Local Governance - Science topic

As a Master’s holder in Development Studies and a researcher, the influence of local governance structures on the implementation of sustainable soil management practices is a critical area of inquiry, particularly in the context of sustainable development and environmental governance. Local governance plays a pivotal role in shaping the effectiveness of soil conservation initiatives, as it bridges the gap between national policies and community-level implementation. Below, I outline several key ways in which local governance structures influence the adoption and success of sustainable soil management practices:

1. Policy Formulation and Integration

Local governance structures, particularly at the level of local government authorities (municipalities, counties, or rural councils), have a significant role in the formulation and integration of soil management policies. Although national governments may set broad environmental policies, local authorities are often responsible for translating these policies into actionable plans that address the unique needs of their specific regions. This includes:

- Local adaptation of national frameworks: Local authorities have the flexibility to adapt and refine national soil management policies to reflect local agricultural practices, community needs, and environmental conditions.

- Policy enforcement: Local governance structures are in charge of enforcing regulations that promote sustainable soil practices, such as erosion control and organic farming. Their ability to monitor, evaluate, and penalize non-compliance is crucial for the success of soil management initiatives.

2. Resource Allocation and Prioritization

Local governments have direct control over the allocation of public resources, which include financial, technical, and human resources for the implementation of soil management practices. Their ability to prioritize soil conservation efforts often depends on:

- Budgetary decisions: Local authorities determine how much funding is allocated to agricultural and environmental programs, including soil conservation. If soil management is not a priority in the local development agenda, it may receive minimal support.

- Capacity building: Local governance can influence the training and capacity-building efforts for farmers and community members on sustainable soil practices. This could include workshops, extension services, and the dissemination of best practices.

3. Community Engagement and Stakeholder Participation

Effective implementation of sustainable soil management practices requires active community participation and collaboration among various stakeholders. Local governance structures facilitate this engagement through:

- Community involvement: Local governments can foster participation by organizing community consultations and public forums where farmers, local leaders, and other stakeholders can voice their concerns, share knowledge, and collaborate on soil management solutions.

- Partnerships with NGOs and development agencies: Local authorities often collaborate with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international development agencies, and research institutions to implement soil management projects. These partnerships can bring in technical expertise, funding, and other resources that local governments may lack.

- Local leadership: Strong local leaders can drive awareness and acceptance of sustainable soil management practices, particularly when they act as change agents within communities. Their influence is critical in overcoming resistance to new practices, especially in areas where traditional farming methods are deeply rooted.

4. Infrastructure Development and Support

Local governance structures influence the development and maintenance of infrastructure that supports soil conservation and sustainable land use. This includes:

- Irrigation systems: Local governments may invest in water management infrastructure, such as irrigation systems that minimize soil degradation due to overuse or poor water practices.

- Soil fertility management programs: Investments in facilities for composting or providing organic fertilizers can enable farmers to adopt soil-preserving practices.

- Erosion control projects: The local government can implement projects such as terracing, agroforestry, and windbreaks to prevent soil erosion and degradation.

5. Institutional Capacity and Technical Support

The capacity of local governance structures to manage and implement soil management programs depends on the strength of their institutions. This includes:

- Extension services: Local authorities often provide agricultural extension services that teach farmers how to adopt sustainable soil practices, such as crop rotation, reduced tillage, and agroecological farming. The effectiveness of these services depends on the knowledge and training of local extension officers.

- Research and innovation: Local governments can support research initiatives on soil health by collaborating with universities, research centers, and agricultural cooperatives. This research can lead to the development of context-specific, innovative solutions for soil management that are more applicable to local conditions.

6. Cultural and Social Context

Local governance structures are often more attuned to the cultural and social contexts of their communities. They can influence soil management practices by understanding and leveraging:

- Traditional knowledge: Local authorities can integrate indigenous knowledge and practices into modern soil management strategies. In many rural areas, traditional farming methods have long been used to maintain soil health, and these practices can complement modern sustainable approaches.

- Social norms: The local government can influence social norms related to land use and soil management. By promoting positive behavior change through campaigns, local governance structures can shift attitudes toward more sustainable land management practices.

