Decentralisation and local governance theory and the practice in Botswana

Decentralisation, as an aspect of local governance, helps to shift thinking away from state-centred perspectives to include elements which are often considered to be outside the public policy process. The notion of local governance can, accordingly, be regarded as an attempt to come to grips with the limitations of state-centred local management. This paper examines and analyses the concept and impact of decentralisation, as an aspect of local governance, from its theoretical perspective and as implemented in Botswana in practical ways.     

National policies and local economic initiatives: Evaluating the effectiveness of UK coal and steel closure area re-industrialisation measures

With the collapse that took place in coal, steel and engineering, job creation subsidiaries of certain nationalised industries were set up such as British Coal (Enterprise) Ltd and British Steel Corporation (Industry) Ltd. What have they achieved and what lessons are to be learned?     

The challenge of local government delivery

This article focuses on the challenge facing transformed local government in actually delivering the developmental role and services set out in the Constitution. The White Paper on Local Government sets out an extremely ambitious agenda, identifying municipalities as a main vehicle for improving living conditions for the majority of the population. Successful delivery is critical. The current UK Local Government reform programme is based on the concept of ‘best value’, ie the continuous search to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of public services through year‐on‐year improvement. The article suggests a simple and straightforward implementation model based on three integrated elements: an annual member cycle for the systematic consideration and review of the application of resources to identified priority community needs; adopting a limited number of critical success factors and incorporating these into officer performance appraisal.     

Decentralisation of competencies and local development agencies in North-Eastern Italy

Despite the economic success of north-eastern Italy, some of its areas, such as those closest to the Adriatic coast, are still experiencing difficulties in industrialisation. Since the 1960s, some development policies have been implemented to stimulate economic restructuring. After the disappointing performance of centrally planned initiatives, most development policies are now the responsibility of local authorities. In fact, institutional and constitutional reforms have increased the competencies and the autonomy of lower levels of government, which have also been allowed greater responsibility in development initiatives. The establishment of development agencies is therefore increasingly left to local collective action.¹ This paper examines the effectiveness of such bottom-up initiatives driven by local institutions, and attempts to identify the best forms and the best regulatory framework for such activities.     

制度、伦理与地方政府债券——我国地方政府债券:一道没有解的难题

从各种媒体上看到各位专家学者对我国发行地方政府债券的呼声比较高，称地方政府债券的发行是我国金融中一大创新，是投资的一大亮点，是促进经济发展的动力。好像地方政府债券一发行就能解决经济社会发展中遇到的各种问题，成了包治百病的万灵药。以下就是一些专家学者的观点：     

Danish agrarian reform and economic theory

Abstract

It has been one of the tenacious dogmas of Danish agrarian history that the land reforms of the end of the eighteenth century were implemented from above by farsighted politicians and landowners. With the publication of the researches of a number of younger historians, however, this dogma has been tottering towards its fall. First, the motives of the reformers are being questioned.¹ And, secondly, satisfactory instances are gradually coming to light to justify a re-evaluation of the peasantry's attitude to the reforms. One of the results of the studies is the new realisation that both in freeholding and tenant villages, enclosures were carried out to a large extent on the initiative of the peasants themselves.²     

经济全球化进程中我国政府的经济职能

在经济全球化进程中,每一个国家都是在既定国际关系准则约束下争取自己国家最大利益的“经济人”。政府行政作为“国家的组织活动、,对发展中国家而言,全球化并不意味着政府削弱经济职能,而 相反地强化了政府在经济活动中的地位与作用。正如日本学者正村公安所说：全球化“与其说削弱了经济性国家主权,还不如说是加强了各国政府的责任,即在充分理解本国经济政策的国际影响的基础上,采取适当手段,有效地先例经济性国家主权”。对中国来说,即将“入世”意味着融入全球化浪潮的步伐加快了,因此,改革行政管理体制,强化政府合理的经济职能,提升良性的政府能力,在经济全球化的激烈竞争中就显得尤为必要和紧迫。     

效率政府建设与我国地方政府绩效管理研究

建设效率政府是我国经济社会发展的必然要求,而目前我国地方政府效率普遍低下,构建合理的地方政府绩效管理体系是建设效率型政府的有效途径。     

地方政府利益、地方政府行为与经济增长

目前,对中国地方政府的经济行为的研究强调了在经济转型过程中地方政府在多样化的地方经济发展模式中的主导作用,注意到了地方政府目标的多重性,本地区社会福利最大化,政府利益最大化以及中央政府的满意程度等。对地方政府在公共产品的提供、就业、收入分配、实现社会公平等方面行为不到位方面的研究是从定性方法来论证。本文试图在定性分析基础上建立一些基本的数学模型为将来的计量研究提供一个模型框架。     

The Mawhood seminar: International perspective on rural local government: Summary and comment

Professor Philip Mawhood of the Development Administrative Group (University of Birmingham) and the Department of Politics (University of Exeter) visited South Africa during March/April 1991. He presented a closing seminar, hosted by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, on 25 April 1991. This review provides a summary of Professor Maw‐hood's presentation, and comment is given on some critical aspects regarding the future of rural authorities and rural local government under a new dispensation in South Africa.     

财政分权与经济增长

理解财政分权在经济增长过程中所起的作用颇为重要。本文采用1953～2003年的时间序列数据,以地方政府财政支出占全部财政支出的比重作为度量财政分权的指标,用实证研究的办法考察财政分权对于中国经济增长的影响。与已有的一些研究结果不同的是,本文的回归结果显示,对经济增长具有显著影响的并不是财政分权的绝对水平,而是财政分权程度的变动。本文依据这一结果分析了财政分权与经济增长的关系。