case study of local governance practice

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• Shukra Raj Subedi, Sunil Subedi. The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal. American Journal of Educational Research . Vol. 9, No. 5, 2021, pp 263-271. https://pubs.sciepub.com/education/9/5/3 ">Normal Style
• Subedi, Shukra Raj, and Sunil Subedi. 'The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal.' American Journal of Educational Research 9.5 (2021): 263-271. ">MLA Style
• Subedi, S. R. , & Subedi, S. (2021). The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal. American Journal of Educational Research , 9 (5), 263-271. ">APA Style
• Subedi, Shukra Raj, and Sunil Subedi. 'The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal.' American Journal of Educational Research 9, no. 5 (2021): 263-271. ">Chicago Style

The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal

Governance practice has become a central issue of the development process since the historical evolution of civilizations. It has counted as the heart of the process for public administration and organizations. The limited literature on the research entitled “The Status of Governance Practice has shown the clear gap in the literature on how the local groups implement and practice good governance policies and existing practices and gaps between policy and practice in the Nepalese context. Following the interpretative paradigm with a qualitative approach, the research analyzes the existing practice, the situation of participation, and the gap between policy and existing practice. The primary data has been gathered from seven selected informants of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City through judgmental sampling, and in-depth interviews and observation have been adopted as data collection tools. The study has explored the situation of meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency in the research area. The study has shown that even after the state's reconstruction, the local governments have not severed the governance practice satisfactorily. However, Nepal's restructuring process has increased local people's access to local government, but local people's meaningful participation in developmental activities, accountability, and transparency are still unsatisfactory. The finding has indicated the essentiality of good governance at the local level for local power. The federal government needs to monitor the provincial government and provincial to local government for reasonable control. The study has become an implication for policymakers and further researchers.

1. Introduction

The worldview of local governance is to decentralize the responsibilities and budgets of governments. It has evoked the crucial question and encouraged research that emphasizes the importance of local leadership, civil society, and democratic accountability 1 . It is imperative to bring positive change in every local unit to properly develop a nation and meet citizens' needs by decentralizing the main functions, delegating to those closest to them. The local government, a local governance unit, has special powers to issue regulations or rules connecting with its legislative character. According to Abdulloh argues that local governments have become more arbitrary in the ruling. It is a reminder of whom they serve and how they come to their position must be made clear all the time in the recent decades. It improves local resources and triggers creativity and innovation for better public services and development by focusing on good planning, management, supervision, and the government's high accountability 2 . However, "The concept of good governance evoked serious criticisms as well as praises worldwide. Good governance for whom and bad for whom became the sticky questions. These are key questions raised by social scientists and many politicians" 3 . As the local governance is diversified based on the status of local government, nature of society, state, and local environment, It is worth and relevant to know the status of local governance subjectively incorporating policy and practice based on national, regional, and local planning well as policy. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific [UNESCAP] defines 'Governance' as the practice of political, economic, and administrative authority in the management of a country's matters at all levels, including the rule of law, legitimacy of the government, accountability to the people, transparent economic sector, corruption fewer activities of government and non-governmental sector 4 .

Nepal's constitution has discussed that the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal's basic structure is three-tiered: federal, provincial, and local. These governments have formed and functioned accordingly with the particular purpose of government as guiding state policy principles. Likewise, good governance has ensured by confirming the equal and easy access of the people to the state's services and facilities. It has focussed on making fair public administration capable, unbiased, transparent, less corrupt, accountable, and participatory 5 .

Similarly, local governments are the nearby grassroots people's nearby unit, which helps institutionalize the governance system and create an enabling environment to promote democratic values and public participation, especially from the marginal section decision-making process. It also speeds up the economic progress leading to enhance peoples' capacity. It reveals that local governance is the essential part of the government's governing system responsible for maintaining linkage among local people 6 . Likewise, Mercy argued that local government represents the dispersion of political power in our society. It is the closest government to the people, and it brings development nearer to the grassroots. It is the best system of exercising good governance and engaging people in their governance 7 . In the similar vein, Addink argues properness, transparency, participation, effectiveness, accountability, and economic, social, and cultural human rights are vital aspects of good governance 8 .

Similarly, Kharel states that every local community citizen feels a respected and decisive community member in a well-governed society. A well-governed society is a society that enjoys trustworthy and reliable participation and ownership in the overall activities of the government. There is a positive relationship between good governance and development 9 .

A country with strong local governance management has possibilities of progressive development. The declining growth is due to a lack of good governance. More than six decades have been completed since the beginning of planned development in Nepal, but the development process has not run as expected. The reason behind it is the result of excluding the fundamental characters of good governance. The purpose of this research study is to investigate the local governance practice in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City base on practice and policy.

Although the local bodies have tried to address governance and have seemed to assure accountability, transparency, and meaningful participation in service delivery, the service receivers have not been convinced that the mechanism has been adopted on the ground. There are widespread complaints about local governance service delivery maladministration, public funds abuse, abuse of authority or office, fraudulent dealings, and corrupt tendencies. It has shown that there is a problematic issue concerned with exploring the construction and implementation of good governance. The prior research studies have rarely included the issue in their researches. There is still a knowledge gap. The gap between the top-down policy implementation and on-ground practice has become the study's genuine issue at present in Nepal. This research study has been undertaken to explore governance and analyze the gap between existing practices. It has tried to explore, indicate and underpin the gap between policy and practice in the literature. The study's primary concern is how the local levels implement and practice good governance policies and issues? What are existing rules along with gaps between policy and practice? This research study has further aimed to inform the local citizen to be aware of good governance issues from evidence-based information. The awareness among the local people has been able to knock policymakers to modify the mechanism if required. As there is a gap in top-down implementation policy and ground-level practice, the study has become a genuine issue for the study and significant for the policy arbiters, interpreters, implementation agents, local stakeholders, and researchers.

2. Literature Review

The literature has highlighted as governance is the complex management system that can manage people's social, political, and economic activities among its population. This chapter has dealt with the global understanding of the Nepal government's government and local governance policy.

The World Bank has explained that governance is the exercise of the political, economic, and administrative authority to manage a nation's activities. It uses all of the methods that societies use to allocate power and manage public resources and problems to govern, to exercise power and authority over a territory system or institution 10 , whereas good governance is a concern with utilizing power, accumulation of resources to maximize the people's welfare. According to UNESCAP, good governance has eight major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive, and follows the rule of law. Similarly, Rijal stated that lack of conceptual clarity about local autonomy, corruption, law and order, institutional capacity, empowerment level of local people, bureaucratic hierarchy, and problems in people’s participation, structural constraints, power hierarchy, and psychological barriers 11 .

Governance means the structures and processes of societies where people decide and share power in terms of ordered rule and collective action or social coordination institutions 12 . Foucault has injected an idea of governmentality to institute the art of governing ssystem at the society including government's organs in 20th-century through the amalgamation of two concepts government and rationality, which has connected with classical liberalism neoliberalism 13 . In the same context, Tylor argued that governance is a collective activity practiced by a wide range of organizational forms, including governments, business firms, non-profit organizations, voluntary associations, and tribal, religious, or familial groups 14 . Similarly, Acharya states that local government is a public institution in a small geographic area, which are responsible organizations of the local citizen. He further added that local governance is a unique system gathering various actors together. It has discussed the local issues, elect their representatives, and take decisions on their behalf 6 .

On the contrary, Dahal argues that several factors are responsible for Nepal's poor governance performance. Corruption, political instability, weak civil society, unprofessional bureaucracy, unregulated private sector, lack of democratic practice in making plans and implementations, political and bureaucratic corruption, underdevelopment, unemployment are the major issues of good governance in Nepal 15 . Similarly, public service delivery at the local level is below the satisfactory level. The good governance concept is relatively new. Different organizations and researcher give their views on good governance 9 , and the aspect of good governance as properness, transparency, participation, effectiveness, accountability, and economic, social, and cultural human rights 8 .

The theory of global governance has dealt with the political system, and it is a system of political rule to form the structures of super and subordination for the exercise of basic goods and opportunities which are influencing, distributing, and expecting to be stabilized the concerning compliances 16 . Regarding good governance, Rahim has highlighted that good governance is the dynamic source of fruitful results. It has brought up the reformative nature of political and social development for governing any system 17 . Similarly to quote view of Kharel and many scholars for good governance, "Transparency and accountability initiatives have taken democratization, governance, aid and development circles by storm since the turn of the many actors involved with them regarding various donors, funders, program managers, implementers and researchers" (p.2) 18 . It is similar to Taylor's view that accountability makes for tyranny; democracy without capacity is a recipe for ineffectiveness where there is a lack of participation of authority and resources. The worldwide trend to decentralize governments' responsibilities and budgets have emphasized the importance of local leadership, civil society, and democratic accountability 1 . It seeks good governance at any level of government. In this regards, Handini and many other scholars argued that

Good governance is very urgent to be realized in the administration of government and public services at the provincial and district/city levels considering that much authority has been transferred to the government at these two levels. The realization of good governance is a catalyst and coordinator for semi-government and non-government institutions to form an effective collaboration to solve problems and meet community needs (p.3540) 19 .

