowledge, power relations, discursive practices, and innovate strategies to accommodate, negotiate and compromise with the external forces to solve problems emerging out of rural governance. Simultaneously, structural factors limit the scope of the actors’ choices, and the opportunities for strategies concerning rural governance. In terms of the representativeness of the selected samples, it firstly could reflect on the possible trajectories of rural governance over the next decade for the urbanisation of small-to-medium-sized cities, which is promoted by both the central and local governments. Secondly, the selected samples represent the changing rural governance in villages that feature Hakka culture and history. Further research should be taken on villages consisting of different cultural contexts and political-economic conditions in order to expand on this research as the representativeness of the samples is limited to the specific contexts under study.
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Decker, H. M. "How institutional frameworks impact on political representation : the case of sub-local government in Munich." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38756/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines how institutional frameworks impact on political repre-sentation. It looks at the links and relationships that exist between political institutions and political representation, and explores how institutions shape the role and behaviour of elected representatives. Institutional frameworks are comprised of institutions which include a great variety of rules. Some rules were intentionally designed and formally described in laws and policies. Others developed informally over time as practices and conventions. The thesis argues that formal and informal rules, individually and in combination, impact on political action. Political representation is about action. It is about how elected representatives act for the represented, and about whether the ‘acting’ is in the interest of the represented. The thesis argues that formal and informal rules influence the actions of representatives and thereby shape political representation. This thesis is a qualitative case study of sub-local government in the city of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It builds upon ‘new institutionalism’ and inves-tigates what the institutions of sub-local government in Munich are, and what their role is with respect to the actions of elected representatives. The thesis looks at both how institutions shape the actions of representatives and at how representatives create and shape these institutions. Based on its empirical findings, the thesis generates theories and hypotheses as to how political institutions and political behaviour influence each other. The thesis reflects on the significance of the findings for representative government in Munich and, more broadly, for democratic outcomes at the local and sub-local level.
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Du, Plooy Louis Johannes. "Thinking differently about local economic development and governance in secondary cities in South Africa - A conceptual analysis of the possibilities of problem driven iterative adaption (PDIA)." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25268.
Full textAbstract:
Local economic development successes and failures at municipal level, and specifically in secondary cities in South Africa, is deeply influenced by the constitutional imperatives for establishing developmental local government. The local planning, economic development and policy frameworks introduced between 1999 and 2006 were largely based on, and moulded according to, the wave of new public management paradigms and public sector reform 'good governance best practises' implemented in South Africa post the 1994 democratic elections. The study makes two claims about municipal designs and practises, one that the governance design for these expressions of developmental local government in South Africa has been driven by solution based and theoretical mechanisms rooted in primarily new public management frameworks and development approaches. The second claim is that this development approach manifested in practise in specific plans and frameworks which municipal governments and entities are required to implement and this implementation is characterised by mimicry and isomorphism through compliance, specifically in intermediate cites The motivation for the study, and the third claim which the study investigates, is that the implementation of these plans in practise is not doing so well in terms of delivering the results as envisaged, and secondary cities and towns are often in economic, social and service delivery crises and exhibit very high levels of spatial exclusion despite the local economic development profiles and governance arrangements in these settings increasingly being a matter of policy discussion and debate. The study then introduces a proposed alternative by focusing on implementation at local level and explores how things might be done differently. It looks at the possible contribution of the current search for more effective public service reform, generally referred to as 'doing development differently' or 'smart(er) development', to this local economic development debate. Through a conceptual analysis and application of the approaches and methodologies introduced by problem driven iterative adaption, the study identifies possible different approaches for local economic development in secondary cities and explains what it looks like. The study concludes that doing local economic differently in intermediate settings in South Africa can provide more realistic expectations for the results of local economic development initiatives through fundamentally rephrasing the problem as one that matters, and make recommendations for approaches through which problem driven iterative adaptation processes and practises can be introduced in the context of the institutional constraints present in these intermediate settings.
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Mansour, Sarah. "Essays on experimental economics : studying the political economy of the Egyptian transition." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/71150/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis uses economics-style incentivised laboratory experiments to study the effects of the political transformation in Arab Spring Countries (frequent recalling of governments, political and social polarisation, and campaign dynamics of founding elections) on economic outcomes; such as tax compliance, support for painful economic reforms, corruption, and interpersonal trust. The main focus of this thesis is on Egypt, being the largest Arab country in terms of population, historically the most influential in the region, and with a dominant cultural influence felt all over the Arab world. I find the following experimental evidence: (i) Giving citizens the right to recall government officials decreases the level of corruption in government through the increased accountability it imposes on elected politicians. Specifically, corruption is reduced by 14% in the presence of this right (p=0.04). (ii) Empowering citizens with the right to recall government officials was also found to decrease tax compliance by 20% due to the high frequency of divisive elections associated with this newly acquired right in a newly democratised country and the creation of losers who become unsatisfied with the outcome of the election process and thus the psychological costs associated with their incompliance are minimized. (iii) Ideological polarisation in elections can impede economic reform. And that (iv) negative campaigning in elections can impact negatively on the level of interpersonal trust in the society.