7. Monitoring and Evaluation

Local governance structures are key players in the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of soil management practices. They track the progress of soil conservation projects and provide feedback on their effectiveness. This includes:

- Data collection: Local governments collect and analyze data on soil health, crop yields, and environmental conditions. This data informs the evaluation of current soil management practices and helps in adjusting strategies as needed.

- Feedback mechanisms: Local authorities can establish feedback mechanisms that allow communities to report challenges they face in adopting soil management practices. This ensures that interventions are responsive to the evolving needs of the community.

Conclusion

In conclusion, local governance structures play a fundamental role in the successful implementation of sustainable soil management practices. They influence soil conservation efforts through policy formulation, resource allocation, community engagement, and institutional support. The ability of local governments to integrate local knowledge and technical expertise, while fostering collaborative partnerships with farmers and stakeholders, is essential for achieving sustainable soil management goals. For these practices to be effective and long-lasting, local governance must be empowered with the capacity, resources, and leadership required to address the unique challenges of soil degradation and to promote sustainable land use practices at the grassroots level.

ANSWER MADE BY JOHN SELE PHILIP

The Census of India classifies areas based on certain criteria, such as population size and density, percentage of non-agricultural employment, and the presence of specific civic amenities. Sub-urban areas might not meet all the criteria for being classified as "urban" but still exhibit many urban characteristics. By considering these various aspects, a sub-urban area in India can be defined as a transitional zone that bridges the gap between urban and rural settings, offering a mix of residential, commercial, and sometimes agricultural activities with varying degrees of infrastructure and service availability.

The answer is in the Question itself. Clean energy, anytime.

I understand that true integration is done from social cohesion. To achieve social cohesion, you must start at the beginning: kindergarten and elementary school. This is the first link in social integration / cohesion, where people get to know each other, understand each other and then help each other. I have something written (in Spanish) about it, you can see in the following links:

A través de los resultados de conformidad con los objetivos trazados y la importancia social

Olá, meu portugues no e o melhor, eu estive no Brazil meio ano, e foi bolsista da CAPES, mais escrever fica complicado para mi agora. Eu vou responder vc em espanol, ta bom?

Entiendo perfectamente su punto de vista sobre seguridad ciudadana y democracia. En relación al tema de vulnerabilidades, estamos trabajado la vulnerabilidad socioeconómica local, y los factores que la inducen a ella, para el diseño de polítias públicas que los mitiguen.

Estamos empleando para ello los mapas conceptuales neutrosóficos y los números neutrosóficos. Ya hemos avanzado en ello, pronto saldrá una publicación al respecto.

Estás haciendo el doctorado, y dónde?. En lo que pueda ayudarte, aquí estoy. Mi correo personal sfortezarojas@gmail.com

Saludos

Dear Michael Addaney the cities and local communities are necessarily responsible for introducing and encouraging climate initiatives as they play a role in relevant spheres of policy like housing and household energy consumption, transport, regulations and infrastructure, land use and urban planning or waste disposal, besides others.

In fact, the most crucial initiative is being responsible for the local energy supply, where the cities across Europe for instance, can exert a powerful influence, because 80% of the emissions of greenhouse gases in this part of the world are connected with urban activities.

Dear Abdulrazaq Kayode Abdulkareem

The multi-level governance functions at different levels, with horizontal, vertical and diagonal relationships existing between the institutions, levels of connections and the respective geographical regions.

It was Daniel Bodansky and colleagues who described multi-level governance in terms of horizontal relationships existing between institutions at the identical hierarchical or geographical level; as vertical relationships between institutions on varying levels, and as diagonal ones present between them on different levels in different countries. Thus, the multi-level governance aims at investigating the potential relationships that can exist between specific levels of governance and to construct connections with international, transnational, national and subnational initiatives in order to ensure the achievement of a common goal.