Abdulloh has highlighted that the local governments have become more arbitrary in ruling in the 21st century. The position of a ruler and ruled must be clear all the time. The budget created locally with local people's participation has helped improve public services and development by focusing on good planning, management, supervision, and the government's high accountability to the public 2 .

The public trust in the local government depends on good governance practices, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. It has created greater trust in the local administration than their counterparts 20 . In a similar vein, Lamichhane has argued that good governance is about the truthful utility of authority and utilization of belongings in imposing a coherent governing format for the super pastimes and priorities of human beings at large. It ambitions at protection and merchandising of rights, welfare, and well-being of the residents through legitimized democratic governance under the rule of law. It is an avenue for peace, crime control, equity of public desire with criminal certain guess and equality. It avails bridled governmental power, certified administration, and a device of fraud and corruption-free nation operation 21 , whereas accountability is one of the essential requirements within the general parameters of good governance and transparency 22 . The concept of local governance enriches the debate on methodological approaches such as top-down and button-top approaches. The formal top-down approach cannot capture the local reality's complexity as multiple local decision-making levels function differently. It is necessary to apply the bottom-top approach horizontally. It helps to understand the decentralization of agencies from the private sector to organizations from civil society or to other local governments under various schemes. It can integrate policies concretely, proactive political interventions and initiatives, and contribute to fundamental leverage of local autonomy; conceptually, local autonomy varies 23 .

The concept of good governance enters Nepal only after the restoration of democracy in 1990. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal states that the source of sovereign authority lay in the people, established the equitable distribution of power among all governance institutions, and challenged power concentration. It aims to provide social, political, and economic justice to the people, assuring every citizen of Nepal's basic human rights 24 . Meanwhile, The Interim Constitution of Nepal has set up a provision of good governance. In article 33, the constitution mentions the responsibility of the state. Governance is a system that manages political, economic, social, and developmental equality to all who are staying in the territory of the authority 25 . In Nepal's context, The Constitution of Assembly 2007 has declared the country for the Federal Democratic Republic.

Government is an organization, and governance is the system of managing. Governance and good governance have become increasingly important topics of discussion in developed and developing countries. Good governance was developed in response to the governance and development challenges of developing countries since the 1980s. It is taken as the Millennium Development Goals' main target, making political and administrative authorities responsible for development needs that help tackle poverty and enhance a state economy 26 .

The Constitution of Nepal 2015, Article 51(b) (4) has focused the governance as one of the guiding principles of the state policy to assurance good governance by confirming the equal and easy access of the people to the services and facilities distributed by the state whereas making public administration fair, unbiased, transparent, corruption less, accountable and participatory 5 . It has given a mandate to the local government for 22 exclusive powers and additional 15 concurrent powers to function locally. Further, the Local Level Restructuring Commission identified 753 local government units, including 293 urban municipalities and 460 rural municipalities. Competitively local government of Nepal has got more power, resources, roles, and responsibilities at the local level. The constitution and the act have promulgated the provision for effective and efficient local government also. However, the practices of good governance and accountability mechanism haven't been institutionalized yet.

Similarly, article 56 (1) of the constitution has divided the provisions of a three-layer ruling structure joining the center, provinces, and local governments. According to these categories, there are three government levels: federal, provincial, and local, consisting of rural and municipalities. The local government in Nepal is the third layer of government which has its managerial division of power.

There are several challenges in the governing system at the local level—problems at the policy level, lack of people's participation. Lack of conciseness of people about their role and sometimes lack of professionalism on bureaucracy is local governance issues. However, the Good Governance Act [GGA] by Nepal Law Commission 2008 ensures that good governance is expedient to make legal provision concerning good governance by making public administration of the country pro-people, accountable, transparent, inclusive, and participatory and make available its outcome to the general public 27 . It also highlights the rule of law, corruption less and smart administration, economical and competent management of community work and public services speedily and cost-effectively. Article 8 mentions that the duty of the concerned authority shall carry out the country's administrative function according to this Act or other prevailing laws, in a speedy manner, to maintain good governance and make available its outcomes to the people in time. The concern of good governance policy in Nepal is to make effective public service delivery to the lower people. Despite policy and efforts towards good governance, there are many challenges in the wake of good governance.

Reviewing the prior literature in global and national context and also a policy of Nepal on local governance, it is clear that the literature and policy have discovered what out to be the local government. However, there is a need to research local governance practice subjectively at all possible local levels to know the local governance practice's real status. It is even more significant in Nepal as the country is interring to federalism and has three different government levels. The concept arises globally, and in developing countries like Nepal, there are several challenges in governance practice, especially at the local level. Deficiencies in the political and electoral system, nepotism, favoritism, political pressure, delaying in service delivery, inability to address local people's problems, and inability to prioritize the central issue of development are some representative cases of local level, so it has become genuine to do the research study and contribute the knowledge in literature.

3. Methodology

The governance practice has directly connected with the accountability, transparency, trust, and meaningful participation of the people. The reviewed literature and policies have indicated a research gap on perceiving and understanding governance practice at the local level. This research has aimed to explore how the local groups implement and practice good governance policies and the existing practices and gaps between policy and practice in the Nepalese context.

The governance practice has depended on how people perceive it. It goes on local level practice as multiple localities are forming based societies to societies differently. It has shown the diversification of the local level after the establishment of federalism. There are three layers of government to function governance practice. It has indicated that governance practice is subjective according to governments' decentralization, which creates knowledge on governance practice at the respective government level. This research study has focused on the governance practice at local level. It is also perceiving differently as local authorities in Nepal. We have multiple knowledge on local level which need to identify from the perspective of local people. The knowledge derived from the selected informants' information is value-laden as local people perceive local governance differently. The study has based on inductive reasoning as it has followed a qualitative approach. The study has identified knowledge, verified with quality slandered, transferability, replicability, and creditability. This study has based on the interpretative research paradigm, which assumes the multiple realities derived from interaction among the various stakeholders. The researcher has tried to explore the considerable truth's subjectivity through the engaged interaction among the informants on Nepal's status of governance practice. More specifically, this research adopted a qualitative research method based on a case study to analyze the governance policy and practice. It has tried to explore the good governance policies and tried to compare existing practices and gaps between policy and practice in the Nepalese context.

The research has aimed an in-depth investigation of the phenomena through the information taken from the smaller number of informants. Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan city has been selected as a study area. It is the universe of the study. The seven total informants have selected for the case study adopting the purposive sampling design. The informants have been chosen from their sectors, such as local government representatives, government employees, and general people (service seekers). Three ward chairperson as local government representatives, three service seekers, and one government employee have chosen as informants. These informants have represented the policymaker as well as implementer, consumer, and participant of local development activities. The researchers have arranged the informants' time in their free time and visited five-time to collect in-depth information. The in-depth interviews and participatory observation have been applied to collect information from a total of seven individuals, such as local level representatives, bureaucrat, and general service seekers in the study area chosen through the purposive way. The interview data has been recorded, and some filed notes have been taken from observation. The researcher has applied the transcription of recorded information from the in-depth interview, coded them, decoded them, triangulated them, and linked them with the study theme regarding local governance practice and the policies practice. The collected information has rechecked with the multiple meeting and conversations with informants. The thick descriptive model has been applied to trace the subjective finding from the informants. The vignettes and theoretical assumptions have further supported the global themes derived from the data. The researcher has become careful on the research process's ethics by informed consensus for data collection and maintaining confidentiality. The confirmability of the research has been assured by thick description and member debriefing.

The study entitled “Status of local Governance Practice in Nepal" has focused on exploring the perception of local people on the status of governance practice and governance policies that have enriched the gap in the literature. This section has explained the interconnection of government policy and the rule of governance at the local level. The entire research study has been guided with two major thematic aspects : meaningful participation for local-level development and accountability and transparency as an essence of local development. The responses gathered from seven selected informants have separated the thematic elements for and against exploring the ground-level governance practice situation.

