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Why and how often do authorities remunicipalise urban public transport? The case of France Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Christian Desmaris, Didier Van de Velde
For decades, public transport services in most French towns and cities have been provided on a delegated management basis, by subcontracting to private parties, using calls for tender as a selectio...
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Digital co-creation in urban mobility planning: what motivates people to participate? Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Marie Kluge, Jannis Kachel, Michèle Knodt
Efforts to enhance urban mobility sustainability face opposition, necessitating citizen acceptance and participation. This study explores the determinants of willingness to engage in digital co-cre...
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Correction Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2024-02-06
Published in Local Government Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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The impact of public discourse on local representatives’ amalgamation preferences Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2024-01-14 Thomas Margel Myksvoll, Troy Saghaug Broderstad
Municipal amalgamation reforms have taken place across democratic regimes since the 1960s. While much focus has been devoted to such reforms’ causes and effects, less attention has been on public d...
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The contested politics of de-privatisation and the shifting terrain of the local state: the case of the Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2024-01-07 Franziska Christina Paul
The trend towards de-privatisation has reshaped the role of local governments and their delivery of public services across the world. Local de-privatisation encompasses the twin processes of remuni...
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Party politics and the effectiveness of local climate change policy frameworks: green influence from the sidelines Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-12-09 Liam Clegg
Are national-level party political drivers of climate change performance reproduced locally? Here, I explore whether Greens’ ability to influence climate commitment nationally via legislative prese...
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Access to basic infrastructure services in Ghanaian local government: a contextual approach Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Rhys Andrews, Malcolm J. Beynon, Frank Baafi
This study aims to empirically examine whether alternative combinations of economic and institutional conditions influence access to sanitation, drinking water and electricity services in Ghana usi...
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Avoiding a natural resource curse? The impact of administrative efficiency on Colombian municipalities’ fiscal effort Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Maria Antonieta Collazos-Ortiz, Arjan H. Schakel
The term ‘paradox of the plenty’ was coined to describe an often-found inverse relationship between royalty revenue and economic development. The main causal mechanism is thought to be a substituti...
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From an alternative to a dominant form of local political actors? Independent candidates in the Czech local elections in 2010–2018 Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Tomas Kostelecky, Josef Bernard, Zdenka Mansfeldova, Renata Mikesova
This article aims to contribute to the debate on the rise of independents in local politics and the underlying factors driving this trend in Europe by investigating the situation in Czechia, a post...
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Using social media for supporting engagement in the public sector: a systematic literature review Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-11-29 Marco Contri, Silvia Fissi, Elena Gori
Citizen engagement in all public activities is the hallmark of any democracy, as it contributes to increasing public accountability, strengthening the legitimacy of political processes and thus enh...
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Proceed with caution: US local governments and the American Rescue Plan Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-11-27 Mildred E. Warner, Paige M. Kelly
Will a legacy of fiscal stress limit local governments’ willingness to make equity-focused investments even in the context of the relative surplus that American Rescue Plan funds provide for local ...
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Monitoring costs in local service provision. Comparing contract forms in Poland Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Katarzyna Szmigiel-Rawska
This paper adopts a transaction costs (TCs) approach towards analysing the transactions of local governments in the service sector. The objective of the paper is to expand the analysis of the TCs c...
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Jacks of all trades, masters of none? Multiple-mandate holding and trust in local government Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-11-16 Fredrik Malmberg, Thomas Karv
Multiple-mandate holding, i.e., the holding of more than one directly elected mandate simultaneously on different government tiers, is a controversial practice with potential consequences on politi...
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The relationship between market capacity and local governments’ choice of voucher model Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-10-19 Søren Kjær Foged, Kurt Houlberg, Jacob Ladenburg, Jeppe Elholm Madsen
Local governments mandated with establishing a voucher market can have multiple options for the specific type of voucher model they choose. What determines the local choice of voucher model in such...