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Cooper, Davina. "Sexing the city : lesbian and gay municipal politics 1979-87." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1992. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4264/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the relationship between local government and social change strategies. More specifically, it examines the series of highly contested attempts during the 1980s to deploy local government in order to challenge the discrimination and prejudice facing lesbians and gay men. Whilst, much of the effort was directed at making council services more responsive to lesbian and gay needs, a key aspect of the project concerned the transformation of dominant sexual meanings. Four questions provide a theoretical and empirical framework for this research. First, why did some local authorities address lesbian and gay issues? Second, how successful were they in doing so? Third, what factors constrained or limited their attempts? And fourth, why were lesbian and gay municipal initiatives so controversial? The first section of this thesis examines the reconstitution of lesbian and gay issues on the local government agenda, and the subsequent trajectory of their development within particular authorities. The thesis then goes on to examine the impact of bureaucratic processes and right-wing opposition on lesbian and gay municipal discourses. I argue that despite significant opposition to lesbian and gay policies, in general the right did not mobilise. The ideological steer within local government bureaucracy was usually sufficient to 'weed out' or dilute more progressive proposals. However, on occasions where this broke down, opposing forces intervened, both to obstruct lesbian and gay initiatives and to use the policies' existence to advance their own political agenda. The final part of this thesis draws together several key issues: the general absence of a more radical sexual politics; the crisis of implementation; the nature of opponents' attitudes towards homosexuality and local government; and the decline of lesbian and gay municipal politics post-1987. In the conclusion, I return to the question of local government's radical potential by proposing an alternative, decentred approach to municipal sexual politics. Methodologically, this thesis is eclectic drawing on several disciplinary areas in conjunction with a range of theoretical perspectives, particularly neo-marxism, feminism and poststructuralism. Field research comprises of interviews, mass media and local government documentation combined with my own experiences as an actor within the municipal lesbian and gay project. This thesis is intended to make a contribution to a theoretical understanding of municipal politics, especially to the relationship between local government, sexuality, ideology and social change. it also offers a detailed account and analysis of lesbian and gay municipal developments, one of the most controversial initiatives of the 1980s.
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Waitt, Barry Douglas. "The scope of retail/commercial planning at the municipal government level." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26623.
Full textAbstract:
The functioning of the retail sector and the commercial structure of Canadian urban areas has become increasingly important in the 1980's, as the prosperity of major Western cities becomes more dependent on their ability to function as commercial service centers. The public responsibility for regulating the development of retail/commercial facilities is primarily a task for municipal governments. In light of this, this thesis critically examines the scope of planning for retail/commercial development at the municipal government level, using the Municipality of Richmond as a case study.
This study suggests that there is room for the Municipality of Richmond to increase their effectiveness in planning and regulating commercial development, largely through allowing municipal planners to expand their scope of involvement in this field.
In the literature review, commercial land use planning abroad, as well as various theories, concepts, and models that contribute to the commercial planning process are discussed. The purpose of this is to discover planning practice and commercial planning theory that could be useful for planners that have the responsibility of planning for retail/commercial development.
A policy analysis of retail/commercial planning is provided through a review of municipal government documents that are relevant to public sector planning for commercial development in Richmond and through a series of interviews with planners and other public officials who are involved in commercial land use planning in the municipality. From this policy analysis, questions are raised about the scope and comprehensiveness of retail/commercial planning in Richmond, as well as how long-range an approach is applied to this sector.
Utilizing the information collected in the literature review, as well as the interviews, several suggestions are offered on how the Municipality of Richmond could apply certain concepts to improve their effectiveness in planning for retail/commercial development. The suggestions include 1) an articulated commercial planning policy, 2) consideration of a broader range of factors when making decisions about commercial development, 3) more sophisticated research on retailing issues, 4) an awareness of the impact different forms of retailing can have on the commercial structure, 5) utilizing private sector expertise, and 6) adopting a regional perspective toward commercial planning.Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate
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Xu, Qian. "Intercity competition, municipal government and intra-spatial inequality in Shenzhen, China." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648654.
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Anes, António Cândido. "Estado de maturidade do e-government Municipal no Distrito de Bragança." Master's thesis, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Escola Superior de Tecnologia e de Gestão, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10198/2126.
Full textAbstract:
Na última década, os governos têm efectuado avultados esforços financeiros em
Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicações (TIC), com o objectivo de aproximar os
serviços públicos aos cidadãos e empresas.
