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Reasons for continued popularity of participatory approaches to international development are investigated using samples of cognate participatory processes in Tanzania. Different modes of participatory planning have been applied to donor funded local government projects. How participation works as a boundary object that facilitated alignment among diverse stakeholders is described.

The phenomenon called the isomorphism of local development policy is tendencey of local governments to develop and impose similar or identical economic policies. This tendency partly results from the similar pressure the local governments receive from the central government. The four other mechanisms which cause this isomorphism are discussed using the case of the national development zones in Jiangsu, China.

This paper focuses on the issues and tensions in the integration of regional strategy processes in Yorkshire and Humber, United Kingdom in the wider context of regional devolution. The effectivity of coordination between devolved regions and UK-level matters is also examined.

Local governments in Australia are constantly seeking to raise additional revenue to fund higher service demands. One key revenue source is service fees and charges, including fines. Premised on the notion of user pays, service fees and charges represent a significant proportion of total revenue for many local governments, especially in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania. This exploratory essay addresses a number of key issues related to this revenue source in order to stimulate discussion and debate on matters which are presently under-examined in the literature. The article examines the philosophy underpinning price setting, the identification of the principles of price setting, the adoption of applicable price setting models, the need to adhere to National Competition Policy and also the applicability of differential pricing of service delivery within local government. Calls for more open approaches and enhanced disclosure relating to service provision and pricing are made.

This research note examines the conditions under which large U.S. cities pass living wage laws. It updates the only published article on the subject with new data and improved analytic methods. First, it shows that poverty, privatization, and the density of community organizations are associated with policy passage. Second, it provides new quantitative evidence that the living wage movement is, in part, a diffusion process associated with national community-organizing networks. Keywords: living wage; diffusion; local government

Economic equalization policies followed by regional governments and tax regulations associated with these policies are analyzed.

The recipients of federal funding have to provide access to their programs and services to limited English proficient (LEP) individuals. The methods of effective implementation of language assistance policies are discussed

There is limited recent research on the strategies that rural local governments are employing in the face of changing intergovernmental relationships, especially in relation to local economic development. This paper draws on data from a survey of local governments in the Ohio River Valley Region that includes a mix of localities on the urban-rural continuum, to empirically address three issues. First, we examined the extent to which county governments have undertaken local economic development initiatives as well as other, extra-economic activities designed to improve community well-being. Second, we assessed the extent to which rural county governments vary from urban counties in their activities and available resources. Finally, we employed logistic regression models of factors associated with use of development strategies to determine the relationship between rurality and local development policy activities. The results show that rural counties are less likely than urban counties to undertake various economic development activities, with observed urban-rural differences largely attributable to county socioeconomic disadvantages, such as poverty and education.

An overview is presented on regional tourism and destination marketing, using a comparison between Rotorua and Wellington as an example. The example demonstrates the influence an individual entrepreneur can have over local projects, and the importance of community-driven principles and goals in local development.

An analysis of the Urban Management Programme (UMP) focuses on its development and the important lessons that can be learned from such initiative. Despite efforts undertaken to ensure its success, the UMP was not able to fully realize the benefits expected from it particularly in promoting urban management. Despite efforts undertaken to ensure its success, there was difficulty in turning commitment to the project into practical action due to bureaucratic procedures and institutional structures.

Property-led local economic development policies originated in 1930 as part of the regional policy. The policies had great impact on local economic development since they involved building infrastructures, granting assistance on property development, promoting housing development and providing for local jobs. The success of the policies was hinged on the growth of economic developmental activities which declined after 50 years., INTRODUCTION Property-led local economic development policies originated in the 1930s as part of regional policy and were taken up by local authorities in the 1970s, but since 1979 they have [...]

Environmental policies should be determined by state and local governments because they are directly accountable to the people. Under the current system, the federal government prescribes environmental solutions to most local environmental problems through EPA without consideration of local wishes. Ordinary citizens, therefore, cannot effectively hold national officials responsible for the environmental policies. Reform of the EPA is proposed.

Local governments in the United States have adopted a wide variety of policies to stimulate their local economies, but there is still debate over the effectiveness of such efforts. This paper examines the relationship between local development policies and changes in the number of jobs in both the manufacturing and service sectors during the mid-1980s. Methods. Data cover almost 900 cities and are based on Census Bureau sources and a 1984 International City Management Association survey of local governments. A two-stage least squares regression analysis is used. Results. The findings indicate that policy adoption had a limited effect on employment change from 1982 to 1987. For both manufacturing and service employment, market factors had the strongest effect on employment growth. Conclusions. The findings suggest that local economic development policies had a limited influence on changes in the number of jobs in cities during the economic recovery of the 1980s. Local investment in infrastructure and education, however, may enhance employment growth in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

Recent environmental conflicts have crossed traditional class boundaries, influencing all levels of society. Various cultural factors have come into play in Finnish environmental conflicts due to differences in opinion between vocational groups working in specific geographic locations. In Finland, interpretations of environmental changes and the effects of conservation are made collectively at the local level, so the conflicts are geographically determined. The conflicts arise over the effects of industries on the environment and laws needed to regulate them.