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Political fragmentation and “The purple zone”: how party fragmentation affects political–administrative relations Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-10-02 Dag Ingvar Jacobsen
A good cooperative relationship between politics and administration is essential to good governance and efficient decision making in public organisations. This study of the cooperative relationship...
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Introduction to the special issue: facilitating citizen engagement in interactive governance Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-09-28 Laurence Bherer, Imrat Verhoeven
This is an introduction to the special issue on facilitating citizen engagement in interactive governance. In this special issue, we focus on facilitators: the professionals that support and organi...
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Determinants of internal migration to smaller cities: local public goods, job opportunities, and lifecycle stages Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-09-28 Hemin Choi
People moving from smaller to larger cities often do so in search of better economic opportunities. But what motivates migration from larger to smaller cities, which are acknowledged to offer fewer...
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Horizontal and vertical interactions in local fiscal slack: a spatial analysis of local governments in New York state Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-09-22 Jongmin Shon, Sunjoo Kwak
With the recurring economic crises, the literature on fiscal savings behaviour has expanded its scope from state governments relying on budget stabilisation or rain-day funds to local governments m...
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Remunicipalization of water services in France and inter-municipal cooperation: who’s at the helm? Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-08-24 Alexandre Mayol, Stéphane Saussier
ABSTRACT In this paper, we address the remunicipalization question from a novel perspective: by looking at ”who is at the helm”. Using a comprehensive panel dataset covering the complete universe of French drinking water services from 2009 to 2021, we show that the type of local governments in charge of supervising water services (inter-municipal cooperation or not) influences the decision to remunicipalize
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The connotation, cause, and reform path of institutional transaction costs: a grounded theory analysis Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-07-26 Zhaoteng Zeng, Xiao Yu
ABSTRACT Institutional transaction costs profoundly reflect the relationship between the government and the market, and play an important role in the economic development of a country or region. This study uses grounded theory to explore its theoretical connotation and essential reasons, confirms the core elements from the three dimensions of subject, behaviour and environment, and then builds its
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The gendered nature of ethnic minority candidate nomination: An analysis of the moderating role of district diversity, party affiliation and ethnic minorities’ visibility Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-07-23 Sigrid Van Trappen, Robin Devroe, Bram Wauters
ABSTRACT This paper investigates when party selectors prefer ethnic minority female over male candidates on their lists. We argue that the two competing strategies parties can follow (gaining the ethnic vote (‘ethnic community’ argument) versus not scaring ethnic majority voters (‘deterrence’ argument)) are dependent upon party ideology, district diversity and ethnic minorities’ visibility. Focusing
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An institutional and transaction cost analysis for the efficiency of water service in Brazilian local government consortia Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-07-09 Hugo Consciência Silvestre, Rui Cunha Marques, Brian Dollery, Aldenisio Moraes Correia
ABSTRACT In this paper, we seek to break new ground by empirically investigating the relationship between cooperating entities, local government institutions and transaction costs and its effect on cost efficiency for water services through consortia in Brazilian local government. Drawing on an institutional and transaction cost framework, our results show that the institutional arrangements employed
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From online trolls to ‘Slut Shaming’: understanding the role of incivility and gender abuse in local government Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-06-30 Andrea Carson, Gosia Mikolajczak, Leah Ruppanner, Emily Foley
ABSTRACT Fair political representation is an important goal of democratic governments, yet Australia lags behind many democracies in women’s representation in elected politics. Attacks against women in public spaces through harassment and verbal abuse have long constrained women’s ease in physical spaces and, in the digital age, this has extended into online spheres. This paper examines the impact
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Local civil society organisations’ appreciation of different local policy decision-making instruments Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-06-29 Liese Berkvens, A. Roets, T. Haesevoets, B. Verschuere
ABSTRACT In societies with a neo-corporatist tradition, organised interests like civil society organisations (CSOs) are largely embedded in the policy-making process. However, as (local) governments increasingly experiment with new forms of democratic innovation, this challenges the traditionally privileged position of CSOs in the policy-making process. We investigate the attitudes of local CSOs towards