Peoples' participation is an essential element of good governance at the local level regarding the planning process. There is an explicit provision of people's involvement in planning as well as the implementation process. The policy has guided the local government to incorporate public participation in the planning process at a community level by cluster meeting, but the only formality of cluster meeting is conducted at the local level. The national policy has indicated that every planned activity has to be implemented with public participation. The construction projects have the consumer cost sharing as 20% cost-sharing in normal public works, 30% contribution for maintenance and construction of blacktop, gravel, soil feel and paved road, and 10% construction work for embankment construction building of stone. This research study has tried to gather information on local governance based on the meaning of this section following depth investigation, which will adopt in-depth interviews with selected informants.

In response to the means of participation, interviewee C reported that we never interfere in the formation of Tole Bikash Samiti {1} and Upabhokta Samiti {2} . The local People use to practice democratically and make the committee for management of local-level activities. There used to be fewer women participate in the groups. Similarly, in regards to local-level activities, interviewee D has responded that the community people are willing to participate in local-level activities. They are highly motivated to involve in activities of development, but it is difficult to arrange the public contribution from the lower class {3} people due to low per capita income.

Contrary to interviewees C and D's perception, interviewee A has highlighted a competition to hold the post, such as chairperson and treasurer in the local level management committee of a big planned project but a low attraction in other non-vital posts and members of Upabhokta Samiti. Local people have less attraction in small projects sometimes, and there is a debate of trust on vital post members and conflict of interest by committee members. Similarly, interviewee B explained that it is difficult to arrange participation in Tole Bikash Samiti. Although we have formed Tole Bikash Samiti, all the members are not active. The chairperson of the committee takes a chance in every context. They are even discontinuing their regular meeting. Likewise, interviewee E has expressed that people try to select their near one but not the right man in the right place . Poor people do not have time for their work. Sometimes they do not get information about Tole Bhela {4} and sometimes, they have no time to participate in the Bhela . In a similar vein , interviewee F reported that some people get information of the meeting just after the meeting over from the neighbor involved in the meeting co-incidentally. This is because of the poor information system in Tole bhela. In the same way, interviewee G has exposed, “I do not want to participate in the meeting of Tole Bhela and local level activities though I gets the information because the leading members use to impose their own plan for the decisive process ."

Two informants out of seven have responded that there is somehow meaningful participation of local people informing local level consumer committee, involvement of local developmental activities, and willingness to support local activities with a contribution. However, seven informants have expressed their view that there is a lack of meaningful participation in local development activities and involvement in local level consumer groups due to various reasons such as trust, corruption, and lack of information.

Accountability and transparency are key aspects of good governance. This study has followed the exploration of local governance in terms of accountability and transparency. The study's primary concern is to perceive the knowledge on the status of local governance linking people view on public audit, public hearing, service delivery, placement of citizen charter, and grievance management mechanism at a local level for the assurance of accountability and transparency. The Dhangadi Sub-metropolitan City has taken as the case to observe the existing practices of transparency and accountability.

The public audit is directly related to people's participation, accountability, and transparency, and it is one of the crucial elements regarding good governance at a local level. The project progress and financial settlement have to be open to consumers and all respective stakeholders. It includes the entire implementing process, reporting, survey procedure, attachment of necessary bill of quantity, etc. This research’s concern is to collect informants' opinions regarding local activities' public auditing status in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City.

In response to the public audit, interviewee C reported that Upabhokta Samiti uses to conduct a public auditing program by informing and gathering all the consumers. Local people use to attend the program and get detailed information of all local-level projects. It's going according to the process, as we know. Similarly, the interviewee has expressed the view that we are conscious about the public audit. It is conducted as directed by the process, but there are still some issues. As we practice a new system, there may be something lacking, but we have worked according to the rules, regulations, and system as much as we can. Interviewee A reported that there is a provision of closing the official file of every development activity after the public auditing in a similar vein. Occasionally, some complaints are coming to our office regarding the information on the project and public audit. We are trying to manage them gradually. Overall, it is in systematic form.

On the contrary, interviewee E has responded that there is no particular program for public audit I have heard so far. They come house to house to get signature in this regard. Similarly, interviewee D has expressed that Public audit is accurate on paper. Everybody knows that this is made only for the time of the payment. But it is still running.

On the one hand, the policies are created with foreigner help by staying in a star hotel in Kathmandu without knowing the local level's ground reality. On the other hand, the system being weakened under the pretext of practicality in implementation. Likewise, interviewee F has highlighted that the local development activities are not publicly audited through a mass meeting of stakeholders. In a similar vein, the interviewee has reported that we do not know about the project budget, how the activities are going, and who is implementing the activities.

According to the Good Governance act 2008 of Nepal, the head of the officer performing services at the province, district, or local level needs to provide public hearing service to people and conduct public hearings as directed. It helps to make the law clear, transparent, and objective.

In response to the question: what do you hear about public hearing? Interviewees A, B, C, D, and F have a similar view that the Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City has conducted public hearings twice a year. T he municipality has continued public hearing programs to make its day-to-day administrative and development work more efficient and increase accountability for the job done as guided by the annual policy and budget program .

However, the interviewee E and G have a common understanding that the municipality's local wards have not following and organizing public hearing inward level. Their perception of a public hearing is an extra burden and unnecessary event. It might create conflict between elected representatives and the public.

As an essential component of local government, service delivery has been linked with public service at the local level. The system of service delivery needs to be systematic, maintain a level of satisfaction among local people, and ensure accountability as a good governance tool. The researchers have collected the views of informants in this regard.

In response to service delivery, interviewee A reported that we are training to accelerate the ward's service flow as much as possible. No service recipient has to come again and again for the same work. Likewise, interviewee C argues that there are no questions of delaying the work of local people. We are in touch with almost all people. We know about the ground reality of people of the word. Hence there is no problem in working for people. We have worked on time.

Similarly, interviewee D states that w e have provided service delivery fast as much as possible from the municipality level. But if there is no proper documentation according to the municipality's rule, they must be returned. It is a process.

On the contrary, interviewee B argues that though a sound mechanism is made to address local people's issues, there is a problem in a big planned project that needs to arrange support from the municipality. We have to propose big planned projects through Tole Blela, but sometimes we do not know about the plans of big-budget projects that come to our wards from the municipality. Such programs without any coordination with the ward are creating a situation of confusion in service delivery. Similarly, interviewee E focused on new trends of slowing down on service delivery by asking for tea/water, even for regular work as before. All the leaders and bureaucrats have focused only on their facilities. It does not seem that much attention has been paid to address the actual problems of local people. Likewise, interviewee F reported that we have repeatedly raised the ward's operating bank account in the executive meeting, but no hearing has been held so far. In a similar vein, interviewee G responded that Earlier, the village development committee {5} used to work from the office near the house, but now we have to go to Dhangadhi at 15/20 km. Both time and money are spent.

Placement of Citizen Charter during the field observation, the researchers have observed that some of the wards of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City have placed the citizen charter in their wards and the central office. They are updating the citizen charter following the norms of good governance. But some wards have not placed citizen charter and adopting the mechanism of accountability and transparency. However, the majority of wards follow the compliance of the provision of the good governance act. Some local government service units are not accountable for displaying their service quality, types and procedures.

Grievance Management Mechanism according to the good governance act 2008, every governmental office has provision to arrange a complaint box in a visible place to understand the public's opinion about the respective office's activities. The field observation has helped understand that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has set up a grievance management mechanism in every ward. But nobody has put any written complaints and suggestions into the complaint box till the date. It shows the lack of public awareness and lack of habit to the complaint in proper place and person.

5. Discussion

The research study" Status of local Governance Practice in Nepal" has focused on exploring the situation of governance, local people's participation, accountability, and transparency of respective stakeholders in local-level governance. The research study has tried to explore the policy and practices at the local level. It has also explored the situation of meaningful participation of local people in local level development activities, accountability of local service providers, and transparency in service delivery mechanism applying the qualitative research approach. The study has reconnected the perception of local people and observation of researchers with two major thematic aspects: meaningful participation for local-level development and accountability & transparency as an essence of local development. The following sub-section has described the major finding of the study.

The government policies have seemed to be inadequately applied at the practice level. It has shown that from the beginning of the planning process, there has so-called participation. It was supposed to mean, but at the practice level, it has been affected by political issues, only competition in central post, inadequate service delivery mechanism, and unbalance behavior among service seekers. The level of consciousness and unwillingness in the local people's social activities are central to the local level. People from the local level are only in the role of clapping. In the name of participation, Cleaver among them planned and made Upabhokta Samiti. In reality, our ruler has no willingness to change society's existing pattern rather than changing the mindset of the local people they are enjoying.

