Download or read book Construyendo la Democracia Desde Las Bases written by Organization of American States. General Secretariat and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Local Governments and Their Intergovernmental Networks in Federalizing Spain written by Robert Agranoff and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2010 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spain has been changing its institutional framework in important ways over the past thirty years. The country has gone from a dictatorship to a democracy, from a unitary state to a decentralized one, from authoritarian politics to a self-conscious, civil society with a developed welfare state within a European context. Federal development in post-Franco Spain reaches far beyond familiar Basque/Catalan nationalistic struggles and includes the creation of an increasing number of intergovernmental networks by local governments, particularly municipalities, as they engage regional, central, and other local entities to operate programs and services in basic and emergent policy areas. By examining the intergovernmental networks in an increasingly federalized Spain, Robert Agranoff shows that local governments, although they occupy a strong position in legal and constitutional terms, are in practice subordinate to both central and regional governments and therefore lack adequate power and resources to deal with both the responsibilities assigned to them and those they'd like to assume. As a result, local governments are forced into a series of intergovernmental arrangements and transactions with governmental and nongovernmental organizations. The Spanish situation provides important insights into intergovernmental relations in all decentralized countries, particularly in revealing how autonomy can create a host of complex intergovernmental linkages, partnerships, and transactions that require complex networks at the elected official and administrative level.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe written by John Loughlin and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-11-08 with total page 810 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe analyses the state of play of democracy at the subnational level in the 27 member states of the EU plus Norway and Switzerland. It places subnational democracy in the context of the distinctive Anglo, the French, the German and Scandinavian state traditions in Europe asking to what extent these are still relevant today. The Handbook adapts Lijphart's theory of democracy and applies it to the subnational levels in all the country chapters. A key theoretical issue is whether subnational (regional and local) democracy is derived from national democracy or whether it is legitimate in its own right. Besides these theoretical concerns it focuses on the practice of democracy: the roles of political parties and interest groups and also how subnational political institutions relate to the ordinary citizen. This can take the form of local referendums or other mechanisms of participation. The Handbook reveals a wide variety of practices across Europe in this regard. Local financial systems also reveal a great variety. Finally, each chapter examines the challenges facing subnational democracy but also the opportunities available to them to enhance their democratic systems. Among the challenges identified are: Europeanization, globalization, but also citizens disaffection and switch-off from politics. Some countries have confronted these challenges more successfully than others but all countries face them. An important aspect of the Handbook is the inclusion of all the countries of East and Central Europe plus Cyprus and Malta, who joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. This is the first time they have been examined alongside the countries of Western Europe from the angle of subnational democracy.
Download or read book Accountability Politics written by Jonathan A. Fox and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2007-12-13 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can the seeds of accountability ever grow in authoritarian environments? Embedding accountability into the state is an inherently uneven, partial and contested process. Campaigns for public accountability often win limited concessions at best, but they can leave cracks in the system that serve as handholds for subsequent efforts to open up the state to public scrutiny. This book explores the how civil society "thickens" by comparing two decades of rural citizens' struggles to hold the Mexican state accountable, exploring both change and continuity before, during, and after national electoral turning points. The book addresses how much power-sharing really happens in policy innovations that include participatory social and environmental councils, citizen oversight of elections, local government social investment funds, participation reforms in World Bank projects, community-managed food programs, as well as new social oversight and public information access reforms. Meanwhile, efforts to exercise voice unfold at the same time as rural citizens consider their exit options, as millions migrate to the US, where many have since come together in a new migrant civil society. Since explanations of electoral change do not account for how people actually experience the state, this book concludes that new analytical frameworks are needed to understand "transitions to accountability." This involves unpacking the interaction between participation, transparency and accountability. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Download or read book Theoretical Foundations and Discussions on the Reformation Process in Local Governments written by Sadioglu, Ugur and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local government can be defined as a public entity acting as the sub-unit of a state or of a region, charged with the task of enforcing public policies. There have been many reforms of local government in recent years from the grassroots-led movement that took root in the 90’s to the overarching effects of globalization and decentralization. Local governments must adapt their practices in order to most effectively provide for their constituents. Theoretical Foundations and Discussions on the Reformation Process in Local Government addresses the effects of recent reforms in the political-administrative system of local governments and politics as well as future outlooks. It reviews the challenges, innovations, and lessons from local governments while providing theoretical perspectives on methods for positive reform. This book is a critical reference source for policy makers, government organizations, professionals, and actors in both local and international politics.
