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| 1 |
ID:
116483
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2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Making use of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique and taking undesirable fiscal phenomena into account, this paper comprehensively quantifies the public finance performance of local governments in China during the course of fiscal decentralization reform. The introduction of undesirable fiscal outcomes into this assessment makes it possible to identify meaningful and informative characteristics of local public finance performance in China. When reforms are first implemented, local public financial performance improves because undesirable fiscal phenomena have not yet become too serious. The tax sharing system reform did not work well in its early stages, and negatively impacted public expenditure efficiency. The reform started to play a substantial role between 2001 and 2005, when local governments experienced better public finance performance. Corresponding to the deterioration of the financial sector in recent years, local public financial performance worsened after 2007. Further reform of the current fiscal and taxation system is necessary in China, to ensure a brighter future for the nation.
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| 2 |
ID:
157298
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| Summary/Abstract |
Why do central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China enjoy rapid development while, overall, the state-owned economy is experiencing a contraction? The extant theories have separately argued that the support of the central government and compliance with market requirements are the driving forces behind the success of central SOEs. However, these theories have neglected the local governments’ role in the expansion of central SOEs. This article contends that variations in provincial fiscal capacity have contributed to the development of central SOEs. If a province has a weak fiscal capacity, local governments welcome central SOEs to merge with their local SOEs. In this way, the local governments can save up the fiscal grants intended for local SOEs and promote local economic development. At the same time, central SOEs gain access to the resources and expand their markets by merging with the local SOEs, thereby strengthening the central SOEs. On the contrary, if a province has a strong fiscal capacity, the local government will invest a large amount of fiscal resources to help its local SOEs survive. As a result, the expansion of central SOEs is hindered in such type of province. This article uses paired comparison of two provinces in China, Zhejiang and Liaoning, to test this hypothesis.
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| 3 |
ID:
139847
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| Summary/Abstract |
How have Chinese migrant workers’ patterns of everyday life changed over the past two decades, and what has not changed? Have their personal and career aspirations shifted over time? What changes have occurred in how they maintain social relationships within and across factories? What are the implications for migrant workers, local governance and factory managements? Based on workers’ letters and ethnographic research in Shenzhen, this article argues that migrant workers encounter very different circumstances today in their housing, food, time scheduling, aspirations and ways of maintaining social relationships. yet young migrant workers still invoke social relationships steeped in links to family and village to cope with daily difficulties. I examine the workers’ greater control over their time, local governments’ growing need to accommodate migrant workers’ requirements in order to maintain social stability, and the increasing pressure on factory managements to consider workers’ work/leisure arrangements, especially during peak industrial seasons.
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| 4 |
ID:
140838
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| Summary/Abstract |
Faced with the rising threat of social instability, the central government in China has launched the rebuilding of social security system since 2002. Local governments, especially city- and county-level governments, are the principal agents implementing this ambitious policy initiative. However, the achievements in establishing social security system vary significantly, even among locales in the same province. In order to identify the factors causing divergence of outcomes, this article compares two similar county-level cities with different social security system performances. Through extensive interviews with key actors, the authors found that the development of local social security system is highly related to the nature of the relationship between local governments and local businesses which is shaped by specific economic development paths. This finding sheds light on the rationale of local governments’ selective implementation of central policies, and why social security systems in some localities but not others may “race to the bottom” in the competition for capital.
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| 5 |
ID:
192629
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| Summary/Abstract |
How can China develop so quickly and yet maintain stability? Most scholars pinpoint the efforts of China's local government leaders as a primary factor. Regarding what motivates these leaders, however, scholars display wide disagreement. The widely accepted “promotion tournament” hypothesis stresses competition among local leaders as the driving force, but empirical test results vary considerably and create controversy. We argue that tests of promotion competition should target leadership behaviour rather than institutional inducements; the latter are, at best, a necessary condition of the former. Informed by extensive fieldwork, this study proposes an alternative and more direct approach to verifying the promotion tournament hypothesis by examining the impacts of promotion competition on leaders’ performance efforts. Our test results show, however, that competition for promotion has no significant impact on local leaders’ behaviour, thereby indicating that the promotion tournament hypothesis cannot be the primary explanation for China's economic achievements and regime resilience. In so doing, our study illuminates the oversimplified assumptions behind a prevailing proposition in Chinese politics and offers empirically informed insights into the tensions between political institutions and leadership behaviour.
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| 6 |
ID:
147539
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study examines the use and spending effects of land-transfer revenues in Chinese local governments. It tests the effects of such revenues on local revenue and expenditure structures using city-level budgetary data, and also the effects on the performance of public spending on economic and social development to indirectly estimate the actual spending preferences of local governments in terms of their “total” (both on- and off-budget) spending. The author found that land finance is more of an eastern phenomenon; and most cities in China still rely on budgetary revenues and intergovernmental transfers. Land-transfer revenues tend to be used to support local economic development rather than social development.
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| 7 |
ID:
094483
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| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Almost no attention has been given to the expanding governmental diversity in participants in global governance that has been stimulated by the impact of technological change on the global range of human activities. The global reach of parliamentarians of States has roots in formation of the International Parliamentarian Union in 1889, and that of local governments in founding of the International Union of Local Authorities in 1913. This article first provides a brief overview of the inter-State organizations developed by each, with emphasis on those global in scope. This is followed by a brief overview of their present involvement in the United Nations system. When considering the possible future involvement of these two actors in global governance, the creation of both a Parliamentary Assembly and a Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in the forty-seven member Council of Europe merits serious attention. A widely shared goal of both inter-State organizations of parliamentarians and local governments is strengthening local self-government and local influence on global governance.