I suppose that these references may be useful :

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107706033.006

Elena, I am currently reading this paper by Hospers, G. J. (2013). Coping with shrinkage in Europe’s cities and towns. Urban Design International, 18(1), 78–89. https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2012.29. He gives an example here: In the shrinking city of Brno (Czech Republic) a bottom-up approach has led to a focus on family support (Schmeidler, 2012). Making the lives of local families easier is seen as the main solution to the city’s shrinkage problem. Since 2008, the urban authorities have subsidised what they refer to as ‘family cohesion’, with measures to improve family-work balance and the social inclusion of child-caring parents. In addition, families can get free advice and support at local contact centres that are part of the so-called ‘Family Point’ project. Perhaps this can be an example, although in this paper there is no evaluation whether this strategy was successful.

Dear Ram Bahadur K.C.,

The experience of the Republic of Moldova could be useful. If you are interested, you can see here:

To make the implementation of the gender strategy viable, the Regional Department of Asia / Pacific and Latin America / Caribbean of the GIZ will finance several analyzes of a deep gender as pilot projects, in order to gain experience applying different methodologies. Within this framework, a gender project was implemented in the Governance and Inclusion Program in Peru, whose objective was to formulate and apply a methodology that includes tools to carry out gender analysis and the inclusion of the gender approach in lines of help of the program. This document consists of two main parts that account for the results of the project in question. The first introduces the theme and reflects its importance, showing gender inequalities in the governance sector. The second part of the account of the process and the results of the application of the methodology for the analysis and incorporation of the gender approach in the Governance and Inclusion Program, after briefly the program and its status in the gender subject before the application of the Methodology. In recent years, several international agreements have been agreed on, which have the importance of the issue of gender in the political agenda. The Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany answered this question for its Gender Action Plan 2009 - 2012. This dual approach includes both the empowerment of women and the mainstreaming of the gender approach, ie integration systematic approach to gender in all policy and action areas of development cooperation. In its Gender Strategy 2010 - 2014, the GIZ3, in turn, the dual concept in the formulation of its objectives. These contain the full mainstreaming of the gender approach in technical cooperation measures, the increase in the portfolio of programs and projects whose main goal is to promote gender equality, and as a third element, the guarantee of gender equality Inside the company.

Thanks, it looks interesting.

Dear Solange

You may like to study the model of participatory governance from CostaRica in Central American region. I guess in all parameters of UNDP on sustainability , Human Development and environmental governance, it has outsmarted many of the big democracies.Their Payment for Environmental Services Programme (PESP) is worth replicating as a public policy on environmental governance based on people's participation.

Hi Feng

I am not sure if this is exactly the same as what you are doing. But this is a study of neighbourhoods in Liverpool based on a participatory methodology.

We found that this was key to getting good and robust data.

Let me know if it helps re your study of neighborhood governance.

Where is your study based?

Best wishes, Ronaldo

We need to look at achievements of their performance plans regarding ^{environmental} policies, action and anctivities...

Thanks, Pablo. We are interested in comparative national governance and would study the draft of your report and revert to you.

Best wishes.

Yes First of find out whether the series is stationary. If not, make it stationary by a transformation or differencing. Also check autocorrelation as well as the partial correlation structures of the series. 

 You may use ARMA or ARIMA model for forecasting.

You can use confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) if you assume that there are latent (not observed) factors which determine observable (measured) variables. A CFA is a particular case of Structural Equation Modeling. The idea is to make hypotheses about different latent factors affecting several (imperfect) measures of people's participation, to estimate a model fitting covariances of observed data, and to test it against alternative hypotheses. The formulation of a hypothesis (number of factors and their relationship with the observed variables) should be guided by theory or by a conceptual framework.

I think the main drivers of the global economy are conditioned by climate change. Any conventional adaptation mechanism takes longer than is available to suit the drivers of climate change and there is still not enough awareness of the need to adapt.

I am not sure if a legal document - of global scope - can work better than the existing ones on health, human rights, water or the environment.

However, ongoing with the question, one way of integrating these elements I think will be about the main global public policies on health, natural resources, the environment and energy.

Dear Tinnaphop, I would recommend you to read Teodor Shanin´s "Marxism and the vernacular revolutionary traditions", in Late Marx and the Russian Road: Marx and 'the peripheries of capitalism". You may also found similarities in the conflict between Russian Orthodox Marxists and the vernacular revolutionaries and your current topic. Good luck.

