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Facing the reality of groups in Europe being in effect socially and politically marginalized, this article asks how the political inclusion of minorities is and should be established at the local level. First, a model is developed building on normative theories of political inclusion. This points to the importance of two dimensions of inclusion and exclusion, namely the possibility of direct participation and the granting of (special) rights to minorities. In order to test the relevance of the model data based on a survey among approximately 5000 members of the local élite in East and West European countries are analysed. The conclusion is that most local officials in East and Western Europe are remarkably unwilling to allow for special participatory arrangements or special rights. A difference between the old and new democracies in Europe as to the propensities towards possible democratic arrangements is revealed. In the old democracies, local élites are more positive as to general participatory arrangements, whereas the élites in the new democracies are more inclined to grant minorities the right to organize and institutionalize. Further analysis indicates that the differences found cannot be explained in terms of individual traits. Moral and cultural values and structural circumstances seem to be dominant factors. The relative stability of such factors suggests that we cannot be optimistic about the development of more inclusive arrangements on behalf of those that now seem to be systematically excluded.

PurposeWhile there is an urgent need for clean water in Ghana and Nigeria, governments lack the financial means to do much to address this need. This does not mean that improving access to clean water is impossible. On the contrary, this paper argued that engaging citizens through co-production, as is already being done in developed countries in the fields of care-giving, waste management, healthcare and community policing, could provide a successful strategy. The purpose of this paper is to examine how public water facilities are being managed to improve and sustain access to clean water for domestic use in rural areas in Ghana and Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachA survey interview with households and in-depth interviews with water professionals were conducted in Ghana and Nigeria to help the authors understand the practicalities of the co-production of clean water and how this is improving and maintaining access to clean water sources. The paper draws on a philosophical framework of "deep" citizen engagement to describe the merits of co-production and how it works in practice in developing countries.FindingsBased on the interviews with officials and surveys among the population of rural areas in the two countries studied, the authors found that the two countries vary significantly in their approach to water management decisions and the extent to which citizens are involved. Ghana's approach seems much more successful than Nigeria when it comes to maintaining boreholes for water supply with the help of the population. In Nigeria, three-quarters of the public water facilities are non-functional, while in Ghana, community involvement in maintaining public water facilities has resulted in the sustained use of boreholes and eliminated the lack of access to clean water in many communities.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the practical understanding of co-production in developing countries and the potential of such co-production in improving clean water access. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous scientific research has studied how co-production can improve and sustain access specifically to clean water sources in developing countries, and this paper aimed to fill this gap.

Résumé Depuis 20 ans, la décentralisation est proposée en tant que moyen de renforcer la participation du public. Les organismes donateurs, tels que la Banque mondiale, ont encouragé les processus de décentralisation dans plusieurs pays dans l'espoir que cette démarche favorise l'autonomie des citoyens, réduise la corruption et améliore l'efficacité ainsi que la prestation de service public. Cette hypothèse est à la base d'une analyse comparative du rapport qui existe entre décentralisation et participation au niveau local au Brésil, au Japon, en Russie et en Suède. Nous avons réalisé une analyse de régression à plusieurs niveaux au moyen des données issues du projet « Democracy and Local Governnance » afin de vérifier les hypothèses de l'« universalité » (ou « one size fits all ») et de la « diversité dans le développement » (« diversity in development »). Les résultats confirment la seconde hypothèse. L'autonomie perçue a des conséquences variables sur l'ouverture à la participation selon le pays examiné ; dans un pays (le Japon), l'autonomie perçue a eu une influence négative sur la disposition des fonctionnaires à s'ouvrir à la participation du public. Remarques à l'intention des praticiens Dans le présent article, nous présentons des données empiriques qui réfutent l'idée répandue selon laquelle les processus de décentralisation produisent des résultats souhaités similaires indépendamment du pays concerné. Cette idée a été diffusée dans de nombreuses publications destinées aux décideurs des pays en développement, notamment celles produites par les organisations multilatérales, en particulier la Banque mondiale. Cet article a pour but de mettre en garde les praticiens que les organismes donateurs encouragent à mettre en œuvre des processus de décentralisation. Lorsque les caractéristiques du contexte concerné et les facteurs politiques à l'origine du processus ne sont pas dûment pris en compte, la décentralisation peut produire des résultats extrêmement différents des résultats attendus au départ.