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| 8 |
ID:
161407
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| Summary/Abstract |
Through interviews and comparison of practices in two Chinese cities, this article argues that local governments are forced to shift some of their excessive responsibilities to new actors. This produces a limited kind of pluralism: government organizations remain in charge of community governance.
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| 9 |
ID:
120725
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2013.
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As Muslim communities reassert themselves in public life across the world, including Central Asia, their actions are causing tension in relations with 'secular' governments. Various global theories have been offered to explain these dynamics. According to one theory, tension between religious communities and secular states is caused by the exclusion or marginalization of Muslims, a process exacerbated by the perceived anti-Muslim bias in the foreign- and domestic-security policies of Central Asian states. A second view is that tension results from the work of global extremist groups espousing the restoration of an Islamic Caliphate. The third approach presents the rising tension as part of a broader trend: a putative clash of Western and Muslim civilizations. This article challenges these theories by using a case study of a Muslim grassroots protest in Kyrgyzstan to highlight the importance of local politics, namely informal arrangements among local officials, power brokers and community members. In so doing, it seeks to make a contribution to theorizing Muslim-state relations in Central Asia.
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| 10 |
ID:
150778
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The article examines the climate action plans (CAPs) of local governments (LGs) in Denmark. Applying a quantitative content analysis approach, all Danish LG action plans within the climate and energy field has been collected and coded, giving insight into the extent of LG CAPs. We assess the extent, targets and scope of LG CAPs and find that Danish LGs are highly involved in mitigation activities with a widespread CAP adoption and an overall high degree of sectoral coverage on base year accounts and action plans, albeit with some significant shortcomings. If current LG CAPs were to form the basis of a decentralised climate governance system, some improvements in target level and sectoral coverage should be implemented. The utilization of regional supporting structures facilitating a gradual improvement seems especially promising. In addition the research points to the significant mitigation potential of considering the full spectrum of local government actors, not simply the pioneers and how local CAPs outside urban pioneers require additional local policy framing to succeed. Focusing on the mutual benefits for national and local actors of an integrated planning system, and the multiple benefits locally, will be key in motivating further action.
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| 11 |
ID:
100294
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| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Today, electronic government is being pursued at both national level (denshi seifu) and local level (denshi jichitai) in Japan. It is therefore useful to examine how local administrations communicate with the public in the Internet age. This paper examines foreign-language provision on local government websites, concentrating on the 47 prefectures. An overview is supplemented by more detailed discussion of several selected websites, looking at aspects such as the languages available, content, target audiences, translation and efforts to make Japanese-language information more accessible to non-native speakers. Local governments increasingly have to take into account the linguistic needs of the growing numbers of foreign residents in their communities. Making provision for foreign residents is, however, not the only reason for local governments to use languages other than Japanese on their websites. Examining these websites in terms of which languages are used and the type of material presented offers insights into broader issues of internationalisation, multiculturalism and globalisation as experienced and managed at local level.
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| 12 |
ID:
118683
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| 13 |
ID:
125596
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the transition towards a low-carbon future in Europe, cities' actions are of major importance due to the prominence of urbanization, both in terms of population and in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a result, we need city authorities to act, by using their competences as policy makers as well as energy users. However, cities are still not moving as fast as one might expect, indicating the need for additional incentives to prompt local action. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present an overview of external incentives that might prompt cities to act and to highlight good practices that could be used in future initiatives.
This paper first discusses how to evaluate the climate and energy performance of a city and how local authorities can contribute to its improvements. Moreover, it analyses the disincentives that local governments are confronted with, categorizing them as simple market failures, institutional failures and multi-agent failures. The paper then presents a survey of initiatives at national and EU levels to promote local action towards a low-carbon future; grouping them into tambourines, carrots and sticks. We focus on Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden because they are pioneering countries regarding energy policies for cities.
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| 14 |
ID:
136066
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study examines the relationship between the fiscal intervention of the government and regional income disparity in 14 major Indian states. The impact of decentralization on the regional disparity of these states is also examined. The findings suggest that both policy measures have reduced the level of regional disparity. This study has also investigated the impacts of policy measures on regional income disparity within the clusters of states of similar income levels. Results suggest that both types of policy interventions have reduced regional disparity in low-income states, whereas only fiscal intervention is found significant in reducing regional disparity in middle-income states. Surprisingly, no relation is found between regional disparity and the policy measures in high-income states.
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| 15 |
ID:
112431
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| 16 |
ID:
178310
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As urbanisation strategies have been adopted throughout China in recent years, it has become increasingly relevant to study their implementation processes in so-called lower-tier cities away from the well-known regions. Urbanisation has given rise to different types of settlements for landless peasants: planned resettlement neighbourhoods, as well as more or less accidentally grown urban villages. While resettlement is widely adopted and positively propagated, urban villages are usually only seen as soon-to-be demolished “non-places” and their residents are often stigmatised. This article focuses on a case in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui autonomous region. It analyses the demolition process of Yingnan village and its lead-up and finds that despite this general discursive framework, exposure on a local TV show and low scores on a national “civilised cities” ranking pressured the local government to not ignore Yingnan village as merely a “non-place” but to invest in better sanitary conditions and speed up redevelopment.
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| 17 |
ID:
139849
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Despite the government’s decades-long enforcement efforts, violations of land laws and regulations remain a serious problem in China. Local governments have often been blamed. This article identifies a previously overlooked reason for large-scale violations, by examining the enforcement behavior of the central government. It argues that the government enforces land regulations selectively, depending on the violators’ political status. The article focuses on the national policy prohibiting new golf course construction, finding that golf course developers connected with high-level political élites are more likely to violate the prohibition and survive subsequent enforcement actions by the central government. This finding contributes to the literature on regulatory enforcement in authoritarian regimes and has broad implications for reforms in China.
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