Issues in Public Policy

Local Government;
under what conditions Local
Governments are successful, when they
are not successful

Muhammad Waseem Sajjad

M.Phil. Public Policy
PIDE School of Public Policy , Islamabad

21 December
2014

Local Government is
the life blood of
Development.
John Lothrop Motley

Page 2

Overview
1
1

What
What is
is local
local government?
government?

2
2

Importance
Importance of
of Local
Local Governmnets
Governmnets

3
3

Under
Under what
what Conditions
Conditions Local
Local Governments
Governments successful
successful

4
4

When
When Local
Local Governments
Governments are
are not
not successful?
successful?

5
5

Conclusion
Conclusion

6
6

Reference
Reference

7
7

Qusestions
Qusestions &
& Answers
Answers

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What is Local Government?

Page 4

Local Government:
Local government, in its simplest sense,
is government that is specific to a
particular locality; for example, a village,
district, town, city or county. More
particularly, it is a form of government
that has no share in sovereignty, and is
thus entirely sub ordinate to central
authority or, in a federal system, to
state or regional authority.
(Heywood2013)
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Importance of Local
Governmnets
In the local government literature many
scholars highlighted the importance of local
government for a society. Tocqueville; said
that local governments are pillars of
democracy and a nation. Local government is
same important as the primary schooling for
the students. J.S. Mill and Bryce consider
the Local government is the similar of the
democracy.

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Conditions for Local Governments success

and Faliures
Each local government in the world tries to
achieve its objectives and goals and deliver
services to the citizen of it community. The
success and survival of an institution depend
on the certain conditions and legalities and the
local government institution itself depend on
some condition for success and survival.

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Political

Administraive

Conditions

Financial
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Source: Encyclopedia of Public Administration

Conditions for Local Governments success

and Faliures

1. Political:
The political ownership of a local government
is one most important condition for the success
and failure of local government in worlds. In some
countries, local government use as a tool of
legitimization
for
state
control
by
nonrepresentative governments/regimes (Cheema et.
Al. 2006).
Local government should have a strong legal
support means that local government is
legitimize by the constitution of the country. The
assembly legislate the Acts which make the
constitutional provisions for making of the local
government functional (Sarkar 2010).

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1. Political:
In some countries like Pakistan governments
didnt give the constitutional cover to local
government and in these countries local
government dies own it. Neither the British
nor the Zia regimes gave constitutional
cover to local tier (Cheema, Khwaja, and
Qadir).
When military take over democratic setup
then to counter the support of democratic
politicians, military government built substitutes
in shape of new politicians that will be likes a
channel among non-representative government
and society to communicate the problems of local

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1. Political:
The other countries are motivated for decentralization
and local government through their ideological base
or multilateral conditions (Cheema et. Al. 2006). But
in Pakistan when military takeover then establish local
government
for legitimization and strength over
state. A report Devolution in Pakistan by
International Crisis Group launched in 2004 and
report
said
that;
Local
governments
have proved to be the key
instruments in the Militarys manipulation of the Pakistani
polity to ensure regimes survival. District Nazism used
public funds and other state resources to stage proMusharraf rallies during the April 2002 presidential
referendum and to support Pakistan Muslim League (Q)

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2. Administrative:
The main purposes of the local governments are to
meet the needs of citizens for public services in a more
effective
and
appropriate
way
(Gargan
1997).Administrative power of the local government is
a main element of determining the success and
failure of local bodies. In different countries the
influence of central and provincial government is more
on the local government and this influence inversely
effect on the performance of the government.
I.

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In North Americas (Canada and the United States)

most provinces and states, planning still is
predominantly a local government function (Sellers
2007).