Download or read book Going Local written by Merilee S. Grindle and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-09 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many developing countries have a history of highly centralized governments. Since the late 1980s, a large number of these governments have introduced decentralization to increase democracy and improve services, especially in small communities far from capital cities. In Going Local, an unprecedented study of the effects of decentralization on thirty Mexican municipalities, Merilee Grindle describes how local governments respond when they are assigned new responsibilities and resources under decentralization policies. She explains why decentralization leads to better local governments in some cases--and why it fails to in others. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, Grindle examines data based on a random sample of Mexican municipalities--and ventures into town halls to follow public officials as they seek to manage a variety of tasks amid conflicting pressures and new expectations. Decentralization, she discovers, is a double-edged sword. While it allows public leaders to make significant reforms quickly, institutional weaknesses undermine the durability of change, and legacies of the past continue to affect how public problems are addressed. Citizens participate, but they are more successful at extracting resources from government than in holding local officials and agencies accountable for their actions. The benefits of decentralization regularly predicted by economists, political scientists, and management specialists are not inevitable, she argues. Rather, they are strongly influenced by the quality of local leadership and politics.
Download or read book Local Governance in Spain written by Ángel Iglesias Alonso and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-11-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book addresses in detail local governance in Spain. In recent decades, local governments in Europe have increasingly found themselves under pressure from a multitude of new challenges, such as demographic change, climate change, fiscal austerity policies, digitization, the demand for more citizen participation in local affairs, and the migration crisis in some of them, to name just a few. Consequently, a wave of political and administrative reforms to address these challenges, pressures and problems, has changed local governance in many countries. In part, these changes were the result of reform policies introduced by national and state governments, often triggered by austerity policies, which has become an overwhelming reality for Spanish local governments that have been forced to introduce innovations in local governance. This book aims to give an account of these innovations in local governance in Spain. This book considers the local political-administrative structure in its dimensions, focusing on the analysis of its party system, electoral competition and political behavior in the local arena, as well as on local finances, all of which are determining elements in urban and rural governance processes. On the occasion of the recent crisis unleashed by Covid-19, the book will also deal with local governance in crisis situations. The book will also contextualize local governance processes in Spain in relation to the trends in local governance observed in other European countries.
Download or read book Gobierno Abierto Un an lisis de su adopci n en los Gobiernos Locales desde las Pol ticas P blicas written by Edgar Alejandro Ruvalcaba Gómez and published by INAP. This book was released on 2019-06-02 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: El uso masificado de las nuevas tecnologías y la progresiva democratización de Internet han supuesto múltiples transformaciones de la realidad social en los últimos años. Los gobiernos están intentando brindar respuestas a las nuevas formas de interacción social presentes en el panorama cotidiano. Dentro de este esfuerzo, la incorporación de estrategias tecnológicas que permitan diseñar modelos alternativos de gestión pública surgen como una necesidad.En este contexto de configuración de nuevas estrategias de gestión pública se ha producido el surgimiento de un nuevo modelo que ha despertado la atención de académicos, funcionarios públicos y sociedad civil: el Gobierno Abierto (GA). Este modelo emergente propone reinventar la forma de gobernar introduciendo elementos que combinan el uso de nuevas tecnologías y fortalecen los valores democráticos.