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Facilitating citizen participation in marginalised neighbourhoods: selective empowerment in between vulnerability and active citizenship Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-05-31 Simone van de Wetering
ABSTRACT Residents of marginalised neighbourhoods have long been governed as a vulnerable group in need of help. Increasingly, however, they are expected to be active citizens and (co-)creators in improving their neighbourhood. While much is written about the shift towards more participatory governance, less is known about how this shift manifests in the work practice of urban professionals, particularly
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Miles’ law in Finnish municipalities: where decision-makers stand depends on where they sit Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-05-27 Linnéa Henriksson, Henrik Serup Christensen
ABSTRACT Miles’ Law, i.e., the notion that institutional position affects attitudes, is considered a truism, but not much attention has been given to properly test or develop it. Here, we argue that Miles’ Law is effective not only for civil servants but among municipal decision-makers in different positions. We examine how well institutional position can explain differences in attitudes to welfare
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Effects of intergovernmental revenue on local government draw on fiscal reserves: evidence from COVID-19 fiscal stress Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-05-23 Stephen Kwamena Aikins
This study investigates the effects of receipt and anticipation of intergovernmental revenues on local governments draw on accumulated fiscal reserves to cushion the impacts of COVID-19-related fis...
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Is a powerful but corrupt public manager more trustworthy? Lessons from the case of rural local government in Bangladesh Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-05-11 Md Shahriar Islam, Abu Hossain Muhammad Ahsan, Rifat Mahmud
ABSTRACT A survey experiment was conducted at the Union Council level in Bangladesh to gauge if citizens emphasise the power of the public manager (popularly known as Chairman of the Union Council) more than their corrupt practices. The analysis gauges that perspective based on citizens’ perception of public managers’ trustworthiness at the local level. The chronic absence of empirical research on
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The impact of the central government’s intervention on local democracy Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-05-10 Itai Beeri
ABSTRACT Does the central government’s intervention in the operation of failed local authorities affect the functioning of local democracy? We examined the theoretical and practical factors associated with the opportunities and risks inherent in an intervention policy in Israel called convened committees. We developed an index called the Effective Number of Council Parties by Seats at the Municipal
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Costs and outcomes of collaborative relationships: interlocal collaboration effects on green job creation in Florida Metropolitan Areas Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-05-05 Chang-Gyu Kwak, Richard Feiock
ABSTRACT This study investigates how the costs of different network structures influence the effectiveness of collaborations in achieving their desired outcomes. Building from the ICA framework, an explanation is advanced for how the performance of collaborative arrangements is influenced by costs imposed on participating actors that result from the structure of the network and the actors positions
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Politicisation at the local political level within representative and participative institutions: the example of a poor Montreal borough Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-04-24 Caroline Patsias, Sylvie Patsias
ABSTRACT The majority of studies on local politics and politicisation have focused on the study of electoral participation, political parties or civil society. The qualitative dimension of politicisation within local institutions has thus been overlooked. This research addresses this dimension by comparing how citizens politically discuss the world in a representative and a participative institution
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The influence of organisational and staff characteristics on local governments’ efficiency: the case of Mexican municipalities Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-04-17 Alejandro Salazar-Adams
ABSTRACT Administrative capacity depends on organisational and human factors that can enhance or diminish the performance of local governments. To analyse the effect of these factors, efficiency scores of municipal governments were calculated and regressed against organisational and staff characteristics, using double bootstrap data envelopment analysis, on a sample of 1470 Mexican municipalities.
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The Europeanisation of gender equality at the municipal level: insights from the Republic of Cyprus Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-04-05 Andreas Kirlappos
The Republic of Cyprus is a small EU member state, whose domestic structures replicate a durable tradition of centralisation, limiting the overall role of local government. This work employs the ve...