AbstractTransparency is increasingly a general norm for government conduct, but it is not considered desirable in all situations. Leaking confidential information is a salient example of this. Leaking namely has a very negative connotation: it is associated with egotism, harmfulness and prosecution. Despite its impact, hardly any empirical research has been conducted to test these assumptions. We seek to redress the negative bias by discussing three sources of empirical material. Our discussion leads us to conclude that some officials leak for unvirtuous reasons but that many are actually driven by public interest. Leaking appears to occur quite often and within more or less stable networks of journalists and public officials. Leakers mainly prove to be higher ranked officials and politicians, rather than frustrated lower ranked officials. This indicates that generally too much is held secret. Increasing transparency may be a good measure to reduce leaking, because it removes the breeding ground for leaks. This would imply the need for a new definition of leaking that offers a clearer pretext for moral judgement of leaks. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In the past 20 years, decentralization has been proposed as a strategy for enhancing public participation. Aid-providing organizations, such as the World Bank, stimulated decentralization processes in several countries in the hope that this would promote civic empowerment, diminish corruption, enhance efficiency, and improve public service delivery. This assumption forms the basis for a comparative analysis into the relation between decentralization and participation at the local level in Brazil, Japan, Russia and Sweden. A multi-level regression analysis using the data of the Democracy and Local Governance Project was undertaken in order to test the `one size fits all' and the `diversity in development' hypotheses. The results show that the second hypothesis was corroborated. Perceived autonomy had a different impact on openness to participation depending on the country considered; in one country (Japan), perceived autonomy diminished public officials' willingness to be open to public participation.

Intro -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Chapter 1: The Diffusion of Participatory Budgeting: An Introduction to this Volume-With an Intermezzo by Tarso Genro, the Mayor of Porto Alegre Between 1992 and 1996 -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Reversing the Main and Side-Effects -- 1.3 Back to Basics: The Substance of Participatory Budgeting -- References -- Chapter 2: Participatory Budgeting in Germany: Increasing Transparency in Times of Fiscal Stress -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Institutional Background and Diffusion of Participatory Budgeting Processes in Germany -- 2.3 The Design of Participatory Budgeting Processes in Germany -- 2.4 Evaluation of Participatory Budgeting Processes in Germany -- 2.5 Summary and Outlook -- References -- Chapter 3: Participatory Budgeting in Italy: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Evolutionary Profiles of Participatory Governance in Italy -- 3.3 Participatory Budgeting in Italy in 2015-2020 -- 3.3.1 Research Method -- 3.3.2 Findings Concerning Diffusion -- 3.3.3 Findings Concerning the Background -- 3.3.4 Findings Concerning the Contents and the Processes -- 3.3.5 Findings Concerning the Outcomes -- 3.4 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 4: Participatory Budgeting in Sweden -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 The Swedish Model -- 4.3 About the Participatory Budgeting in Sweden -- 4.3.1 The Origin of Participatory Budgeting -- 4.3.2 The Pilot Projects of PB in Sweden -- 4.3.3 Amounts of Money for Participatory Budgeting in the Frame of Total Municipal Budget -- 4.3.4 Participatory Budgeting Policy Area and Opportunities for Repetition -- 4.4 Citizens Participation -- 4.4.1 The Rules of Participation in Participatory Budgeting -- 4.4.2 Selection of PB Project and Citizen Participation in Voting -- 4.5 Organization and Administration of Participatory Budgeting.

CC BY-NC-ND ; This article argues that policy development and evaluations should not only in-corporate whether and to what extent the policies achieve the intended goals, but should also take the unintended consequences of the policies into account. Based on the classic work of the sociologist Robert Merton, this article addresses the side-effects of attempts that have been made by the Lithuanian national government to improve on the governance of basic and high-schools. The intended goals of the policies concerned the increase of autonomy of school governance through the decentralization of responsibilities; increasing autonomy of and control over school governance; increasing market-driven governance, inducing competition and collaboration between schools, and altering the relation between service providers and recipients.

The paper investigates whether generalized trust in government varies among ethnic groups in a society. Theories on trust predominantly explain such institutional trust by the capabilities and intentions of the trusted actors and research into trust is mostly done at the individual level measuring whether individual characteristics of the trustee and trusted one have explanatory power. Meanwhile this paper analyzes the institutional trust at the macro (country) level. Based on a comparative study among 29 countries, this paper argues that there are significant differences between ethnic groups regarding their trust in the country's government and that significant effects are visible with the country's income inequality and one of Hofstede's dimensions of national culture, namely 'power distance'. This is an important finding as it calls for multilevel analyses when explaining institutional trust. Trust is not only dependent on individual characteristics of the trusted one and the trustee, but also on macro-level variables.