Masakhane case studies

The Masakhane Campaign in South Africa has received a fair amount of criticism, largely because its high media profile has not been accompanied by delivery and improvement of services at the local level. Contrary to this generally negative perception, there are a number of local authorities that have greatly improved the situation in their areas through pragmatic strategies and programmes under the banner of Masakhane. This article presents information on the current status of the campaign in a sample of local authorities, and attempts to interpret this information so as to ascertain those factors that influence on the success or failure of local authorities as service providers.     

The demise of a South African growth point,Butterworth in the Eastern Cape: a community development model as an alternative strategy for development

Butterworth was chosen for this research as one of the growth points in the former Transkei under apartheid. Prospective and existing entrepreneurs in mostly manufacturing enterprises were entitled to various incentives, all of which were phased out by the mid-1990s, and factory closures ensued. Since then the economy of Butterworth has atrophied, leaving thousands unemployed. This paper suggests a community development model as an alternative strategy for resuscitating an ailing local economy, emphasising the imperatives of community participation at all levels of the developmental process. Kenya and Ghana are cited as examples of community development. With this international backdrop, three community-inspired projects in the Eastern Cape were used to test the model: the Umngazi Farming Scheme, the Philani Ncambedlana Farmers' Cooperative and the Tanga Village Masakhane. The paper shows that community development can provide an alternative livelihood in local economies.     

Migration,Education and Rural Development: Evidence from China 2000 Population Census Data

There has been a concern that the growth of towns has been stalled recently and with it, the creation of non-farm jobs in rural industries. This study uses 2000 census tabulations to look at this issue by examining in-migration in towns in three provinces in China, Zhejiang, Henan, and Sichuan. In addition to the diversified patterns of town in-migrants revealed in these provinces, this paper finds that town in-migrants generally possess higher levels of educational attainment than those of the local population in towns, especially in the less-developed western and central provinces of Sichuan and Henan. There is also evidence that as towns themselves grow wealthier, such as in Zhejiang, better educated people in rural areas were likely to shift their jobs from the farm to non-farm sector in towns nearby, instead of leaving the countryside to migrate to other provinces. Labor markets in towns in less-developed western and central provinces were more flexible in accommodating in-migrants, whereas in the coastal province of Zhejiang, labor markets tend to become segregated between migrants and the local population.     

Campaigning against poverty: The local authority role

The Record increase in income inequality and poverty over the last 15 years have major implications for local government. Yet an anti-poverty agenda has been conspicuous by its absence until recently in local authority strategies and debates. A national political campaign with all party local authority support is now underway, linked to a growing awareness of the need for local authorities to adopt a truly strategic approach in addressing issues of poverty and social justice at the local level.     

The history of the city of Trondheim

Abstract

The study of ‘local history’ i.e. the history of particular towns and rural districts, has been much in vogue in Norway in the last twenty or thirty years and has produced some valuable results of significance for more general history. The initiative in studies of this kind, as well as the burden of financing them, has usually been assumed by the communities themselves, and it is natural that the purely local interest in particular events, institutions, and persons has had to be emphasized more than might be desirable from a more comprehensive point of view. Apart from this obvious limitation, there is a good case to be made for the study of social history in particular at the level of relatively small communities. The limited material and scope of such studies make it possible to go into greater detail in the analysis of social relations within the unit under observation and, equally important, to see a relatively complete social system functioning as a whole. When a series of such studies has been made, a basis is then provided for comparisons and generalizations which cover a larger national society.     

The timing and pattern of real wage divergence in pre‐industrial Europe: evidence from Germany,c. 1500–1850

This study uses price information relating to 12 towns and wage information from 18 towns to develop a real wage index for unskilled urban labourers in Germany during the three‐and‐a‐half centuries preceding the onset of rapid industrialization. Combining the new series with information from other parts of Europe establishes two stages of real wage divergence during the seventeenth to nineteenth century. The first occurred in the middle of the seventeenth century when real wages in centres of trade and finance located on the rim of the North Sea rose far above the level prevailing in their hinterland. The second stage unfolded from the second quarter of the eighteenth century when the real wage in south England, northern and central Italy, and Germany began to diverge; Germany followed a middle path between the other two countries. The second commercial revolution, which improved business techniques and promoted Smithian growth, goes a long way towards accounting for this development.     