According to GGA 2008, it has been explained that public participation and ownership in good governance have ensured the arrangement of broad public participation in the operation of any plans or projects 27 . In a similar vein, Dhangadhi sub-metropolitan city has formulated monitoring and evaluation procedure 2075, which clarifies that the monitoring and evaluation of any plans are in three levels: local beneficiary group level, ward level, and finally Metropolitan City Level. In the policy and program of the Fiscal Year 2066/67, Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has prioritized in the topic such as infrastructure development (improved road), agriculture, education, health care, information and communication, entrepreneurship and cooperatives, human resources and social development, tourism, environmental conservation, natural disaster management respectively. There is also a mandatory provision of people’s participation as (10-30) % shramdan {6} by cost in every planned project at the local level. But it is not practiced that the amount of labor at the local level. The consumer committee has been adjusting bills on another topic, motivating the local consumer to increase the bills more than in reality . It is the result of lacking meaningful participation of local people in local development activities.

The study has shown that the public auditing system has not been applied inadequately in local-level development activities. It has seemed an effect on local governance, accountability, and transparency. Exploring the public hearing has declared that the municipality has continued public hearing programs to make its day-to-day administrative and development work more efficient and increase accountability to the people for the work done as guided by the annual policy and budget program 2077. The study shows that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has conducted Public Hearing twice a year, but it is not found organizing public Hearing inward. The study found that their perception of the public Hearing is not favorable. A public hearing is an extra burden and unnecessary event. The representative also added that it might create conflict between elected representatives and the public. Service delivery is another crucial component of local government. It is public service at the local level. The state of service delivery indicates the level of satisfaction of local people and good governance at the local level .

During the field observation, it was observed that some of the wards of Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan city placed the citizen charter in every ward as well as the central office. But some wards were not placed citizen charter yet. However, the majority of wards follow the compliance of the provision of the good governance act. Some local government service units are not accountable for displaying their service quality, types and procedures. The field observation shows that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has set up a grievance management mechanism in every ward. But nobody has put any written complaints and suggestions into the complaint box till the date. It shows that the Lack of public awareness and Lack of habit to the complaint in proper place and person. The field observation checklist shows that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has its updated website and notice board at the central and ward level office. It has also formed mobile apps and has disseminated most of the information through its website, Radio/FM, or published through print media. The attempt of accountability about information dissemination of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City was found satisfactory.

As the study has limited only to meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency in local development activities, it has not covered various aspects of governance practice of the local level of Nepal due to time, research boundary, resources, and availability of information. Somehow, it has tried to explore the current situation of local governance practice in Nepal. So, the study has become the reference for policymakers, researchers, and general readers.

6. Conclusion

The study has analyzed government policies and explored local governance practice status in terms of meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency in local development activities. It may provide insight into governance practice to the policymakers and implementers for adopting the appropriate mechanism to put the policy into practice. The lack of the existing policies of Nepal and the implementation mechanism revealed by the study have been utilized to make the implementing system more inclusive, accountable, participatory, and result-oriented. As the research study has tried to explore the gap between policies and practice at a local level, it has investigated how the local levels implement and practice good governance policies and issues? What are existing rules along with gaps between policy and practice?

This study has applied the interpretative paradigm to address the research gap, which assumes the multiple realities derived from interaction among the various stakeholders. This research adopted a qualitative research approach applying an inductive process based on a case study method to analyze the governance policy and practice. The researchers have collected the information from sample informants selected by purposive sampling, employing open-structured in-depth interviews with informants and participatory observation. Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City is the universe, and seven selected informants, such as local level government representatives, bureaucrat, and general service seekers, are a sample of the study. It has two thematic aspects, such as meaningful participation and accountability as well as transparency. The seven selected respondents' responses have gathered on both thematic elements for and against exploring the ground-level situation. The research study has identified that the government policies are not inadequate application at the practice level. It has clearly shown that there is so-called participation from the beginning of the planning process to implementing the local level activities. The existing policies have supposed to be active in practice, but it has to lack practice due to the political issues, willingness, transparency and accountability. There has seemed competition to hold local consumer committees' central post, but there is not caring on the service delivery. It has indicated the inadequate service delivery mechanism and unbalanced behavior among service seekers. The study found that their perception of the public hearing is not favorable. However, the attempt of accountability about information dissemination in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has been found satisfactory. Though the municipality has set up grievance management mechanisms in every ward, the grievance management mechanisms are rare. Even some wards have applied the system, but the system is not effective. Local people are not a habit of putting the written complaints and suggestions into the complaint box. There has seemed a lack of public awareness and no idea of complaint in the proper place and to the proper person. It has indicated that there is inadequate local governance.

However, the majority of wards follow the compliance of the provision of the good governance act. Some local government service units are not accountable for displaying their service quality, types, and procedures, but service delivery is a problem as the ward does not operate its bank account. Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has made a mandatory public audit requirement in the final payment of the infrastructure-related projects. However, it is ongoing just for formality, which allows many points to raise questions about public audit's effective practice. In conclusion, the study has revealed a real situation of governance that needs to be improved to implement local development. The research study has established the importance of local governance at a local level for meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency for local-level activities. Due to the limitation of time, resources, and frequent movement by the pandemic of Covid-19, many other aspects of local governance are not focused on the study. Further research can be made to niche the local governance of many local units regarding other aspects of local governance besides meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency.

Acknowledgments

This research article entitled “Status of Local Governance Practice in Nepal: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City” is the output of the rigorous study of the researchers and the regular support and guidance of the experts from the Nepal Open University (NOU), Nepal. Firstly, we would like to extend our deep sense of profound gratitude to all the faculty members (Department of Social Science and Education, NOU) for guiding us with regular inspiration, encouragement and insightful suggestion throughout the study. We would like to acknowledge their invaluable instructions, and strong cooperation in completing this study.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Ram Chandra Paudel (Dean of NOU) for his inspiration. We express our profound gratitude to all those friends for their regular inspiration and enthusiastic encouragement both to complete this research and in our academic life. We would like to convey hearty gratitude to all informants for their support in providing valuable perceptions and their experiences during our field stay for information collection taking part our in-depth interviews in the difficult situation of COVID-19, pandemic. Final thanks goes to our family members for invaluable support as well as encouragement for academic writing. Last but not the least, I accept responsibility for any flaws or errors found in the paper.

1. Tole Bikash Samiti is the local development committee formed to regulate local development

2. Upabhokta Samiti is a local consumer committee that utilized the local development

3. Lower Class is a group of people with low socio-economic status

4. Tole Bhela is a gathering of local community people for preparing local planning

5. The village development committee is a local government unit before Nepal's reformation.

6. Shramdan is the process and adaptation of local labor contribution in development activities.

Published with license by Science and Education Publishing, Copyright © 2021 Shukra Raj Subedi and Sunil Subedi

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Local Government in Practice: Case Studies in Policy, Planning and Governance

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Spicer, Zachary, Joseph Lyons and Kate Graham. 2019. Local Government in Practice: Case Studies in Policy, Planning and Governance. Toronto: Emond

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The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal

Shukra Raj Subedi 1 , and Sunil Subedi 1

1 Social Science and Education, Nepal Open University, Lalitpur, Nepal

Cite this paper: Shukra Raj Subedi and Sunil Subedi. The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal. American Journal of Educational Research . 2021; 9(5):263-271. doi: 10.12691/education-9-5-3

Keywords: meaningful participation accountability transparency good governance

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25 Comparative Local Governance

Gerry Stoker is Professor in the Institute of Political and Economic Governance, University of Manchester.

• Published: 02 September 2009
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This article discusses comparative local governance, and shows how the study of comparative local governance has taken on a ‘new’ institutional slant. It examines how the systems of governance are built via a complex interplay between informal and formal institutional forces. It determines that the key area of investigation in comparative local governance is the study of regimes, which are the ways of organizing power in complex societies in order to ensure outcomes similar to particular interests. The article also explores work on urban regimes as an exemplar of a more ‘new’ institutionalist understanding of comparative local governance.

The study of comparative local governance is an area that cannot be accused of following the path of mainstream political science. As a result, the study of local governance is regarded by many as a rather disappointing backwater, outshone and left behind by the more dynamic areas of investigation. On the other hand, comparative local governance never made the mistake addressed throughout this volume of overlooking the importance of institutions. Both old and new institutionalism are alive and well in the field of study, although considerable scope for further development exists. This chapter will argue that the main difficulties are created by the challenge of comparative analysis and that lesser problems surround the understanding of institutional factors and forces.

Institutions in the “old” sense of formal organizations that set the rules and create the context for collective decision-making have been and remain central to the comparative study of local governance. The chapter opens by examining the literature in the field that offers a more traditional institutional perspective. The development of that literature can be divided into three phases. A group of studies that looked to establish some of the basic differences between local government systems across the world; a second phase where more emphasis was placed on explaining the differences between local government systems; and a third phase that has focused on shared trends in reform that has led to a focus on complex systems of governance rather than formal institutions of government. Each of these literatures offers some valuable insights but all struggle to meet the challenge of a comparative politics where the number of democracies has increased dramatically in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The formal study of the institutions of local governance needs to become more global in its reach and less focused on Europe and North America.