Teodor Shanin, “Marxism and the vernacular revolutionary traditions”, in Late Marx and the Russian Road: Marx and ‘the peripheries of capitalism’, Monthly Review Press (New York, 1983) p.255

Though there are several methods, depending on the sample size you are assessing, in my perspective face to face interviews/questionnaires are generally feasible to get relevant data, using both focus groups or relevant parts oat the planning level.

Hi Tinnaphop. From what you describe, governmentality and technologies of the self sound like an appropriate theoretical frame to apply, if you are able to trace how aid recipients 'internalise' governmental power. Other potential conceptual frames for this situation stem from the broad suite of ideas captured in institutional theory - legitimacy theory, institutional logics, and isomorphism. Best of luck with your research

A cadastre usually refers to a spatial repository which is built upon and which reasons from a basic spatial entity , namely the parcel or the parcel boundaries which make up some homogeneous land right, land value, land use. All other relations are derived from that homogeneous spatial entity or connected to that - including land ownership, land use, land tax, land rent, land value, property renewal, etc. The term 'cadastral system can be used broader, namely also including all the organisations, profesisonal actors (government or licensed surveyors, notaries, conveyancers, land use planners/consultants/assessors, land valuers), procedures and regulations which together ensure that the repository is being organised, kept-up-to-date, etc. 

Land administration is a different term, often (but not exclusively) explained with the land adminstration paradigm. This is a combination of land information infrastructure, land tenure (systems), land use, land value and land development. Land admninistration does not automatically assume that all relations are connected to a parcel, but rather to spatial units, be it parcels, land use units, administrative units or communal areas.

The confusion with the term land administration occurs especially when being literally translated. In English administration can refer to both the govenrment and the management of informaiton. Hence, land administration can refer to both the management and decisions of land (such as expropriaiton, or the re-allocation of rights of use),  the management of land related information (such as cadastres of public/private rights, restrictions, repositories of buildings, etc.), or the agencies reponsible for either one of those. In other languages this may refer to only one of those aspects, or someting in between.    

great

Look into Graham Smith book Democratic Innovations and Archon Fung & Erik Olin & Rebecca Neaera book Deepening Democracy, Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance. There you will find a lot of resources 

okay.. I would like to go through it. 

Hello Abdesselem,

I also agree that Town Planning Projects or city planning is a mechanism to mitigate the effects of climate change in an urban area.... but if we descend down to the micro-level and also for implementation of the master plans then we have the mechanism of zoning or development controls or building regulations. so my question here is aimed at identifying the various changes or amendments in these guidelines to incorporate various measures of sustainability if they were not there, or some enhancements have been done in the existing regulations.

Thanks

Fuzail 

A basic, non-theoretical method, Benson:

Consider a number of interviewing local government councillors and retired councillors - from more than one municipal area. You will get useful qualitative insights. If you ask some set questions, rating their answers on a scale of 1 - 5, you may be able to generate some numerical stats from them.

Regards

GE

You must check at the World Bank data base and other sources. There is a paper "How not to measure the institutions" in the Journal of Institutional Economics that can help you in that area.

There are too many diverse perspectives and goals to permit "all the evidence" to be reflected in policy-making outcomes.  So yes, prioritization does occur, and some things are ignored or de-emphasized - if there is conflicting advice, or incompatible results, choices have got to be made.  Realistically, what I usually hope for is the "least worst" proposal, policy, or program.

Dear Siyanda,

Maybe this paper will be of help for you:

Best regards,

Lidia

Dear Al

My answer is based on my extensive international-comparative research on planning law. The weight and impact of staff assessments also depends on how the courts regard the interrelationship between the "objective" and discretionary aspects of planning decisions.  In other words, in some countries, if council diverts from the advice of the professionals, as stated in the professional assessment, then the council must provide very convincing reasons. In other words, the degree of discretion of the council is, in law, limited to a greater or lesser degree (depending on legal system) by professional pre-assessment.  In some countries, Councils in fact delegate almost all ongoing decisions to staff...  and in other countries there is hardly any buffer between the political and the "professional".    Rachelle

Hi Oscar, 

Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation comes to mind here ...