论乡镇政府在小城镇建设中的地位及职能

在当前的小城镇建设中乡镇政府的职能界定不清，严重影响了小城镇建设的发展。科学界定乡镇政府的职能首先需要弄清乡镇政府地位的特殊性。我们应该在小城镇建设中，对于乡镇政府在资金、财政、土地使用、户籍管理等方面给乡镇政府适当的权限，以适应小城镇建设的需要，促进小城镇的发展。     

湖南、湖北两省乡镇综合配套改革差异比较分析

为适应社会主义市场经济体制的发展需要,以改革促发展,解决制约农村发展带长期性、基础性、根本性的体制和机制性问题,切实提高对“三农“的服务水平,湖南、湖北两省进行了乡镇合并、乡镇行政机关改革、乡镇事业单位改革、县乡财政体制改革、乡镇教育体制改革等乡镇综合配套改革.本文通过分析认为,湖南、湖北两省乡镇综合配套改革存在着许多共同之处,但在乡镇事业单位改革和县乡财政体制改革方面却存在着十分明显的差异;并从与改革目标的接近程度、改革的彻底性和理想性、改革成本和改革成效等方面对湖南、湖北两省乡镇综合配套改革做了评价.     

当前农村小城镇建设存在的问题及对策

发展农村小城镇有利于改变农村二元结构，实现农村和农业现代化。近年农村小城镇有了较大发展．但与我国工业化水平相比仍然滞后，存在发展重点不明、投入不足、缺乏长远规划等诸多问题。本文通过分析，旨在为加快发展小城镇提出一些建议。     

广东省专业镇制造业成本上升水平及其对策

纵向专业化分工、巨大的外来工市场、成熟的专业市场、行业协会强大的议价能力、技术外溢效益是广东省专业镇经济蓬勃发展的强大支撑。近年来,广东省专业镇企业成本优势弱化,竞争能力下降,部分产业出现向省外转移的迹象。为求得专业镇经济持续稳定发展,广东省各级政府必须完善职工培训体系,积极培育本地劳工市场,优化投资环境,鼓励自主创新,推进品牌建设,凸现整合优势,适时地进行产业转型与升级。     

新时代下特色小镇的发展现状与对策研究——以嘉兴市为例

特色小镇是连接城乡之间的空间新节点,是新时代下推进新型城镇化建设的重要途径。浙江省不仅是我国东部较发达地区,而且也是发展特色小镇先导地区,在全国起到引领和示范作用。浙江嘉兴特色小镇建设无论在总体数量还是在推进力度、初步成效方面都位居全国前列。通过以浙江嘉兴特色小镇为例,对其发展现状进行分析,总结出在新时代下我国特色小镇发展面临的一些代表性问题,并提出一些有利于我国特色小镇发展的对策。     

近年来江苏城市化发展特征、问题与对策

1990年以来江苏城市化呈现人口向城镇聚集速度加快、城市化发展动力模式发生根本转换、城镇体系日趋合理等新特点;但也存在土地利用效率低、“土地城市化”速度过快、城市化区域差异显著等问题。为此应提出提高土地利用率、以都市困为重点促进城市化、实施“三沿战略”、推动制度配套改革等对策。     

The closure of coal mines and local development responses in Coal-Rim Cluster,northern KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

The impact of mine closure can have a devastating effect on the local economies of the towns that they once supported. Drawing on comparative, international material, this article examines the nature and effectiveness of the local economic development responses that have been initiated in the former coal-mining towns in northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Although a range of innovative locally identified strategies have been embarked upon, considerably greater effort and investment will be needed in order to catalyse significant and meaningful regeneration endeavours.     

The identification of towns in the Free State for an urban upgrading and development programme: A proposed method for consideration

This article describes how small towns in the Free State were assessed for a German‐South African urban upgrading and development programme. The assessment first determined where the programme would have a significant impact on the recipient community and, secondly, where it would have a high probability of success. Two criteria were used: quantitative (settlement types, demographic and economic trends, financial and management capacity and performance, and access to services and housing) and qualitative (level of community‐based participation in existing projects, the spirit of the place, economic potential and delivery record in terms of projects). These criteria reduced the number of appropriate towns to eight. A provincial steering committee (representing the political dimension) was appointed to incorporate the towns into the programme. They are representative of towns across the province, as well as a variety of settlement types. This method can be considered on a provincial or regional basis elsewhere for evaluating and ranking small towns for development support.     