The second half of the chapter shows how the study of comparative local governance has taken on the “new” institutional slant and examines how systems of governance are constructed through a complex interplay between formal and informal institutional forces. The key area of investigation in comparative local governance has been the study of regimes—ways of organizing power in complex societies in order to ensure outcomes in tune with particular interests. The institutions of local governance from this perspective are seen as less handed down by history, legislation, or constitutional framing and more made by actors creating informal networks through which direction over formal institutions, resources, and capacities are then exercised. The informal networks are institutions in the sense that they are sustained over time and are driven by a set of rules. The second half of the chapter explores work on urban regimes as an exemplar of a more “new” institutionalist understanding of comparative local governance. Again the main difficulties surround comparative rather than institutional understanding.

The concluding section explores the idea that comparative institutional analysis may be prone to a particular set of problems. Our understanding of formal institutions is dogged by the complexity of institutional arrangements and a focus on more informal arrangements is constrained by their embeddedness in particular settings. Both these factors make the establishment of frameworks for effective comparison very problematic. Future directions for the institutional investigation of comparative local governance are identified.

1 The Challenge of Classification

A starting point for exploring comparative local government is to describe the variety of different arrangements adequately. This section of the chapter looks first at the challenge of classification before moving on to what have been the substantive questions addressed by the institutional analysis of comparative local governance, namely why systems are different and whether any shared reform trends can be identified.

The comparative study of local governance institutions is dominated by a concern to comprehend the range of local government systems and as a result we certainly know more now than fifty years ago about how the position of local government varies between states. Lidstrom ( 1999 , 98) refers to Samuel Humes and Eileen Martin as the “post-war giants in the field” which might be somewhat of an exaggeration but their book (Humes and Martin 1969 ), which offers a comparative study of local government in eighty-one countries, does show an impressive range of knowledge of systems. Other work that has not quite got the encyclopedic quality of Humes and Martin, but nevertheless has added to the richness of our descriptive understanding of local government in various parts of the world, includes the very impressive overviews provided by Hesse ( 1991 ) and Norton ( 1994 ). Further insights can be gleaned from the work of Bennett ( 1989 , 1993 ), Chandler ( 1993 ), and Batley and Stoker ( 1991 ), all of which track practices in several countries and make a number of comparative observations.

These overviews have commonly been criticized on two grounds (Lidstrom 1999 ). The descriptions contained within them can inevitably lack a certain depth and any capacity to examine the underlying more informal practices going on beneath the surface. Second, because they are mainly descriptive studies, they often offer little in the way of explanatory theory. When they do attempt to explain why differences might exist they do so in a relatively unsystematic way, with references to history or some dramatic event in the countries under comparison.

Both these criticisms are accurate but they reflect in many respects the sheer challenge of the study of comparative local governance. Even within one country it is possible to spend a lot of time and effort in describing internal differences in institutional form and practice. Nation-state comparison is tough enough but at least in terms of democracies there are only 121 of them (Diamond 2003 ). Within any one country there might be several different tiers or levels of local government and the form of each might vary according to local choice or local circumstances.

To illustrate the challenge just think of the case of France (Borraz and Le Galès 2005 ). There are 36,565 municipalities, almost 98 percent of which have populations of less than 10,000. The differences between local government in the big cities and the surrounding rural areas in terms of access to technical capacity and style of politics are considerable. And so too is the layered institutional complexity. Because of the need to develop cooperation between many small municipalities, there are a little over 20,000 ad hoc associations of municipalities. In addition there are several meso level institutions with 100 departments and twenty-two regions plus four overseas regions. The complexity is further compounded by a range of other organizations that operate in a vast world of quasi-autonomous governance. There are publicly owned associations of service providers. There are the mixed sector agencies that are privately owned but with a majority of public sector shareholders. Some organizations managing public housing are public and some running planning, transport, and other services are private. The result is “a diversity of organisations, many of which do not have genuine public status (even though they may well operate on public funding) and whose integration is highly problematic” (Borraz and Le Galès 2005 , 14).

The truth is that the complexity of local governance institutional arrangements often belies understanding within countries and makes the task of comparative study very taxing. The French case may be an extreme one but there is a substantial element of institutional complexity built into virtually every system in the world. In order to begin to address the issue of explaining differences the literature has had to engage in some simplifications and has tended to focus on the formal elected institutions of local government rather than the vast array of quasi-governmental institutions that tend to surround it. While such a procedure makes sense, it does leave you wondering if important elements of an understanding of the way systems work are being left aside.

If you discount these concerns about capturing the complexity of different systems, the next problem is that there is clearly no consensus in the literature on the basis for any institutional demarcations. In an overview of the main classification options that have been tried, Lidstrom ( 1999 , 100–6) identifies a range of criteria that have been applied.

The first choice is whether to focus on historical or present-day criteria. Historical heritage might lead in one direction in terms of the distinctions drawn, while a concern with present-day realities might lead in another. The former option could lead to the overlooking of recent developments. So again, taking the example of France once more, since the decentralization legislation of the early 1980s, a system that before might have been described as having the classic Napoleonic heritage of centralized control and strong oversight has given way to a much more autonomous system with far more political clout and technical capacity being held at the level of local municipalities. As Borraz and Le Galès ( 2005 , 12) exclaim, “France is no longer the Jacobin centralist state it used to be.”

On the other hand, if you take a current position as the basis of your classification, much depends on what you choose to focus on. If you take the overall scale and capacity of a local government system, the size, budgets, and staff available to municipalities, then the UK along with Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark emerge as the strongest local authorities (Bours 1993 ). Using a criteria of formal local government autonomy and freedom from central control, however, neither Ireland, the UK, nor the Netherlands would reach the top table of European local government. Indeed a standard lament of British commentators is that the UK has the weakest local government system among Western democracies (see Chandler 1993 ). Buried in this difference in categorization is a distinction between positive and negative freedom. UK local government may have only limited freedom from central control but it has, because of its capacity and size, considerable freedom to do things and undertake initiatives. Indeed one of the great conundrums of local governance comparison is that you get some local authorities that have seized an agenda and run with it and done much to transform their locality and others who have failed to make any impact. Looking at formal structural differences only reveals part of the picture; there has also to be a focus on how practices are put into place.

Given a concern with informal practice as well as formal structure, the most fruitful search for a criterion to distinguish systems of local government would appear to involve a focus on present-day characteristics rather than historical legacies. The next issue that needs to be confronted is whether to focus on a single factor or multiple factors in drawing up divisions. Single criteria do not seem completely convincing and are more prone to shifts in patterns of behavior; that is, to deterioration over time as effective criteria. Thus, for example, some studies have looked at how local governments in different countries responded to fiscal crises (Pickvance and Pretceceille 1991 ) and produced useful insights, but, as time and financial circumstances have changed, the distinctions are not sustainable. Goldsmith ( 1990 , 1992 ) suggests that you could focus on the underlying ethos of local government systems. Thus it could be that local government is understood as part of a clientelistic or patronage system in which local leaders are seen as defenders of their localities. Such a model might apply to southern Europe. Alternatively local government might see itself as a promoter of economic development and such an ethos is strongest in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Finally local government might see itself as a welfare provider, and the British, German, and Nordic systems would all follow that ethos. The trouble is that, although there is some value in such a classification, it is difficult to sustain given the breakdown of the more clientelistic model in southern Europe and the mixing of welfare and economic development foci in other countries.

The most dominant form of classification in comparative local governance looks at local government systems as a whole and links together a range of factors. According to Lidstrom ( 1999 , 103), “the most widely accepted and frequently cited” is that provided by Hesse and Sharpe ( 1991 ). There are three main groups according to this categorization: A Franco group that would include many of the countries of southern Europe, an Anglo group based around the UK and Ireland and to some extent the United States and New Zealand, and finally a north and middle European variant including the Nordic countries, Germany, and the Netherlands. But it is difficult to be entirely convinced by this classification since there are such big differences within each of the groups.

Page and Goldsmith ( 1987 ) and John ( 2001 ), where the focus is more narrowly on Europe, adopt a similar classification with a strong division between northern and southern countries. Denters and Rose ( 2005 , 10–11), with a wider world focus, adapt the Hesse and Sharpe model but distinguish between local governments embedded in unitary and federal systems. Norton ( 1994 , 13–14), in what is claimed to be a classification of “world systems of local government,” does add a Japan group and splits the United States and Canada away to a separate North America group.