Arnstein, S. (1969). "A ladder of citizen participation." American Institute of Planners Journal (July 1969): 216-224.

Some Canadian work about community continuity and its impact on health and wellbeing is also relevant - albeit in small communities rather than larger urban settings is also relevant:

Chandler, M. and C. Lalonde (1998). "Cultural continuity as a hedge against suicide in Canada's First Nations." Transcultural Psychiatry 35(2): 193-211.

Look forward to the outcomes of your work.

Dear David, Please explain the reasons for your concerns and some references to explain more about the CDF and its methods and goals.   Robin

Thanks, John.  There was a less explicit review of forecasting performance by the NZ Treasury in the late 1990's. 

Interesting exchange.  Leadership matters.  No one should believe that I do not accept that. It is not all that matters.  The quality of "followship" in the sense of participation, accountability, and gullibility are important as well.  How much do Venezuelans suspend their disbelief and hunker down simply to outlast Maduro? So are context, timing, and the "enabling environment".  Context because it determines the problems and prospects that a situation can be addressed by a "leader" and not just the normal "muddling through" of administrative structures. Timing is important because opportunities to be more or less influential with respect to particular issues pass quickly (e.g,, when will there be an opportunity to lead on gun control in the US; contrast that with Australia when the Port Arthur outrage produced such an opportunity that the government of the time took). The "enabling environment" is critical in the sense that most minds need to be concentrated on pushing for some resolution (a current problem with Climate Change although the smog in Beijing and Delhi is helping focus attention, but not so with migration into Europe).  

What I have always found useful has been the eulogy for FDR by Walter Lippman which included: "The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on."  This statement obviously needs to some PC air-brushing, but the sentiment is clear.  Thugs like Putin and Mugabe and Museveni and before them Moi and and Mobutu and Pinochet leave behind them devastation and despair and generate a sense of relief or deliverance when they go.  I single out the "big men" but the same applies all the way down to the local tea circle or Putnam's bowling group.  Are people attracted or repelled, both before and after the person departs?  This might be a simplistic "wet finger" test of leadership.

Happy holidays everyone.  One might hope that our leaders, whoever they happen to be, will work towards a safer, more prosperous, and uplifting 2016.  I certainly do.   

Hi,

I worked on local finances in Viet Nam so have some information. Send me any specific questions you have and we can communicate.

Dear Souvidhya

I am sorry I am not providing you with what you are searching for. But I must thank you for adding this very important dimension of local level development through the efforts of social and community entrepreneurship. What your proposition seems to suggest to me is that local level development can be a participatory social and community project if the same can be designed and executed by the motivated endeavors of social entrepreneurs.

This can be a very novel and innovative idea for endogenous development trajectory of rural and interior areas in this part of the globe.

Yes, there are good examples of 'giving back to society' in the West whereby the successful entrepreneurs generously contribute for various types of social and community development projects. 

Thanks.

self-help groups are playing an important role in the upliftment of women in India by raising their income level and participation in decision making process in the society. there are enough literature on the role of self-help group in empowering women in India and improving socioeconomic life of women,specially rural women.

Dear Daniel,

I wish to make two points given the very interesting developments of this debate .

1. Your last response about what you and Katarzyna name  "pretending" attitudes or tactics from political elites from eastern europe is very interesting and may have a real fortune. It is a common phenomena elsewere and could be applied for example for EU - Mediterranean Countries these 2 last decenies. In order to have access to Financial aids and subsidies, most political authoritarian regimes did cosmetic politics to match EU requirements on human rights or democratic minimum standards. It is a common to observe a psychological and behavoir conduct within many cultural settings to play the game without meaning it. Until The beginning of arab revolutions in 2011 and specially in Tunisia, most EU diplomats never recognized this deviance or inconsistency of pretending attitudes. But that type of behavior that negates and conturnates necessary change has also been wonderfully described 150 years ago in a novel called " El Gattopardo" by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa" . Though it is a litterary work, I suggest that you include it in your readings. ( look at the movie of Lucchino  Visconti " The Guepard" starring Burt Lancaster , Alain Delon, etc..). The Prince Salina, in this novel,  enonciates this theorem " You have to change everything in order to change nothing" ( Il faut que tout change pour que rien ne change). This social psychology of cosmetic change to avoid the real one from inside ( what you call the change of values) is the most difficult one. I have written a paper describing this type of cultural resistance in the arab world to keep innovation out. It describe the particular case of social isolation of a tunisian born social innovator and reformist named " Tahar Haddad", because of a book he published calling for women education in the arab world in 1930 . He could not survive more than 5 years and died alone. This is how some societies deal with imposed modernity and change of values or with shifting balance of power between its members. Isn't that also precisely what you look about when deepening your inquiry about democratic innovations ?