The main question in this paper is: Do wages of low-skilled workers in Norwegian local governments adjust to clear the labour market for such workers, or are the wages affected by trade unions comparing their wages with other wages inside the local governments? The main empirical findings are as follows. First, wages of low-skilled local government employees respond not to wages in the external labour market, but to wages of higher skilled and higher paid workers inside the local government. Second, wages are positively associated with the share of socialist politicians in the local council. These results are interpreted as support for a union model with internal pay comparisons in Norwegian local governments.

Since the Supreme Court's decision in City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson in early 1989, disparity studies or minority business studies or discrimination studies have become a focal point in state and local government jurisdictions' Minority Business Enterprise set-aside policies. Disparity studies have been conducted in more than sixty jurisdictions around the United States. This article discusses (1) the status of MBE set-aside programs after Croson, (2) examines the efficacy of disparity studies as mechanisms for justifying the adoption or continuation of set-aside programs in state and local governmental jurisdictions, (3) provides discussion of specific procedural analyses which have been major components of a disparity study and (4) provides a summary discussion of disparity studies conducted in five jurisdictions. The conclusion notes several weaknesses of disparity studies that, if addressed, would enhance their utilty.

Recently, many local governments have explored or implemented economic development policies involving 'local public enterprise,' i.e., local-level public ownership of economic enterprises and other profitmaking productive assets. This policy activity [...]

As the world applauded the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and the movement toward democracy in East Europe and the former Soviet Union, few considered that we were also seeing [...]

The author analyzes one urban region's ability to attract foreign direct investment and the role its economic development officials played. Numerous scholars have identified a variety of determinants in foreign corporate deliberations regarding site location but have failed to address the role of local governments. Management innovation, such as public-private partnership to promote economic development and economic development officials using their skills as entrepreneurs, strategists, and ambassadors might attract more foreign investment and soften competition with adjacent localities. Particular attention is focused on factors that would tempt a foreign company to locate in an urban region such as Hampton Roads.

Being able to predict building activity is important to public administrators and planners. It has been widely established that there is a significant relationship between economic/financial factors and local government growth policy as measured by building activity. This paper describes and analyses this relationship through the use of time-series methodology. Monthly data for input variables (unemployment rate and prime interest rate) are related to output variables (the monthly issuance of single-family building permits, commercial and industrial permits, total permits, and the estimated construction cost per single-family permit) using time-series intervention and transfer function analysis. Through the use of transfer functions, residential permit decisions, commercial and industrial permit activity and total permits issued for all uses are causally related to levels of unemployment and the prime rate with varying periods of delay before impact is felt in growth policy decisions.

Some local governments in the U.S. have expanded their economic development policy from the incentives and subsidies that have characterized the arena for 30 years to policy that is increasingly concerned with equity, the control and regulation of private development, and the direction of tangible growth-related benefits to low-income groups. This new development policy orientation provides an opportunity to test the explanatory power of competing models of local politics. Using cross-sectional data on a large sample of U.S. cities, I argue that the role of political actors and local political conditions are extremely important in explaining the variation in development policy across cities.

A study of Portuguese local government policies and development reveals that, despite enhanced power of local authority, financial constraints prevent efficient discharge of responsibilities. The strong central state control prevents drastic policy changes at the local level. Local social groups must be encouraged to participate more in local government to represent local interests., INTRODUCTION A key element in the growth of local authority economic policy throughout Europe since the late 1970s has been the restructuring of local-central state relations. Whilst the often severe [...]

These authors examine the capability of local government to influence economic development by formulating a framework that treats state-business relations as a bargaining process. This framework suggests that governmental influence is tied to the distribution of bargaining advantages along three dimensions of a liberal-democratic political economy: market conditions, popular-control systems, and public-intervention mechanisms. The authors offer an explanation of how characteristics of these dimensions strengthen or weaken city governments in dealing with private enterprise; experiences of U.S. and Western European cities are drawn upon to illustrate this. They conclude that differences in bargaining resources accounts for wide variation in local political control of business development.

Local government fiscal reform is emerging clearly as a major development issue of the 1990s. As central governments of developing countries cut back their budget growth in response to economic reality and donor pressure, many are attempting to tap the underutilized potential of local authorities to help meet rising service demands. Drawing on a case study of the local finance system in Kenya and that country's attempts at reform, the challenging economic, institutional and political issues that must often be confronted in such reform efforts are highlighted.