The major problem with all of these classifications is their narrow, Western focus. They are concerned almost entirely with mature rather than new wave democracies. In the 1970s less than a third of the countries in the world could be classified as democratic. But a drive to democracy dominated the last quarter of the twentieth century and, as a result, by the start of the twenty-first century nearly two-thirds of all countries were democratic (Diamond 2003 ).

All of the countries identified above have the minimum requirement that they hold regular, free, fair, and competitive elections to fill positions in their governments. These democracies all have a secret ballot, fair access to a range of media, and basic rights to organize, campaign, and solicit votes. Not all would count as full liberal democracies and many still suffer from significant human rights abuses, corruption, and a weak rule of law. But crucially, from the perspective of this chapter, local democratic governance has become a more significant part of their systems. For the new wave of democracies, having a strong system of local government has often been one of the main reform options promoted by international organizations and consultants. As the twenty-first century unfolds, the new challenge for the classification is to provide for coverage of both mature and new democracies. Comparative local governance needs to be more global.

There are some pioneering studies that provide a number of useful insights. McCarney and Stern ( 2003 ), for example, offer some valuable reflections on the development of local governance in cities across the south of the globe (from the Philippines, through South Africa, to Mexico). In addition to the scale and rapid progress of urbanization, they note that reform measures have generally seen local governments in these countries gain substantially more power. A study sponsored by the United Nations looks at local government in Asia and the Pacific (Sproats 2002 ). This study focuses a lot of attention on the problems confronted by newly established local government systems in having the capacity in finances, human resources, and political sophistication to manage complex and substantial social and economic challenges. Coulson ( 1995 ) looks at progress in Eastern Europe in countries in the initial phases of reform. Swianiewicz's ( 2005 ) interesting case study of Poland shows there has been a significant flowering of local government since the fall of the Communist regime at the end of 1980s. These studies hint at a need for a more far-reaching and cross-cutting analysis in order to classify and better understand world systems of local governance. The task is beyond this chapter, but it urgently needs to be addressed.

2 Explaining Difference and Identifying Reform Trends

Beyond classification, the focus in the institutional analysis of comparative local governance has been on trying to explain differences and identifying new trends. The former approach tends to draw on the continuity and historical embeddedness of institutional arrangements. The latter looks at the other side of coin and is focused on how organizations are changing, and changing in similar directions. In the previous section it emerged that we are in the foothills when it comes to classification. The conclusion in this section is that we are only just about walking on the level when it comes to two of the central issues of comparative institutional analysis: why institutions are set up as they are and how they are changing.

Page ( 1991 ) and Page and Goldsmith ( 1987 ) offer a systematic explanation of differences in local government systems even if it is within the more contained framework of European local government. Broadly, there is a distinction drawn between the functions or responsibilities taken up by local government systems, the extent of discretion that is provided to them in decision-making, and finally their access to central government. Some systems such as those of northern Europe score high on the first set of criteria but low on the last one. Other systems—primarily those of southern Europe—score low on the first two criteria but higher on the last one. As to why the systems evolved in this way, the institutional starting point for Page's analysis is, as Lidstrom ( 1999 ) points out, a focus on path dependency and institutional inertia. History entrenched a certain response in different countries. Northern European systems developed more formal and extensive welfare-based local government, while southern European systems were more community focused, with limited responsibilities but a fruitful clientelistic relationship with central authorities.

The problem is that it appears that systems are not so path dependent as the analysis would imply. The French (Borraz and Le Galès 2005 ) and Italian systems (Bobbio 2005 ) over the last two decades have undoubtedly gained considerably in terms of formal responsibilities, technical capacity, and autonomy from central government. Northern systems, such as that of Britain, have slipped back in terms of responsibilities and formal autonomy although perhaps gained increased access to central government, especially under New Labour since 1997, without positive benefit. In short the broad framework provided by Page and Goldsmith is insightful and helpful in providing a focus on key defining factors in judging the state of comparative local government systems. It is less advantageous because of its focus on issues of path dependency and institutional continuity rather than the issue of institutional change.

When it comes to the forces of institutional change, the work of Peter John ( 2001 ) has blazed a trail, although again the focus is specific to Western Europe. The topic of his main study is the shift from local government to local governance. Across public administration much of the new focus in governance is on forms of politics and managements that go beyond top-down, hierarchical options through the greater use of contracts or partnerships (see Stoker 1998 ).

With respect to local government John ( 2001 ) argues that formal, enclosed styles of decision-making are changing across Europe in response to the internationalization of economies, the Europeanization of decision-making, new policy challenges, and the move to more flexible, less bureaucratic forms of delivery. In a broad sense John concludes that there has been a shift from government to governance:

Across Western Europe there have been many changes in institutional structures, attempts at coalition formation, stronger leadership styles, a more visible executive structures, new management ideas and more of a focus on European liaison. (2001, 168)

In short, in response to new governing conditions, different country systems have tried to develop a similar mix of institutional changes and options. The commitment to a similar range of reforms is far from even with some countries in the lead on innovation and others lagging behind. But the pattern of change does not follow the north–south divide identified in earlier institutional studies of comparative local governance. Spain, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands led the reform charge in the 1990s according to John ( 2001 , 174).

Other studies have been broadly supportive of the argument that the pattern of change in local politics has been one from government to governance. Le Galès ( 2002 ) is the most skeptical and emphasizes differences in the trajectory of European cities as well some similarities. In particular he argues that the neoliberal turn in UK local government that started under the Thatcher governments of the 1980s has taken it closer to the US model and that other parts of Europe are not signed up to that model. He views the UK and Ireland as special cases in Europe but nevertheless concedes that reforms favoring business partnerships and new public management can be observed in many European cities. Moreover he notes that reform trends “are rather tending to blur” the north–south divide favored in the comparative local government literature on Europe (Le Galès 2001, 262).

Denters and Rose ( 2005 ), taking in a wider sweep of Western democracies than those in Europe alone, confirm that a broad shift towards governance has occurred. They note that three major changes can be observed. The first is the widespread use of New Public management techniques and public–private partnerships. There is much more use of performance targets, internal and external contracting, and the involvement of the private sector in the development and management of public service programs and services. The second change is the bringing in of a wider network of local associations, business groups, and private actors into the local decision-making process. The third is the introduction of new forms of citizen involvement. The first trend is virtually universal across Western democracies, although in some cases the adoption of changes appears more symbolic than substantial. The second and third trends are less universally observable but again, in the judgment of Denters and Rose ( 2005 , 261), the differences that do emerge do not follow any clear north–south divide, in Europe at least. Studies of local leadership in particular confirm a pattern of enhanced focus on political leadership and an increased emphasis on using the office of leadership to bolster the democratic legitimacy and effectiveness of local government (Borraz and John 2004 ; Mouritizen and Svara 2002 ).

The central questions addressed in the formal study of comparative local governance institutions can be related to those identified by Bo Rothstein ( 1996 , 134) in the study of political institutions in general: What explains the variety of institutional arrangements? What difference do different institutional arrangements make to the behavior and practice of local politics? Finally, and explicitly from a normative perspective, what arrangements are best for good governance or effective local democracy? The greatest (but still modest) progress has been made in answering the first question. The second question has received some considerable attention in a few specific areas of institutional reform. The third question remains the most problematic and an area where it would be difficult to highlight much, if any, progress. It remains uncertain whether the drift from government to governance is an enhancement of local democracy, or whether greater effectiveness in governing has been achieved, and if so whether it has been at the cost of a loss of meaningful accountability. What is clear is that many systems are now so complex and opaque in the way they make decisions that insiders find it difficult enough to fathom what is going on let alone the relatively disengaged voting citizen. Comparativists are not alone in being tripped up by the complexity of the systems of local governance that we are in the process of creating.

3 Local Governance as Institutional Regime Building

The formal institutional literature has tended to conclude that local governance over the last two decades has become more complex and at the same time more informal. This understanding has opened the door to more “new” institutionalist understandings that are concerned to address the informal construction and maintenance of institutions. These newer ways of working are not assembled in some ad hoc manner; they follow patterns and can in their construction have a determining influence on access to power. The “new” institutional concern with the ways in which institutions are made and the way that those institutions in turn influence actors and their decision-making has, as a result, become a major focus for the literature on comparative local governance. Most debate has been around the concept of urban regime, a framework for analysis developed in the United States (Stone 1989 ; Stoker 1995 ) but then applied in a considerable range of studies outside North America (Mossberger and Stoker 2001 ). This part of the chapter lays out the basic ideas of regime analysis before exploring the comparative material related to it. The world of urban political theory is much broader than regime analysis (see Judge, Stoker, and Wolman 1995 ) but it is the regime concept that is the most widely travelled from a comparative local governance perspective.