2. I am again bothered by the enduring common mistake that scholars do about what is named " democratic innovations studies", specially within ResearchGate. Most of scholars restrain their observations in strictly the political field first and to the volontary tentatives or policies within that field( or the cosmetic ones, as described above). If democracy development has to be considered including more than free voting , etc... as indicators, but also more fundamentally about its result, which we could define as change of power balance between individuals and micro cummunities or classes within a given site, then we should extend our expectations of democratic change coming from more than dedicated policies and publicised performativities. The Map is not the territory. Bureaucracies make very often this mistake. We should care about larger views than from bureaucratized conceptions of how democracy builds. We should beaware of "the streetlight effect" in that field for building a consistent efficient knowledge.Enlarging the definitions and the indicators to effective results of equality and empowering of poeple has already opened numerous fields of democratic development and we are indebted to Amartya Sen and somme others relevant works.

For example, I have studied and demonstrated 30 years ago, the case that a simple technical transportation  law change which consisted in the freeing of small lorries and vans possesion and access to all the poeple of tunisia , has effectively changed the rule of game within the rural areas and loosened the grip of the one party system in villages, more than any other measures of tentaive democratisation for 10 years ( I called it The revolution of freeing la Peugeot 404 bachée). The government of that moment never intended to loose his grip and control of the population. The technical measure was due to the lobbying of a french company Peugeot wishing to export more cars to tunisia. With that case and many others, you can show, documentate learn and build a larger knowledge base about institutionnal change and development. I personally recommend regularly to reread two outstanding scholars Vincent Ostrom ( institutionnal analysis and development) and James C Scott about hidden resistance).

All this types of approaches of a larger conception of how democratic innovations and change take place, have to be done through careful micro sociology observations enquiry and research. We have to accept the meta assomption that innovation is also the result of serendipity, even if we consider innovations in  politics.

Whatever this discussion has extended I thank you anyway, Dear Daniel, to have opened it, as well as good luck to you and to those who have brought their added value and build this theme about democratic innovations..

In this context the publications of OECD Sigma may also be of interest to you such as the following: Jean-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling, Sustainability of civil service reforms in central and Eastern Europe five years after EU Accession, Sigma paper No 44, April 2009.

Our contemporary utility matrix has for the most part evolved in designed isolation.  The problem here is that\ this creates silos of activity which miss the benefit of collaborative economic efficiencies in capital cost and operating cost.  Utility convergence is a trend and a necessity to achieve sustainable communities.  I would argue that waste to energy resource utilization is a critical component of this missed resource opportunity.  I am working on integrated distributed sustainable technology clusters at this time.  The evolving distributed satellite infrastructure concept will provide better resiliency, higher efficiency, dramatic reductions in ecological impact and a higher quality of life then contemporary centralized fragmented utility approaches.   The models do unfortunately require urban density demographics to achieve economic sustainability.

Hi Katarzyna,

As Juehui correctly pointed out, Williamson's determinants of TC refer to the "unit of transaction", as a continuity of the unit of production. In value chains, there is a continuum of production and transaction units. This works fine for the economic organization or governance of an industry or a sector.

In my opinion, although Williamson's conceptual framework helps, I would prefer to use North's or Coase's. The first to identify the "concept"(not the definition) of transactions costs, was Ronald Coase in his seminal Paper, "The Nature of the Firm", 1937. Although he was looking for an explanation for the creation of the firm, he started the interest for the study of this field of knowledge. Previously, Commons, 1934, stated that the 'Transaction" was the ultimate unit of economic research.

