Finding Common Ground


Book Description




E-Participation in Local Government


Book Description




Local Government Today


Book Description

Local Government Today provides a comprehensive analysis of the structure, finance, management, and democratic framework for local government in Britain. This new edition includes the changes made by Tony Blair's government and an evaluation in a comparative context of the value and effectiveness of the system. A new feature is a running commentary that puts the British system in comparative context and provides basic information on how local government operates in the European Union and the Unites States.




Governing Women


Book Description

Though the proportion of women in national assemblies still barely scrapes 16% on average, the striking outliers – Rwanda with 49% of its assembly female, Argentina with 35%, Liberia and Chile with new women presidents this year – have raised expectations that there is an upward trend in women’s representation from which we may expect big changes in the quality of governance. But getting women into public office is just the first step in the challenge of creating governance and accountability systems that respond to women’s needs and protect their rights. Using case studies from around the world, the essays in this volume consider the conditions for effective connections between women in civil society and women in politics, for the evolution of political party platforms responsive to women’s interests, for local government arrangements that enable women to engage effectively, and for accountability mechanisms that answer to women. The book’s argument is that good governance from a gender perspective requires more than more women in politics. It requires fundamental incentive changes to orient public action and policy to support gender equality.




Electronic Government


Book Description

The EGOV Conference Series intends to assess the state of the art in e-Gove- ment and to provide guidance for research and development in this fast-moving ?eld. The annual conferences bring together leading research experts and p- fessionals from all over the globe. Thus, EGOV 2003 in Prague built on the achievements of the 1st EGOV Conference (Aix-en-Provence, 2002), which p- vided an illustrative overview of e-Government activities. This year the interest even increased: nearly 100 contributions, and authors coming from 34 countries. In this way EGOV Conference 2003 was a reunion for professionals from all over the globe. EGOV 2003 brought some changes in the outline and structure of the c- ference. In line with the broadening of the ?eld and a growing number of s- missions it became necessary to decentralize the reviewing process. So reviewing was done via stream chairs who deserve high praise for their dedicated work. In addition, a workshop part was included to cover some subjects of emerging signi?cance, such as dissemination, networking, and regional developments. F- ther, a subtitle of the conference was chosen that would mirror the expansion of e-Government to e-Governance. Consequently, in this year’s conference gov- nance, democratic deliberation and legal issues occupied a growing share. Last, but not least, GIS was incorporated as a topic due to the increasing importance of geographical information systems for planning and operations.




Local Elections and the Politics of Small-scale Democracy


Book Description

Offers comprehensive analysis of electoral politics in America's municipalities. Arguing that explanations of voting behavior are ill suited for local contests, the author puts forward a theory that the differences between local, state, and national democracies.




Women and Representation in Local Government


Book Description

Women and Representation in Local Government opens up an opportunity to critique and move beyond suppositions and labels in relation to women in local government. Presenting a wealth of new empirical material, this book brings together international experts to examine and compare the presence of women at this level and features case studies on the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Finland, Uganda, China, Australia and New Zealand. Divided into four main sections, each explores a key theme related to the subject of women and representation in local government and engages with contemporary gender theory and the broader literature on women and politics. The contributors explore local government as a gendered environment; critiquing strategies to address the limited number of elected female members in local government and examine the impact of significant recent changes on local government through a gender lens. Addressing key questions of how gender equality can be achieved in this sector, it will be of strong interest to students and academics working in the fields of gender studies, local government and international politics.







Leading the Localities


Book Description

This book, now available in paperback, is the result of national research conducted amongst England's directly elected mayors and the councillors that serve alongside them. It is the first such major publication to assess the impact on local politics of this new office and fills a gap in our understanding of how the Local Government Act 2000 has influenced local governance. The book also draws from a range of research that has focused on elected mayors - in England and overseas - to set out how the powers, roles and responsibilities of mayors and mayoral councils would need to change if English local politics is to fundamentally reconnect with citizens. It not only explores how English elected mayors are currently operating, but how the office could develop and, as such, is a major contribution to the debate about the governance of the English localities.




Auditing Practices in Local Governments


Book Description

Through a comparative analysis of the development of auditing practices in governments across the globe, Auditing Practices in Local Governments: An International Comparison provides a contemporary overview of public sector auditing practices at both local and state level.