A par desses avultados investimentos, o governo tem vindo a legislar e financiar
alguns organismos quer sejam públicos ou privados com o objectivo de motiva-los, para
acompanhem as evoluções tecnológicas, a nível de hardware e software.
Uma primeira fase teve como objectivo que todos os departamentos estatais e
empresas disponibilizassem um sítio Web e que neste fosse divulgado um conjunto vasto
de informação regional, local ou empresarial de interesse global, proporcionando assim
um conhecimento alargado das realidades locais.
Fruto das exigências sociais e do evoluir dos meios tecnológicos, a simples
divulgação de informação nos sítios Web tornou-se insuficiente, exigindo-se que esses
sítios Web contivessem além de informação, documentação diversa e permitissem um
conjunto vasto de transacções, podendo ser acedidos comodamente, 24 horas por dia, 7
dias da semana, sem efectuar deslocações às instalações institucionais.
A este conjunto de esforços, direccionados para cidadãos/empresas, foi dado o
nome de E-Government (Governo electrónico), ou seja, a disponibilização de um
conjunto alargado de serviços aos cidadãos/empresas, ou a outro tipo de organizações
através dos sítios Web.
Para que tudo isso se tornasse realidade, desenvolveu-se um complexo processo
de incorporação de serviços e funções, no qual a Administração Pública (AP) tem
responsabilidades acrescidas.
À AP compete legislar e dar o exemplo, impulsionando e financiando empresas e
organizações, principalmente os municípios.
Na última década, as Universidades e Institutos Politécnicos, com os seus
projectos e experiências, têm assumido, também um papel decisivo para o estabelecer
de uma melhor governabilidade baseada nas plataformas digitais.
Nesta complexidade de utilização das TIC, as autarquias assumem um papel
importante, dada a sua proximidade com os cidadãos e empresas locais, daí aparecer
uma nova nomenclatura “e-government local”, ou seja o governo electrónico local
(autárquico).
A estes governos locais, dada a proximidade de eleitos e eleitores, é exigida por
estes últimos uma maior disponibilização online, de conteúdos nos seus sítios Web, entre
os quais normas, direitos, deveres e informação quer da autarquia, quer da região.Além de informação, estes sítios actualmente devem permitir um vasto conjunto
de transacções online, tais como download/Upload, tratamento, decisão e entrega de
documentos, incluindo o pagamento online de licenças, taxas, água e outros serviços por
meios electrónicos, assumindo então o Governo Electrónico (e-Gov) o seu verdadeiro
significado.In the last decade, The Portuguese government has invested heavily in
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), with the aim of approaching public
services to citizens and companies.
In addition to these heavy investments, the government has been legislating and
financing some institutions, both public and private, aiming at motivating them to follow
the technological evolution at the levels of hardware and software.
The first stage intended all governmental departments and companies to provide
access to a website and, on this, a considerable amount of local, regional or global
entrepreneurial information was made available, allowing for broader knowledge of the
local realities.
As a result of social demands and the evolution of technological means, the sheer
availability of information on websites became insufficient, demanding that these
contained, apart from information, various types of documentation. Moreover, it should
also allow for the performance of a great number of transactions, which could be
accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, exempting citizens from going to the premises
of the institutions.
This set of citizen- and company-oriented efforts was named e-government
(electronic government), i.e. the availability of a substantial number of services to
citizens and companies or other types of organisations through the web.
In order to make this possible, a complex process of including technological-based
services at the level of local government was developed. Therefore, it is nowadays
thought to be the government responsibility to support and encourage this purpose,
seeking to build up regional communities that should interact with local power by means
of technological services.
At the same time, higher education institutions, namely universities and
polytechnics, have contributed by means of their projects and experiments to this
national intent around information society.
Within this new social context, local government has played an important part,
given its proximity to citizens and local companies, hence the coinage of the name local
e-government, which stands for local electronic government. Local governments must
provide wider content availability online, on their websites, such as standards, rights and
duties, and information concerning both the city council and the region.
Furthermore, these websites should also permit citizens to conduct a full set of
transactions online, such as the download and upload of information, treatment, decision,
delivery and retrieval of documents, including the online payment of licences, fees, water supply and other services. Therefore, it is by these electronic means that e-government
accomplishes its true meaning.
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Scott, Jack Leroy. "Of Time and Place / A Municipal Government Facility in Edenton, NC." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32094.
Full textAbstract:
Through the design of a municipal complex for Chowan County, North Carolina, the intention is to examine what it means to design with a sense of place that is an extension of the region's past. Regionalism has been trivialized to be as simplistic as the practice of attaching community-accepted stylistic embellishment to any new building. This is unfortunately done without historic examination of place. All too often the desire is for a historic connection through iconographic application. This usually results in a farce that mocks and devalues the past and present. This is an honest examination of past building and community nuances for translation and inclusion in the development of a new municipal complex, to be built using contemporary construction methods.Master of Architecture
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Kang, Hoseok. "Analytical conflation of spatial data from municipal and federal government agencies." Connect to resource, 2002. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1229706172.