Coase considered transaction costs, the costs of using the market system or price mechanism. Later, 1960 he slightly changed and included al the process of price survey, contract writing, contract completion and eventually their enforcement. Again, he's giving a TC definition from an economic or commercial view.

Douglass North, defined TC as the "cost of human or social interaction" and this I believe is the definition that best suits your requirements. He focus on a "macro institutional theory". Fukuyama also refers to TC when referring to "Social Capital" and "Trust".

Two books by North allow you to understand this concept and its links to economic performance and institutional change:

1- "Institutions, Institutional change and economic performance", 1990

2- "Understanding the process of economic change", 2005

When you say "institutions", are you referring to North's concept as that of "the rules of the game", informal or formal? Or you are talking of "organizations"?

What North says is that "institutions" carry embedded the system of economic incentives that determine the "institutional environment" and the amount of transactions costs. As TC increase, you get a lower amount of transactions, and hence a lower economic performance. High TC are barriers for the creation of new organizations, being them political, educational or firms.

He stated that you can study and forecast the performance of a certain economy by the institutional path or what he called "path dependence". So strong are the links between the system of economic incentives and the performance of an economy, that he states that if piracy is a profitable activity in a society, what you are going to get are good pirates.

The enforcement of institutions (rules of the game) are also a TC, what he calls an "ex post TC", because if  there is any kind of breach of a contract, the cost of litigation and enforcing the contract or the law, is included as a TC. This is why "Trust" reduces TC, and trust exists when there is "social capital" and viceversa.

I really do not know which is the core subect of your research, but I would say that "information" would impact TC and the more information you have about neighbours, or institutions (rules of the game), TC will tend to be lower. The same happens with "enforcement", which not necessarily needs to be performed by the government. There is private ordering, just as the first "merchant judges" in the middle ages. Mediation and arbitration are also ways of non legal governance or non legal centralism.

Cooperation is based on the principle of "reciprocity", so in one way or another you must create the conditions as to have this principle respected. Having "fixed numbers of participants", and avoiding fluctuation of members helps to develop trust, by increasing the number of interactions among members and increasing information about them.

Defining the "rules of the game" and creating the "enforcement mechanisms", also help to reduce TC, because you lower the level of risk or uncertainty for each interaction. Finally, sharing similar values or cultural traits, increase "social capital", favors trust and reduces TC. Collaboration is always eased when you have certain social identity or affinity.

I really don't know which is the situation in Poland, but would imagine that there is quite a similar origin for citizens or neighbours, quite different to what happens in countries where immigration plays an important role. They more or less share similar values and cultural traits, something quite different when you have immigrants from Asia, Latin America, Europe and Middle East, with different backgrounds, religions and cultures.

I do not know whether this will be useful to you. If you want I could send you some essays written by North, which are quite short an easy to understand. If not you can check any of his papers or books, which I believe will be of extreme use to you. I have written a paper in Spanish, about 12 years ago about TC, but with a focus on commercial "transactions".

If you think I could be of further help, just let me know.

Good luck with your research!

Alejandro

Dear Walter,

There is a high number of various publications aimed at your issue.  I have attached just few of them. I hope they will help you.

Daniel

Dear Andrea,

One of the methods exercised nowadays in Poland is particiapatory budget, when people directly decide what kind of investments in community they really need. I agree with you that this is fantastic. Good luck with your study!

Best regards,

Mariusz

The first step will be to make a proposal of public goods and their benefits to society.then you can request the authorities to provide you basic info and data.

The IASIA (International Association of Schools and Institutes in Administration) organizes every year in June or July a conference with scholars in Public Administration from all over the world. Last July it was organized in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. In 2015 it will be organized in Paris, France.

One of the working groups is devoted to Local governance and development. You can submit and present a paper. see www.iias-iisa.org and click on the IASIA logo.