Assessing Local Government Debt Risks in China: A Case Study of Local Government Financial Vehicles

Strong credit expansion in China after the recent global financial crisis has brought local government financial vehicles (LGFV) into the spotlight. Rapid growth of LGFV has triggered concern about local government indebtedness, banks' asset quality and, more broadly, China's medium‐term financial stability and sovereign risk. This paper constructs a unique firm‐level dataset to evaluate the country's local government debt. We find an uneven distribution of LGFV, which are concentrated in the coastal areas, and a deterioration of their debt repaying ability from 2010 to 2012. We use principal component analysis (PCA) along with multivariate discriminate analysis (MDA) to identify the credit risk of LGFV based on conventional financial variables as well as local governments' fiscal status. We also estimate the safe boundaries of debt bearing at the provincial government level. The estimations reveal more severe local government debt risks in the middle‐western provinces and higher risks associated with LGFV at the municipal and county levels. Although it is very unlikely that there will be a national debt crisis in China, the high risk of LGFV should be noted and effectively controlled by improving the fiscal transparency of local governments and reforming the fiscal system.     

Density,distance and debt: New-town construction and local-government financial risks in China

The local governments in China have borrowed a lot of debts in the past ten years. In recent years, local governments have been under increasing pressure to repay debts. By matching panel data for city-level urban construction and investment bonds (UCIBs) with hand-collected new-town construction panel data, this study found that new-town construction has partly accounted for UCIB issuance, especially since 2009. Firstly, the new-town construction presented a trend that the distance away from the city center increases and planned population density decreases over time, which may end up with lowering efficiency of new towns. Secondly, the number and planned area of new towns in inland regions far exceeds that in coastal regions, while the scales of UCIBs are also larger in inland cities than in coastal cities, along with relatively higher interest rates. We argue that the inland-favoring land supply policies and local government political competition are the main driving forces behind this phenomenon. Thirdly, while local governments built new towns increasingly by borrowing, the return to investment is declining over time both in coastal and inland regions. We argue that without fully understanding the importance of population density and distance to downtown in urban economic development, new-town construction using land financing can lead to inefficient urbanization in China, which is not financially sustainable, especially for small and inland cities.     

基于建成区人口密度的徐州小城镇发展质量特征及其影响因素分析

基于建成区人口密度，运用空间集中度、缓冲区分析、耦合协调模型等方法对2019年徐州市97个建制镇的发展质量及其影响因素进行分析。研究发现：徐州小城镇整体发展质量偏低，高质量水平小城镇少；不同质量水平的小城镇空间分布整体较为均衡分散；大城市周边小城镇质量水平普遍偏低，中等城市周边小城镇发展质量较好；交通的轴带作用与交通站点的枢纽作用对小城镇带动发展明显，徐州主要交通轴带缓冲区内小城镇质量平均水平较高，交通轴带沿线形成多个高质量小城镇组团和重要交通枢纽城镇。基于研究结果从城市发展水平、产业发展水平、交通条件及政策制度环境等方面进行影响因素分析，进而提出提升小城镇发展质量的对策建议。     

Rural Informal Taxation in China： Historical Evolution and an Analytic Framework

The present paper examines the historical evolution of China's rural taxation system from the pre-reform period to the late 1990s. We propose that because of information asymmetry between the upper-level and the lower-level governments, local governments had to be granted some informal tax autonomy to fulfill the upper-level policy mandates. This easily led to excessive local informal taxation on farmers. As market liberalization of the grain sector progressed, the low-cost tax instruments implemented through the traditional approach of implicit taxation gradually eroded. Local governments in agricultural regions had to resort to informal fees collected directly from individual rural households while the more industrialized regions shifted to non-agricultural taxes that are less costly in terms of tax collection. Hence, political tension between farmers and local governments in agriculture- based regions emerged and rural tax reform became necessary.     

取消农业税后的乡镇财政困境及对策

中央取消农业税后,乡镇财政,特别是以农业为主地区的乡镇财政将更加困难,这已严重影响了乡镇的公共服务水平和政府的有效运转,所以乡镇财政困境急需解决。本文从“开源”和“节流”两个方面针对造成现行县乡财政危机的原因进行了分析。并提出了相应的解决对策。     

高新园区与乡镇经济联动发展—浦东张江模式

目前我国不少高新园区与周边乡镇由于发展水平、发展目标、管理体制等方面存在着显差异,“两张皮”的现象相当突出,不同程度地影响着两的发展进程。浦东张江高科技园区与张江镇经过多年的积极探索,已形成较为成熟的联动发展框架,本对此进行了全面的剖析,并从中提炼出具有借鉴价值的张江模式。