2. Administrative:
II. In mostly countries electricity is the central
function but in china electricity came under the
local governments (Nickson et. Al. 2007)
.When transfer function from provincial or state
government to local government and the main
problems faced by local administration is
capacity, skills and human resources issues
(Cheema 2004). Decentralization reforms and
assigning greater autonomy to local governments
requires training and capacity building for local
administration personnel in the Asian Pacific
countries (Brillantes 2006)
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2. Administrative:
Central government also influence on local
government for selecting, transferring and
promoting local staff due to this local government
did not select employees according to their
needs.
In china, Chinese communist party perform all
function related to local staff (Nickson et. Al.
2007).
In Asia, Korea is one country that handles
capacity building issues and Korea emphasized
on knowledge management as a main
element (Kim & Kim, 1997).
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3. Financial:
There are many factors and conditions that affect the
local government functioning and one factor is
financial constraints that inversely effect on local
government performance (Zaidi 2005).
Local governments need finance for delivery services
and there are two main resources of finance a) local
taxes and b) state grants. The specific way of
funding to local government varies from countries to
countries.
The capacity to generate owns revenues are one of
the essential principles of local government or
decentralization (Letaief, Mback, Mabassi, Ndiaye
2007).
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3. Financial:
A quantitative analysis seventy-five developing
countries found that administrative centralization
alone did not improve public services delivery
Enikolopov and Zhuravskaya (2007), there is also
need of financial decentralization and vice versa.
Preferably, for a local government financial resources
very important and should be enough to deliver all
public services. But in Pakistan, India and the
Philippines financial resources insufficient for public
service delivery that effect on the local government
work (Vera and Kim 2003).

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3. Financial:
China has been a very centralize countries and it
has transfer all economic power to local government
(Arif & Farooq 2012). So, local governments have
depended on national and provincial governments for
economic support.
For meeting local demand, there is need to lose the
restriction on local borrowing, so, local govt. meets
their needs. Local borrowing practice has been most
general in USA (Sbragia 1988).
In India, many larger municipalities have issues bonds
and in state of Tamil Nadu develop collaboration
between smaller municipalities to issue municipal
bonds (De Vera 2003).
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Conclusion:
1. Financial :
I. Enough Funding
II. Reveneue generation/Collection
III. Loans/Borrowing
IV. proper Mechanism for transfering funds
2. Administarive Powers:
I. Decentraliztion of powers
II. Create a compettion b/w LG
III. Educated and Skilled staf
Conditions for Success
and
Faliur of Local Govt.

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3.Political:
I. Ownership of LG
II. Party Base election
III. Ease relation between Provincial & LG
IV. Decentarlization from
Federal-to-Provinces-to LG

Reference
Applied Economic Research Centre (AERC) (1990). Local
Government
Administration in Pakistan. Karachi: unpublished manuscript.
Boston, J., 1996, the use of contracting in the public sector:
Recent New Zealand experience, Australian Journal of Public
Administration 53 (Sept.): 105-110.
Bird, Richard M. and Francois Vaillancourt. 1998. Fiscal
Decentralization in Developing Countries: An Overview. In
Richard M. Bird and Francois Vaillancourt, eds. Fiscal
Decentralization in Developing Countries. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Blair, H. (2000). "Participation and Accountability at the
Periphery." World Development 28(1):
21-39.
Bryce, James, Modern Democracies, Manillian, NY,1921
Crook, R. and J. Manor (1998). Democracy and Decentralization

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 De Vera, Roberto and Yun-Hwan Kim, Local Government

Finance, Private Resources and local credit Market in Asia, ERD [
Economics and Research Department} Working paper No. 46,
Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2003
Echeverri-Gent, J. (1993). The state and the poor: public policy
and political development in
India and the United States. Berkeley, University of California
Press.
Encyclopedia of the social sciences, VOL. IX-X, P, 584-576
Foster, A. and M. Rosenzweig (2001), `Democratization,
Decentralization and the Distribution of Local Public Goods in a
Poor Rural Economy, Mimeo, Brown University.
Gargan, John J., ed.1997.Handbook of Local Government
Administration. New York: Marcel Dekker.
Hallerberg, Mark and Patrik Marier. 2004. Executive Authority,
the Personal Vote, and Budget Discipline in Latin American and
Caribbean Countries. American Journal of Political
Science 48 (3)
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Thank you for

your attention!
Any Questions?

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