This research explores the nature of local economic development decision making. A central theoretical issue common to all types of urban research is the extent of independence and rationality that public decision makers exhibit during the policymaking process. The author argues that local political decisions do matter in the economic development arena; in other words, cities are not totally constrained by external forces but make certain bounded choices. However, the data indicate that economic development policies are not likely to be the result of rational, systematic weighing of costs and benefits. Rather, economic development policy largely is driven by professional decision rules emanating from economic development professionals.

The increasing devolution of unemployment problems at the local policy-making level is explained and differences in local labor market policies are examined. The three different types of local activity to fight unemployment are policy against marginalization, policy and exits from the employment system and policy as support for employment related to the workforce and workplaces. A description of local labor market policy in a localized welfare state is also provided.

The differences in value assigned to state and local economic-development incentives by different types of businesses are examined. Business firms have unique incentive priorities, thus offering incentives without regard for these variations in business priorities can result in windfalls for the private sector and waste of public funds. Among 18 incentives commonly used for business retention and development, greater access to capital is viewed as the most promising across all business types.

Local governments are seeking solutions to the problem of enhancing rural business development. Volunteer visitor business retention and expansion (VVBR&E) programs can do this through the use of donated time from concerned citizens. By fostering partnerships for growth between local governments and rural businesses, VVBR&E can create desirable consequences on the economy through meeting the needs of individual firms and overcoming obstacles to development throughout the community.

Summary. Local Economic Development (LED) policies and programmes are becoming a well established part of national and local government. The evaluation of programmes and projects draws upon a long series of examples which stretch back to regional policy. The problem with the current 'state of the art' is that it concentrates upon cost per job, albeit with more sophisticated discrimination of the effects. This paper suggests the benefits of placing evaluation in a broader context of performance measures which (a) reflects more fully the objectives of the policy and (b) allows greater insights into comparative effectiveness and thus influences the reallocation of resources.

Traditional models of regional diversification do not capture the trade-off between stability and living standards. In this paper, we characterize regions as open activity models subjected to both productivity and price shocks. We then partially rank small diversification policies by the direction in which they point away from the current industrial structure in mean-variance space. Some general patterns emerge. In particular, diversification for regional self-sufficiency and away from reginoal comparative advantage may be undesirable.

The author examines how local governments make decisions about economic development, focusing specifically on the decision to locate a General Motors truck plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in August 1984. The processes used to make that policy choice included secret negotiations between private and public elites, cost-benefit analyses, and public hearings. The advantages and disadvantages of using these three approaches to make policy choices are discussed, and how they actually operated in the case under review is evaluated. Finally, the efficacy of these approaches for effective and accountable policymaking is assessed.

A case-study of six towns in Israel's southern coastal plain demonstrates how a shift from nationally directed industrial dispersal efforts to one in which there is a greater role for locally initiated development strategies leads to the restructuring of the urban system. Semi-peripheral regions attain a growing advantage over the remote periphery, though within the semi-periphery intra-regional competition has intensified. Whereas previously there was a degree of homogeneity in the inter-urban patterning of economic investment, the correct identification of advantages at the micro-level has gained importance in promoting local economic development. These advantages can be utilised by effective local leadership for developing 'niches of success' in the face of general economic stagnation. The local strategy achieving the clearest impact on long-term development paths has been to exploit advantages associated with proximity to a metropolis, particularly by intervening in the housing market and by promoting economic integration with the metropolis.

This paper argues that it is now appropriate and possible to undertake a thorough review of local economic initiatives (LEIs). The key theoretical point of the paper is to demonstrate that, from the viewpoint of economic efficiency, the marginal costs for each LEI instrument of achieving a policy objective should be equalised. The paper then takes this concept and examines it in the context of a hypothetical example of an LEI. It shows how the concept can be modified according to the particular objectives of those promoting the LEI.

Inequalities of race and class in American society persist despite numerous redistributive policies instituted by the government. A proposal to attack racial disadvantages at the local level -- a hiring preference ordinance -- is used to explore how the material manifestations of race and class, local political activity, and the structural requirements of local government subverted its adoption. The cleavages of class and race eroded widespread political support for the proposal and weakened its potential for effective implementation; the demands on the local government undermined the mayor's relationship with the city council and divided minority elected officials from their grass-roots constituencies. The setting is Philadelphia in the 1980s.

Over the next few years, dramatic legislative and technological changes will reshape the nation's utility industries. As the restructuring and convergence of various utility industries continue, causing situations in which [...]