According to Stone, regimes are “the informal arrangements by which public bodies and private interests function together in order to be able to make and carry out governing decisions” (Stone 1989 , 6). Effective urban governance is achieved through building civic cooperation across institutional boundaries. 1 The making and sustaining of interorganizational relationships are central to Stone's understanding of local politics. A regime constitutes “a relatively stable group with access to institutional resources that enable it to have a sustained role in making governing decisions” (emphasis in original) (Stone 1989 , 4). Informal modes of coordination are explained using what is called the social production model of power. The previous more formal understanding of power as the exercise of detailed influence or control over decision-making gives way to a more informal understanding that power is about giving direction and then mobilizing the resources necessary to ensure that the vision is fulfilled:

If the conventional model of urban politics is one of social control…then the one proposed here might be called “the social-production model”. It is based on the question of how, in a world of limited and dispersed authority, actors work together across institutional lines to produce a capacity to govern and to bring about publicly significant results. (Stone 1989 , 8–9)

In a complex, fragmented urban world, the paradigmatic form of power is that which enables certain interests to blend their capacities to achieve common purposes. The power sought by regimes is the “power to” or the capacity to act, rather than “power over” others or social control (Stone 1989 , 229). Regime analysis directs attention to the conditions under which such effective long-term coalitions emerge in order to accomplish public purposes (Stoker 1995 ).

The social production model is about the exercise of pre-emptive power and the spreading of influence. There are two different types of relationship between actors. The first is the relationship between the organizations at the core of a regime. These actors with access to institutional resources in their own right blend their capacities in order to establish a hegemonic control over the policy agenda in a locality. In the US literature it is typically the local municipality and key private corporations who blend their capacities and resources to occupy such a strategic position.

The second important relationship in understanding regimes is between the core of the regime and other actors it draws into the governing coalition. Having created the conditions to exercise pre-emptive power, regimes are then able to secure the participation of other actors through the distribution of selective incentives, such as contracts, jobs, community facilities, and other small-scale benefits. Thus an effective regime requires a core set of actors to occupy the strategic position in a city and have the capacity to exercise pre-emptive power through a combination of blending their own resources and offering selective incentives to ensure the cooperation and participation of more peripheral actors.

A regime then emerges as a bridging institutional construct that draws together actors, with those who have access to institutional resources at its core. Having access to institutional resources is vital because actors in that position can enter the game in terms of setting the vision for a locality and combining their resources with others to ensure that the vision is delivered. Control over institutional resources is also necessary in order to bargain for the support of more peripheral interests so that they are encouraged to stay as part of the partnership.

4 Regimes in Comparative Perspective

The North American literature on regimes is substantial (for a review see Mossberger and Stoker 2001 ; Davies 2001 ). The key starting point remains, however, Clarence Stone's study of Atlanta. That study focuses on a development regime that dominated Atlanta for much of the postwar period. Stone shows, with careful historical analysis, how the regime maintained a steady focus on the regeneration and expansion of the city. He shows how the business community came to an accommodation with the African-American political leadership of the city and how, through various selective incentives and deals, key community leaders were also bought into the project. Against the odds in many ways, and certainly in a manner not achieved to the same degree elsewhere, Atlanta was able to build for itself a growth dynamic that culminated after the conclusion of Stone's study in the staging of the Olympics in 1996.

A number of other studies of regimes in American cities have been undertaken (see, e.g., DeLeon 1992 ; Whelan, Young, and Lauria 1994 ). In most American studies business is a key participant in governing coalitions because of the resources it controls. However, the relative strength of business, the composition of particular businesses engaged in the coalition, and the presence of other interests, such as neighborhood groups or environmental groups, will vary from place to place, and may change over time (Mossberger and Stoker 2001 ).

Outside of the USA, the regime concept has been picked up, especially in studies of the urban regeneration practices of European cites in the 1980s and 1990s (for a review see John 2001 , ch. 3 ). What these studies found (see Mossberger and Stoker 2001 ) is that economic development partnerships in Europe are more likely to be led by the public sector, with less participation from local businesses, and with less policy autonomy from national government. Some European scholars have also pointed out that the economic development partnerships they have observed do not have the pre-emptive capacity that Stone's work suggests is characteristic of an urban regime. Consumption and service issues are still predominant in local politics, in comparison to economic development (Harding 1997 ). In short, while coalitions of business and city leaders were found in European cites, no business-dominated regimes similar to those established in some US cities have operated.

The regime literature offers a way of studying the institutional capacity to set an agenda and get things done. It has provided an opportunity for researchers on both sides of the Atlantic to break from a narrow focus on formal institutions to a broader concern about how actors from various sectors and organizations can use their access to institutional resources to build a capacity to act. But the discussion of regimes has at times been confused. The problems relate to general challenges faced in making comparisons. As Mossberger and Stoker ( 2001 ) argue, regime studies have fallen into each of the four traps identified by Sartori ( 1991 ): parochialism, misclassification, degreeism, and concept stretching.

Parochialism refers to the tendency for comparativists continually to invent new terms or to use existing ones in an unintended way. The case that is under investigation by the researcher is considered so unique or different that it deserves a new or additional label, all of its own. Many regime studies seek to qualify the term regime by putting a descriptive label in front of it. Dowding et al. ( 1999 ) approach the issue of business participation by making this an optional criterion for regimes. They define eight criteria for what they call “policy regimes” or “urban policy regimes” (1999, 516). Why these regimes are called policy regimes is not really explained. The exclusion of business as a necessary element from a regime undermines a crucial factor in the original regime concept. As Mossberger and Stoker comment:

If regimes are simply coalitions that bring together actors in a complex policy environment, but where the division between market and state is not a factor, then how do urban regimes differ from networks? This alternative concept is flexible, and has many forms, without specifying that it bridges the divide between popular control of government and private control of the economy. (Mossberger and Stoker 2001 , 824)

What is lost by this adaptation of the regime term is its political economy focus. Network is an excellent generic term for partnerships between sectors, but urban regime is driven by an understanding of what operating in a capitalist society implies for governing as well as an appreciation of the institutional dynamic that can also condition and direct that process of governing. It may be true that in London, and in Europe more generally, business participation in regimes is less central than in the United States but partnerships that exclude business cannot be accurately included within the original concept of urban regime. Putting a new label such as policy in front of the term in the end hampers the effort to aggregate research and to test and refine existing theories.

Misclassification consists of ignoring important differences and clustering together unlike phenomena. The problem stems from a misunderstanding of regime theory and in particular the mistaken view that all cities must have regimes. But as a careful reading of Stone's work makes clear, the establishment and maintenance of a regime over an extended period of time is an unusual occurrence. As Mossberger and Stoker argue:

The privileged position of business fosters the conditions for the development of regimes at the local level in all capitalist countries, although local job creation may be more of a concern in some countries, and local tax revenues in others. Despite this, it is clear…urban regimes are intentional partnerships, and are difficult to maintain because participants have divergent as well as overlapping interests. Regimes, with their varied agendas, represent political choice. Whether or not a regime exists in a particular place is an empirical question, and it entails a specific set of relationships, including the ability to build public–private cooperation around a chosen agenda. (Mossberger and Stoker 2001 , 815)

The problem comes when all coalitions are claimed to be regimes. Kantor, Savitch, and Haddock ( 1997 ) in their cross-national comparative study, for example, characterize Liverpool during the 1980s as a “radical regime” (1997, 358), although it clearly lacked the prerequisites of public–private cooperation in pursuit of a common agenda. In Liverpool, the Militant Tendency of the Labour Party was more interested in resisting central government and business interests than in building collaboration with local business. Indeed it did not develop partnership with voluntary and community sector organizations either. It had a rather narrow focus on power held within the local state. Whatever else the Militant Tendency was doing, they were not building an urban regime. The problem lies in the typology presented by Kantor, Savitch, and Haddock ( 1997 ) that approaches comparison by describing a number of factors that influence the economic, intergovernmental, and political contexts of cities, and uses these in various combinations to generate eight regime types as a starting point . Their framework as a descriptive device may be useful and the empirical material is certainly valuable but it is not about regimes as cross-sectoral institutional pacts for the making of governance capacity, as presented in Stone's regime theory.