Download or read book Finanzas municipales written by Catherine D. Farvacque-Vitkovic and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-10-26 with total page 964 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Desde Detroit hasta Lahore, la mayoría de las ciudades del mundo enfrentan problemas financieros, y aun así se espera que lleven a cabo sus funciones cada vez más complejas. Finanzas municipales - Manual para los gobiernos locales toma partido. Se pone del lado de los alcaldes y de los responsables de los asuntos municipales. Son escasas las publicaciones sobre este tema dirigidas tan directa y pragmáticamente a las autoridades decisorias y al personal financiero a nivel local. El contenido y los mensajes principales procuran responder a las inquietudes y a las cuestiones que enfrentan diariamente las ciudades y los municipios en la administración de sus finanzas. Finanzas municipales - Manual para los gobiernos locales asume una posición. En ocho capítulos, en esta obra se pasa revista a las lecciones aprendidas sobre relaciones intergubernamentales; finanzas de las áreas metropolitanas; gestión financiera, de los ingresos, de los gastos y de los activos públicos; financiamiento externo, y medición del desempeño de las finanzas municipales. Abarca temas tales como la descentralización, la transparencia y la rendición de cuentas, y aborda temas menos explorados como la gestión de activos, la capacidad crediticia, la respuesta frente a crisis financieras y los mecanismos de presentación de informes a los diversos niveles de gobierno y a la ciudadanía. Finanzas municipales - Manual para los gobiernos locales hace un llamado a la acción. No solo aporta conocimientos de avanzada en muchas cuestiones técnicas, sino que también guía a los gobiernos locales en el laberinto de los instrumentos existentes. En particular, la autoevaluación de las finanzas municipales que se propone en el capítulo 8 debería ayudar a los municipios a evaluar su propia situación y a avanzar en la senda de las reformas.
Download or read book Local Governments and Rural Development written by Krister Andersson and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the recent economic upswing in many Latin American countries, rural poverty rates in the region have actually increased during the past two decades. Experts blame excessively centralized public administrations for the lackluster performance of public policy initiatives. In response, decentralization reformshave become a common government strategy for improving public sector performance in rural areas. The effect of these reforms is a topic of considerable debate among government officials, policy scholars, and citizensÕ groups. This book offers a systematic analysis of how local governments and farmer groups in Latin America are actually faring today. Based on interviews with more than 1,200 mayors, local officials, and farmers in 390 municipal territories in four Latin American nations, the authors analyze the ways in which different forms of decentralization affect the governance arrangements for rural development Òon the ground.Ó Their comparative analysis suggests that rural development outcomes are systemically linked to locally negotiated institutional arrangementsÑformal and informalÑbetween government officials, NGOs, and farmer groups that operate in the local sphere. They find that local-government actors contribute to public services that better assist the rural poor when local actors cooperate to develop their own institutional arrangements for participatory planning, horizontal learning, and the joint production of services. This study brings substantive data and empirical analysis to a discussion that has, until now, more often depended on qualitative research in isolated cases. With more than 60 percent of Latin AmericaÕs rural population living in poverty, the results are both timely and crucial.
Download or read book Gobierno Local Poder Nacional written by Mauricio Merino Huerta and published by El Colegio de Mexico. This book was released on 1998 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: La formacion del Estado nacional mexicano ha sido un tema muy frecuentado por historiadores y sociologos, pero solo ha sido abordado de manera marginal desde el mirador propio de la ciencia politica. De ahi que se deba a los primeros la mayor parte de la vision que tenemos no solo sobre el pasado politico de Mexico, sino incluso acerca de los grandes procesos nacionales que ocuparon la historia del siglo XIX, asi como de los personajes que los protagonizaron. En cambio, se sabia mucho menos acerca de la evolucion y el entramado de las instituciones politicas. Este libro recoge una de las primeras indagaciones sobre esa historia institucional de Mexico que estaba haciendo falta. En Gobierno local, poder nacional, las instituciones municipales se presentan como el hilo conductor de varios de los procesos politicos que llevaron a la construccion del Estado. Sin embargo, no se trata de una historia de los municipios o de los distritos del siglo pasado, sino de una investigacion de ciencia politica acerca del papel que jugaron los gobiernos locales como la base sobre la cual se levanto el edificio del Estado moderno. El lector especializado encontrara las bases de un programa de investigacion que busca explicar el origen y el sentido de las instituciones politicas mexicanas, mientras que el publico interesado, por su parte, hallara nuevos elementos para entender la historia de su pais desde una perspectiva muy poco explorada hasta ahora, en un texto ameno y bien escrito que, de paso, abre nuevos cauces para el debate presente sobre la reconstruccion del pasado mexicano.