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Davey, Peter J. "Municipal Public Health Planning and Implementation in Local Government in Queensland." Thesis, Griffith University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365756.
Full textAbstract:
The furious pace of global urbanisation has serious impacts on the long-term sustainability and health of the local communities in which we live. The debate about relationships between population size, environmental management and human well-being must now encompass the fundamental concept of sustainability (Rees, 1992; WCED, 1990; McMichael, 2002; Hancock, 1996). Increasingly, the local municipal level is the most influential setting in which to change our relationship with the environment (Chu, 1994; Chu et al., 2000).
In the 1980s, the World Health Organisation (WHO) met this global challenge by advocating healthy public policy and laying foundations for its global Healthy Cities Movement. Significant support developed in the early nineties for participatory health planning action in local government: over 2000 cities world-wide developed municipal public health plans (MPH Plans). The Healthy Cities Movement through regional networks of cities and towns encouraged government partnerships with non-government agencies and industry, to anticipate and mitigate urbanisation’s negative impacts. In Queensland eighteen local governments have developed and implemented MPH Plans using a seven-step process (Chapman and Davey, 1997; WHO (1997b) to improve local planning for health and address the social determinants of health through agency collaboration.
There is however limited understanding and evidence of the success factors for the effective implementation of MPH Plans. Studies of the evaluation of Municipal Public Health Planning (MPHP) approaches have focused predominately on the evaluation of the process of planning, without conducting comprehensive evaluation of its implementation. The organisational barriers that contribute to ineffective health-planning implementation have not been well researched and documented. Here lies the gap in the research: MPHP requires thorough qualitative assessment, not only of the planning process, but also the implementation impacts.
This research explores the achievements, barriers and success factors associated with MPHP implementation in local government organisations by developing a process and impact evaluation framework and applying it to two MPHP projects in Queensland: one, local planning in an expanding tourist city of over 400,000 people; the second, a regional approach involving two provincial cities with a combined population of 100,000 residents. The research examines the degree of collaboration resulting from health planning and assesses if the aims of the MPH Plans have been met. MPHP is both a health promotion tool and a strategic business planning process applied in local communities: this research seeks to understand more about organisational strategic management issues that act as barriers to planning or impact on the success of planning outcomes.
This study design uses qualitative methods with a triangulation approach to analyse and understand the complexities of MPH Plan implementation. Grounded theory provides a methodology for interpreting meanings and discovering themes from the comprehensive process and impact evaluation consisting of preliminary cases studies, key informant interviews, using specific process and impact indicator questions and an analysis of MPHP models compared to other CPHP models and legislative frameworks. The impacts of the intervention are discussed and relate to the implementation effects of MPHP on individuals and organisations including council, government and non-government agencies and on the community.
Achievements and barriers associated with MPHP are identified and discussed. Three main factors emerged. Firstly, MPHP had significantly increased the degree of intersectoral collaboration between the agency project partners, with particular success in clarifying the role of agencies in the management and delivery of public health services. The principles of successful partnerships need to be further articulated in local government settings to successfully implement MPHP. Secondly, positive political and organisational support was found to be a critical factor in the success of the planning implementation. Thirdly, and most importantly, the aims of the MPHP had not been substantially met due to a lack of financial and human resources. The study concluded that, although MPHP has strengths and weaknesses compared to other CPHP models, its features most suit local government.
Success factors recommended for effective MPHP include formalising collaboration and partnerships and improved agency organisational governance in planning; building individual and organisational capacity to strengthen strategic planning; integrating the many layers of regulatory planning in local government and other agencies; sustaining planning structures and processes through regulation and commitment to investment in implementation stages of MPHP. The study’s major recommendation is that, for MPHP local government should facilitate a three-dimensional platform approach: healthy governance – long-term vision, recognising the many layers of planning, supported by state legislation and local industry and with awareness of legislative planning frameworks; a platform mechanism – sustaining agency networking, hosting the stakeholder forum, supporting the advisory committee, enhancing communication; and strategy implementation – in the context of an improved understanding of organisational behaviour, local government and agencies must action priority strategies, formalising agency partners responsibility, articulating desired outcomes, monitoring progress and evaluation.
This recommended Platform Approach to MPHP provides an effective model for managing and implementing future MPH Plans, allocating resources three ways: to build people’s capacity to engage in planning mechanisms, to build organisational capacity to manage planning outcomes and to build more effective Healthy Cities planning approaches. The MPHP evaluation framework developed in this thesis could be used to evaluate other MPHP projects in local governments both in Australia and internationally.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Centre for Environment and Population Health
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
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