Suchergebnisse

Local government practices in Thailand have become more participatory or governance-oriented since the promulgation of the Constitution of 1997 & the Decentralization Plan & Process Act of 1999. Several local governments have applied modern concepts of New Public Management & participatory approaches in performing their tasks. This article aims to describe & analyze local administrative initiatives to increase participation in recent years. Six case studies are discussed to identify the factors that drove the local government initiatives & how local governments responded to such factors. Lessons learned from the case studies are also discussed. 2 Figures, 28 References. Adapted from the source document.

Tools of direct democracy, such as the citizen initiative, are available at both the state and local levels in the United States, yet models of the process typically do not consider these institutions in tandem. In this article, I develop a model of local fiscal policy that incorporates the impact of a statewide as well as a local initiative process. I posit that the statewide initiative process leads to lower levels of state spending, additional spending mandates on the local level, and reduced deadweight costs of taxation, with these three factors leading to an increase in local spending. I then show that the ability of interest groups to secure particularistic spending through the local initiative has a similarly pro-spending impact. Subsequently, I explore data from the year 2000 in over 600 cities with a population greater than 25,000 and find that the spending-enhancing effects of the local initiative are strong when signature requirements are low, leading to a 12--14 percent increase in spending compared to local governments without such an initiative process in place. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

FOOD SECURITY MUST BE BUILT AND MAINTAINED ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF RURAL COMMUNITIES LED BY THE GENIUS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES -- THE WORLD'S FIRST FARMERS -- UNLIKE WHAT THE RHETORIC OF THE WORLD FOOD SUMMIT OF NOVEMBER 1996 BELIEVES WILL HELP. THE TRAGEDY IS THAT THESE FARMERS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES ARE DISAPPEARING. ONE OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS IN "THE LAW OF THE SEED" WAS TO ENCOURAGE A SEED CONSERVATION STRATEGY SUPPORTED BY FARMER-CURATORS. IT WAS THOUGHT TO BE A NEW IDEA BACK IN 1983, BUT IT ORIGINATED IN CHINA 12,000 YEARS AGO. THE REVIVAL OF THE IDEA IN 1983 WAS, PERHAPS, A GENERATION TOO LATE. WHAT IS TAKING PLACE IS A KIND OF GENIUS-CIDE THAT THE WORLD MAY NOT SURVIVE.

"A National Clearinghouse for Improving the Management of Human Services". ; Bibliography: p. 55-60. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government policy documents. On the basis of a series of interviews with government officials and their counterparts in the Welsh Local Government Association we find evidence of important tensions in the Welsh approach. While the emphasis on the citizen has worked in building a 'political rationality', the evidence from our interviews suggests that it works less well as a 'government technology'. Adapted from the source document.

Tools of direct democracy, such as the citizen initiative, are available at both the state and local levels in the United States, yet models of the process typically do not consider these institutions in tandem. In this article, I develop a model of local fiscal policy that incorporates the impact of a statewide as well as a local initiative process. I posit that the statewide initiative process leads to lower levels of state spending, additional spending mandates on the local level, and reduced deadweight costs of taxation, with these three factors leading to an increase in local spending. I then show that the ability of interest groups to secure particularistic spending through the local initiative has a similarly pro-spending impact. Subsequently, I explore data from the year 2000 in over 600 cities with a population greater than 25,000 and find that the spending-enhancing effects of the local initiative are strong when signature requirements are low, leading to a 12—14 percent increase in spending compared to local governments without such an initiative process in place.

Sustainable economic growth and social development is greatly influenced by the gender setting of a society. This understanding created the idea of gender budgeting as a tool for ensuring equitable resource allocation. This case study is based on the experience of engendering development plans using gender budget principles, by a Local Self-Government Institution in India in a rural setting. The special context of gender mainstreaming in decentralization and in local planning in the state of Kerala makes it conducive to such a process. The paradoxical situation in Kerala of higher developmental indices of women's development co-existing with lower social agency and autonomy for women has been a central debate for years. This exercise brings a shift in approach by putting women's economic development, safety, mobility and their right to protect themselves at the central concerns of planning for development.