Download or read book The Persistence of Local Caudillos in Latin America written by Tomáš Došek and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite democratization at the national level, local political bosses still govern many municipalities in Latin America. Caudillos and clans often use informal political practices—ranging from clientelism and patronage to harassment of political opposition—to control local political dynamics. These arbitrary and, at times, abusive practices pose important challenges to how Latin American democracy works and how power is exercised after the decentralization reforms in the region. These reforms promised to bring the government closer to the people and to promote popular participation. In many cases, these ideals are unmet, and newly empowered local politicians have been able to turn municipalities into personal fiefdoms. This book explores how local caudillos stay in power and why some are more successful than others in retaining office. Tomáš Došek provides an in-depth analysis of six cases from Chile, Paraguay, and Peru to show the strategies that caudillos pursue to secure power and the mistakes they commit that drive them out.
Download or read book Linking Civil Society and the State written by Gerd Schönwälder and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2002-06-03 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the role of local government becoming more important as Latin American countries moved away from state-led development models in the 1980s, and with social movements helping to bring about the transition to democracy, questions arose about whether and how popular participation at the local level might be able to contribute to the consolidation of democracy from the grassroots upward. This book, based on extensive research in low-income districts of Lima, provides a sophisticated analysis of the relationship between a resurgent civil society and democratization. Exploring the complex interactions among urban popular movements, local government, political parties, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Schönwälder shows that the democratic potential of these movements is genuine but that their influence has been limited. His balanced assessment credits their achievements while illuminating the sources of their failures, mainly a variety of institutional barriers and a persistent threat of manipulation and co-optation by stronger actors, especially political parties. His analysis helps us understand better why the left has so often failed to convert its considerable support at the grassroots into political successes at higher levels.
Download or read book Local Government and Metropolitan Regions in Federal Countries written by John Kincaid and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While local government is found in all federal countries, its place and role in the governance of these countries varies considerably. In some countries, local government is considered an essential part of the federal nature of the state and recognized in the constitution as such, whereas in others it is simply a creature of the subnational states/provinces. When referring to local government it is more correct to refer to local governments (plural), as these institutions come in all shapes and sizes, performing widely divergent functions. They range from metropolitan municipalities of mega-cities to counties, small town councils, and villages. Their focus is either multi-purpose in the case of municipalities or single purpose in the case of special districts and school districts. What unites these institutions of state is that there is no level of government below them. That is also their strength and the source of their democratic claim - they are the government closest to the people. Political science experts from across the globe examine local governments by drawing on case studies of Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, and United States. Contributors include Martin Burgi (Ruhr-University Bochum), Luis Cesar de Queiroz Ribeiro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Jaap de Visser (University of Western Cape), Habu Galadima (University of Jos), Sol Garson (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) Boris Graizbord (National College of Mexico), Rakesh Hooja (HCM Rajasthan State Institute of Public Administration, India), Andreas Kiefer (European Affairs Office of the Land Salzburg), Andreas Ladner (Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration), George Mathew (Institute of Social Sciences, India), Mike Pagano (University of Illinois at Chicago), Graham Sansom (University of Technology Sydney), Franz Schausberger (Salzburg University), Nico Steytler (University of Western Cape), Francisco Velasco Caballero (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), and Robert Young (University of Western Ontario).
Download or read book A Modern Guide to Local and Regional Politics written by Copus, Colin and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-04 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilising international material to explore the roles, functions, tasks, responsibilities, powers and actions of intra-state politicians and the institutions to which they are elected, this insightful book examines how local and regional authorities are pivotal in the democratic and governing arrangements of different countries.
Download or read book Policy Analysis in Spain written by Chaqués-Bonafont, Laura and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2022-04-29 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This expert-led review of policy analysis in Spain is the first systematic study to provide a comprehensive overview of how policy actors generate information for the policy-making process.