Degreeism refers to abuse of continua to represent all differences as merely quantitative rather than qualitative—a matter of degree (see, for discussion, Mossberger and Stoker 2001 ). The potential for this problem to arise in urban regime theory is considerable because there is no clear demarcation within the theory for operationalizing a “sufficient” degree of cooperation, stability, or coherence. It could be asked whether descriptions of “emerging” regimes in the cross-national literature (DiGaetano and Klemanski 1999 ; Bassett 1996 ; DiGaetano and Lawless 1999 ; John and Cole 1998 ) constitute degreeism. The authors cited here described certain European cities as having coalitions that were more limited or fragile. They were, however, careful to depict some ability to cooperate as a condition for regimes. The ambiguity about when a regime has “enough” to be a regime is problematic in the American literature as well, because consensus is achieved over time, and certain regimes, like progressive regimes, are assumed to be less stable, with more potential for conflict. The problem here is the inadequate formulation of the original concept. It emerged out of a case study in one setting and has struggled to identify or specify a full-blown theoretical statement stripped of that baggage.

Concept stretching consists of removing aspects of the original meaning of the concept so that it can accommodate more cases. As with the other mistakes in comparative conceptualization, the problem is that if we never know when something ceases to apply, the variation that may help to explain and predict it is therefore obscured by definitional sloppiness. The difference between concept stretching and misclassification is that in concept stretching there is some recognition of differences in the phenomena being observed, and that some of the properties of the original concept do not apply. But rather than “rising on a ladder of abstraction” (Sartori 1991 , 254), and developing a more general, umbrella concept (for example, mammals to describe cats and dogs), concept stretching simply states that not all cats have the same properties in order to include dogs. The better strategy in this case is to rise to a higher level of abstraction, to stay within the parameters of the regime concept but to find a way of being more systematic about the differences that do exist between regime types.

Drawing on the United States context, Stone has defined four different regime types: maintenance or caretaker regimes, which focus on routine service delivery and low taxes; development regimes that are concerned with changing land use to promote growth; middle-class progressive regimes which include aims such as environmental protection, historic preservation, affordable housing, and linkage funds; and lower-class opportunity expansion regimes that emphasize human investment policy and widened access to employment and ownership. The latter two are the most difficult to achieve, in part because they entail a measure of coercion or regulation of businesses rather than voluntary cooperation, but Stone's discussion makes it clear that the participation of businesses is still an ingredient in the regime (see Stone 1993 , 19–22).

The Stoker and Mossberger ( 1994 ) typology constructed for purposes of cross-national comparison adapts the typology of maintenance, development, and progressive regimes by including them in the broader categories of organic, instrumental, and symbolic regimes. For example, the more specific case of “caretaker regimes” becomes a subtype of a more general “organic regime” that is based on tradition and local cohesion, and maintenance of the status quo. The maintenance of the status quo may not be maintenance of low tax rates, as found in the prototypical caretaker regimes, but could include maintenance of traditional elites or racial or class exclusion. The instrumental regime is similar to Stone's development regime (i.e. Atlanta) and reflects the importance of selective incentives and tangible results in coalition maintenance. Symbolic regimes include Stone's progressive regimes and also revitalizing cities bent on changing their image. The main purpose of the regime is redirection of the ideology or image. Selective incentives are less important in symbolic regimes or organic regimes. These regimes are more tenuous, and may be transitional, especially in the case of revitalizing regimes.

Does this revised typology constitute an example of concept stretching? The case for the prosecution is strongest when it comes to the discussion of symbolic regimes since the ephemeral and non-dominant nature of that regime type may make it impossible for it to claim pre-emptive power over the agenda of a city, a key quality of a regime. The case for the defence is that all the regimes identified are cross-sectoral, although the partners and the incentives used to bind them together vary. In short the analysis seeks to “cleanse regime theory of its ethnocentric preoccupations and to apply a set of criteria that enables scholars to identify different sorts of governance” (John 2001 , 49).

The idea of a regime aimed at expanding the opportunities for lower-class citizens—the fourth element in Stone's original typology—has not been entirely neglected and has become central to Stone's work with colleagues on education reform in the United States. In the Civic Capacity and Urban Education Project (Henig, Mula, Orr, and Pedescleaux 1999 ; Stone 1998   a ) the insights of urban regime theory have been used to investigate a specific policy other than economic development. Although human capital issues have been discussed in the context of urban regimes before (Orr and Stoker 1994 ), this newer work represents a focus on a specific policy area with a different array of actors. The concept of “civic capacity,” or “the mobilization of various stakeholders in support of a community-wide cause” (Stone 1998   b , 15), is used to explain coalition building in urban education. The conclusions drawn by Stone are in some respects depressing but consistent with his earlier analysis. Coalitions had been assembled crossing sectors. Several cities had seen some small-scale successes in school improvement but there remained a problem in getting these neighborhood initiatives to play out more successfully on a wider stage. And even in those cites where regimes had in the past strongly delivered on an economic agenda, capacity in the education field has eluded them. As complex institutional constructions, regimes that give a real capacity to deliver policy change are not easy to construct.

In both North America and Europe the regime concept has helped to encourage the shift away from a narrow focus on the formal institutions of elected government to to concern with how cross-sectoral institutional capacity is built in localities in order to get things done. Given the shift from government to governance noted in the earlier section, this literature has opened up a way of exploring the way in which the capacity for governance is established and maintained.

5 Conclusions

From an institutional perspective the big positive in the study of comparative local governance is that institutions remain central to the field. There has been a lot of valuable research conducted, and through that work we know more about the operation of local institutions both formally and informally. There is now at least a base for comparative analysis from which to build.

The field provides scope for a more traditional institutionalism focused on the study of local government systems. So far it has produced some powerful insights into the differences that exist in mature democracies and their shared trends of reform. What the field lacks and has yet to deliver is a genuine global take on comparative local governance. The arrival of a new wave of democracies and developments in the mature democracies make a compelling case for a sustained intellectual effort in this area. The scope of the task is considerable given the complex institutional structure of local government in each country. Because local government is about delivering certain services and programs as well as about deliberating and deciding over policy issues, the challenge of understanding the institutional architecture in any one country often requires extensive knowledge of the different forms of government and also of a myriad of surrounding delivery institutions and agencies. However, with appropriate conceptualization, the task has been undertaken within several countries, but the challenge remains to provide a global comparative framework in which these studies can be fitted.

What might that more global take reveal? The first thing it would do is complete the orientation away from formal focus on the powers of different local government systems to a more substantive focus on their capacity to get things done. Studying local government in developmental states such as South Korea, newly developed states such as India, and developing states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America brings strongly into focus the financial and human resources as well as the blending regime power that is available to local government rather than what is written in the constitution. These considerations also apply to the former Communist regimes. The second area that is brought into focus is the quality of the democracy that is established at a local level and the nature of the relationship between local politicians and citizens. Too often in the cosy world of Western local government it is assumed that local government is good government and one that automatically engages the citizen. That assumption is invalid in mature Western democracies and certainly does not apply in the new democracies.

Comparative local governance faces further difficulties when trying to address the more new institutionalist concern with the way in which rules of the game and bridging institutional frameworks are established in order to move formal institutional resources into direction and practice on the ground. The interest in regime literature signals the concern of scholars in a variety of settings with these issues and again valuable insights and understandings have emerged, especially in the analysis of more mature democracies. There are some problems with the conceptualization of regimes. We need a better understanding of what constitutes a regime (how solid and how long living does it need to be?). We require a better framework for identifying regime types. We need to understand what binds regimes together and what might lead them to break up. But the greatest difficulties lie, thus far, in the inadequate way in which comparative studies in the field have developed. A range of faults common to comparative analysis have certainly been in evidence in some of the comparative debate about regimes. These faults can be corrected and with improved conceptualization there is hope for development in this new institutionalist element of the field as well.

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The discussion in this section draws on joint work with Graham Smith, of Southampton University.

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Local Government in Ethiopia: Practices and Challenges

Local government is crucial to develop democratic structure in federal systems by addressing the grass root society. Accordingly, the importance of local government is increasing in service provision, poverty alleviation and facilitating development. However, developing countries give much emphasis to institutional arrangement of local governments than the operational aspects of them. As a result, local governments are not mandated effectively as expected in delivering services. This study, therefore aims to assess the extent that local governments in Ethiopia realized their mandates. The research is confined to literature survey, including federal constitution, regional constitutions and other laws. Moreover, various books, articles, journals, government policies, reports and websites are used. The study finds that almost in all regions, local governments provide public services to the residents in a better way though their authority on revenue and spending are very limited, which results in an inconsistency of constitutional mandate and an actual performance. This in return, affects the quality and quantity of the public services provision. Furthermore, the block grants are not enough for the responsibilities assigned by regional governments. Overriding of powers in civil service administration by the regional states and zone administrations is take place as well. Therefore, the researcher recommends that local governments need to be granted actual power to administer their jurisdiction.

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Good Practice Case Study: Local Community Engagement in the Philippines

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This case study describes good practices and shows the benefits of engaging with communities and local actors, as observed in the Compostela Valley, Philippines. This case is in the report in Box 9, on page 61.

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