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Unlocking politicians’ potential: what fosters purposeful use of performance information in support of voice? Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-04-04 Sebastian Desmidt, Kenn Meyfroodt
Pivotal for decision making quality in representative governing boards of local authorities is that performance information is used in a purposeful way by its members to challenge the status quo an...
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Facilitators as culture change workers: advancing public participation and deliberation in local governance Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-04-04 Claire Bynner, Oliver Escobar, Sarah Weakley
Practitioners who facilitate public participation in governance operate at the interface of three policy agendas: public service reform, social justice and democratic innovation. Scotland offers a ...
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Commercial investment in public–private partnerships: the impact of government characteristics Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-04-03 Huanming Wang, Xiaoyun Sun, Yu Shi
How to attract commercial investment to provide infrastructure and public service is an important issue for governments around the world. This paper investigated what government characteristics can...
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The competing impact of network politics and hamula (clan) politics on perceived network performance: the case of minority networks Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-03-23 Ashwaq Mondey, Itai Beeri
Studies of network governance have found that network management contributes to the effective performance of the network. Nevertheless, the influence of politics on the relationship between network...
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Fiscal impacts of electoral abstention: a study on the electorate biometric update in Brazilian municipalities Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-03-09 Giulia Giraldi Rocha Coelho, Henrique Augusto Campos Fernandez Hott, Sergio Naruhiko Sakurai
Because electoral abstention may generate a difference between the preferences of general voters, i.e., those who are eligible to vote, and the preferences of effective voters, i.e., those who do v...
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Are newcomers financially responsible? Evidence from close elections in Brazilian Municipalities Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-03-07 Henrique Augusto Campos Fernandez Hott, Naercio Menezes-Filho
This paper examines how mayors’ political experience impacts fiscal outcomes. Using a regression discontinuity design in highly-contested elections in Brazilian municipalities, we estimate the diff...
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Empowering local citizens: assessing the inclusiveness of a digital democratic innovation for co-creating a Voting Advice Application Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-03-05 Giada Gianola, Dominik Wyss, André Bächtiger, Marlène Gerber
Increasing citizen dissatisfaction with democracy leads governments and municipalities across the globe to seek new ways of including and empowering citizens. Little is known about whether ‘Digital...
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Scrutinising council scrutiny: from theoretical black box to analytical toolbox1 Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-03-03 Tom Verhelst, Klaartje Peters
Despite their vast relevance to democracy, scholars have paid little systematic attention to the scrutiny function of local councils. To stimulate such research, this study theorises the concept of...
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Governing cities: politics and policy Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-02-26 Jason Lowther
Published in Local Government Studies (Vol. 49, No. 2, 2023)
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How cities can transform democracy Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-02-26 Jonathan Davies
Published in Local Government Studies (Vol. 49, No. 2, 2023)
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Local government officers, pragmatism and creativity during austerity – the case of Urban Green Newcastle Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-02-26 Siobhan Daly, Rachael Chapman, Andreja Pegan
In the UK, during austerity local governments face pressures to identify transformative financial solutions to parks provision and to protect parks as public spaces. Yet, how local government offic...
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The limits of framing effects: citizen perceptions of councilor compensation Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-02-07 Amanda Rutherford, Cullen C. Merritt
Existing research provides evidence that the framing of information can substantively alter how citizens perceive institutions of government and a range of policy issues. While prior work acknowled...
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Local politicians’ perceptions of financial conditions – do they align with financial indicators? Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Pierre Donatella, David Karlsson
Throughout history, critics of democracy have doubted people’s ability to govern themselves. For example, are local politicians – who often lack any formal training in accounting or economics – re...
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The politics of third actors: strategies used by public participation professionals in their interactions with public forum sponsors Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-02-03 Laurence Bherer
Public participation professionals (PPPs) are individuals hired to design, implement, and facilitate participatory forums. Since PPPs are seen as third actors who ensure that dialogue between spons...