Answer to the first question: no, this is highly unlikely. Especially small municipalities were only established after Slovenia got independence and the last municipality was established some three years ago. So, now these municipalities are not really eager to join again since they did not necessarily depart on good terms.

Answer to the second questions: I am not aware of any policy strategy (as is the case of Austria, no). However, I found some article that depict what the idea last year was: to get from 212 to 120 municipalities. You might understand something from these two links:

I wrote a paper on this abt 2yrs a ago for a conference in Spain.

Greater local autonomy, whether in the field of taxation and service delivery, impacata positively.

From the perspective of tax collection, the community often feel more satisfied contributing to local governments, entiendendo you can have more control of where these funds are going to return or utilities.

On the other hand, local public services, it is always more efficient for proximity problems , allowing to give more precise answers to the needs. In terms of efficacy, the scale factor can be a drawback in some public services such as drinking water in small communities .

I understand with greater autonomy of local governments, may give better development results and genuine all productive framework can be strengthened to a multiplier effect.

I hope to be adding some perspective , good luck!

Pronoun use can be really revealing in interviews. In a case study I conducted participants used pronouns to align or distance themselves from viewpoints expressed by fellow participants. I found Martin Malone's Presentation of Self in Everyday Conversation helpful in helping analyze the pronouns use in my study.

Interviewing farmers and fishers can be very valuable, as they carefully observe changes in the environment. However, you have to adjust for changes in farming practice, overfishing and "memory bias", where people tend to remember things less clearly the longer ago they happened.

You could validate interview results with data measured locally, such as temperatures, water levels, rainfall, ect.

As someone working on deliberative democracy and its practices, I think we should not exaggerate electoral accountability. Of course it is better than nothing however it is not an effective way of ensuring a democratic system. At the end of the day, we are talking about a power that can be used every 4 or 5 years. Such power is simply not powerful. The lack of citizen power in politics is a systemic issue. Unless the ideas and perspectives of citizens are transmitted to the political arena, we cannot talk about the power of people.

Education is crucially important. With better education people's voting preferences might have better bases. However, this does not make the system any more democratic than it is now unless people have more chances of effecting the policy making. This needs a better systemic environment than electoral politics. Here, I think deliberative and participatory models offer great ways of political decision-making.

There are a few options. Try, please, look at phenomenon of local government services in terms of delivery. H. Wollmann wrote quite recently a lot on this, e.g. http://amor.cms.hu-berlin.de/~h0598bce/docs/HW-2012-Local-Government-Reforms.pdf, http://en.iju.hr/ccpa/ccpa/downloads_files/001-Wollmann.pdf, http://www.ub.edu/graap/Final%20Papers%20PDF/Wollmann%20Hellmut.pdf ... or try to find an answer in: H. Wollmann - G. Marcou (2010): The Provision of Public Services in Europe: Between State, Local Government and Market. Edward Elgar. But, please, keep in mind that efficiency is influenced also by other factors, e.g. financial and functional capacities or levels of decentralization. From this perspective you can find many different outcomes between the countries in the field of quality of local government services (including their delivery) - please, look for instance at: P. Swianiewicz (2010): Territorial Consolidation Reforms in Europe. OSI/LGI (you can download if for example from here: http://147.232.5.162/krvam/files/clanky/klimovsky/klimovsky_02.pdf).

Depends what type of innovation system you are interested in looking at? There is a vast body of literature on regional innovation systems (RIS) and also on technological innovation systems (TIS). The national innovation system (NIS) perspective is not a prime focus of current academic debate I would say; it has received much attention in the past and - at least for Europe - policy makers also seem to have shifted their focus to RIS and TIS.

Can you paint us a picture on your specific interests?

Personally, I would be particularly interested in comparative studies on differences on the micro-level relationships in any of these types of innovation systems between the US and EU. So, at the level of individuals, as I think scholars often neglect to consider the role of individual agents (recently I read about this notion also in a paper presented at ERSA 2012 Bratislava by Tödtling & Trippl, although they don't go into depth).

Currently I am doing a PhD project within the theme of "the role of higher educational institutions in regional innovation systems". There is already a lot available on technology transfer and such in US vs. EU innovation systems.