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Kittens are Evil II: little heresies in public policy Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-02-01 David Adams
Published in Local Government Studies (Vol. 49, No. 1, 2023)
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When cities lobby: how local governments compete for power in state politics Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-01-31 Niva Golan-Nadir
Published in Local Government Studies (Vol. 49, No. 1, 2023)
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Municipal entrepreneurialism: exploring new fiscal levers for small municipalities Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-01-23 Laura Ryser, Greg Halseth, Sean Markey
Municipal reform has accelerated since the 1980s, with municipalities learning to adjust to changes in responsibilities downloaded by senior governments. However, small municipalities struggle with...
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COVID-19 pandemic and local executive-opposition institutional relations: a survey analysis Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-01-18 Luís de Sousa, Cláudia S. Costa, Filipe Grilo
Local governments were on the front line in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also had to rethink their action mode and carry out a swift digital transition. These changes affected the perf...
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Pragmatic Municipalism: Privatization and Remunicipalisation in the US Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2023-01-04 Mildred E. Warner
ABSTRACT At the local government level in the US, the process of privatisation has been a dynamic one of experimentation with market delivery and return to public delivery when privatisation fails to deliver. National survey data show what drives this experimentation are pragmatic concerns with service cost and quality. Service and market characteristics, local government capacity and regulatory framework
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Bottom-up innovation adoption of green public procurement in the United States Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-12-28 Ana-Maria Dimand, Shaoming Cheng
Climate change and its outcomes are complex issues facing communities worldwide. Among policy options to address such issues, existing scholarship focuses mainly on regulatory policies. An innovati...
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The text complexity of local government annual reports Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-11-30 Philip T. Roundy, John M. Trussel, Stephan A. Davenport
This study explores the factors that contribute to the text complexity of local government communication and whether text complexity varies with governments’ financial performance. We first identi...
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Environmental inter-local collaboration under meta-governance: the trade-off between collective and selective benefits Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-11-22 Puyao Xing, Hua Xing
This study investigates how local decision-makers influence the impact of high-level government meta-governance tools on environmental inter-local collaboration when the collective benefits of int...
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Dog fouling and potholes: understanding the role of coproducing ‘citizen sensors’ in local governance Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-10-18 Peter Matthews, Alex Parsons, Elvis Nyanzu, Alasdair Rae
Local governments around the world are increasingly coproducing services with citizens, commonly as a response to austerity. A common approach is to use ‘citizen sensors’, relying on citizens to re...
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The career paths of the chief administrative officers of U.S. cities: a survey of city managers and content analysis of how they discuss their careers Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-10-08 William Hatcher, Beth Rauhaus, Wesley L. Meares
We expand the research on the career paths of the chief administrative officers managing cities of all sizes in the United States (U.S.) by surveying the chief administrative officers working in th...
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Scrutiny and policymaking in local councils: how parties use council tools Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-10-02 Simon Otjes, Marijn Nagtzaam, Rick van Well
In recent years, political scientists have gained greater understanding of how national parliamentary parties use their parliamentary tools: that is under what conditions they submit parliamentary ...
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Australian adaptation of UK dealmaking: towards state rescaling? Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-09-16 Madeleine Pill, Nicole Gurran
Place-based funding deals are inter-governmental contracts focused on boosting economic growth and productivity. Informed by policy adaptation scholarship, we compare the policy and practice of Cit...
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Factors affecting relief aid policy of local governments – electoral competitiveness, fiscal capacity, and severity of crisis Local Government Studies (IF 2.059) Pub Date : 2022-09-04 Seungwon Yu, Suhee Kim, Yeonwoo Sim
We examined the effects of three factors on whether and how local governments provide relief aid to their citizens in the context of the COVID-19 crisis: the demand side (electoral competitiveness)...