Local Government and Urban Governance in Lusophone African Countries: From Colonial Centralism to Post-Colonial Slow Decentralization

2016 ◽  
pp. 13-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Nunes Silva
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Post Colonial

THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-131
Author(s):  
Mbuzeni Mathenjwa
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Local Government ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
African Union ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Status ◽  
Administrative Units

The place and role of local government within the structure of government in Africa has attracted much public interest. Prior to and after independence, African countries used local government as the administrative units of central governments without their having any legal status, to the extent that local authorities were under the strict control of central governments. The autonomy of local government is pivotal in the democratisation of a country. The United Nations, European Union and African Union have adopted treaties to promote the recognition and protection of local government in the state parties’ constitutions. Accordingly, this article explains the status of local government in Africa and its impact on strengthening democracy in African states.

Managing African Urbanization in the Context of Environmental Change

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuaib Lwasa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Urbanization Rate ◽  
Development And Management

Africa’s urbanization rate has increased steadily over the past three decades and is reported to be faster than in any other region in the world . It is estimated that by 2030, over half of the African population will be living in urban areas . But the nature of Africa’s urbanization and subsequent form of cities is yet to be critically analyzed in the context of city authorities’ readiness to address the challenges . Evidence is also suggesting that urbanization in African countries is increasingly associated with the high economic growth that has been observed in the last two decades . Both underlying and proximate drivers are responsible for the urbanization, and these include population dynamics, economic growth, legislative designation, increasing densities in rural centers, as well as the growth of mega cities such as Lagos, Cairo and Kinshasa, that are extending to form urban corridors . With the opportunities of urbanization in Sub–Saharan Africa, there are also challenges in the development and management of these cities . Those challenges include provision of social services, sustainable economic development, housing development, urban governance, spatial development guidance and environmental management, climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction . The challenge involves dealing with the development and infrastructure deficit, in addition to required adaption to and mitigation of climate change . This paper examines the current state of urban management in Africa .

On the regulatory changes in government accounting development in Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-411
Author(s):  
Pran Krishansing Boolaky ◽  
Nitri Mirosea ◽  
Kishore Singh
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Accounting Practice ◽  
Government Accounting ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
History Of

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the history of government accounting, using a well-grounded periodisation, in order to provide a chronology of government accounting development (GAD) in Indonesia from 1845 to 2015 focusing on development on accounting regulations and systems and practices in local government in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach It collects archival data and then uses a descriptive tradition of research to capture mainly regulatory changes affecting GAD from colonial to post-colonial period. Findings The paper reports major regulatory changes, evolution in local government accounting practice, development of government accounting standards (GASt) and converging GASs with international standards. Research limitations/implications This study is important to accounting historians and other academics because it provides a detailed chronicle of accounting regulatory changes in Indonesia which can be used for future research. The limitation(s) of this study is that is data collection which was not easily accessible and as results have to rely on various sources. Practical implications The study has an important practical implication. It has produced a time series register of regulatory changes affecting GAD in Indonesia. It can be used as a reference document in the National Library of Indonesia and also by academics for future research. Originality/value A times series register, for the first time, is produced which provides a comprehensive chronology of accounting development in Indonesia.

AIDS as a Metaphor

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-52
Keyword(s):  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Social Morality ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
New Realism ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Susan Sontag ◽  
The Arts ◽  
First World

In this excerpt from the essay AIDS and Its Metaphors Susan Sontag considers how the AIDS epidemic has affected lifestyles and morality. When epidemics persist for many years, the precautions that had started out as briefly enforced precautions become a part of social morality. Until 1981 the successes of medicine in treating sexually transmitted diseases encouraged emancipation from sexual morals. Sontag uses economic metaphors to designate those decades as a period of sexual spending, speculation and inflation, after which the early stages of a sexual depression set in. AIDS caused fear of sexuality to return. If cancer has taught us to fear environmental pollution, AIDS triggered a fear of pollution through people. The AIDS epidemic led to the disappearance of many secular ideals, which Sontag regards as closely linked to freedom. AIDS provided an incentive for a resurgence of conservatism in many areas. Its effect on the arts in particular was to force a rejection of modernist discoveries and a return to tonality, melody, plot, character, etc. AIDS then becomes a new realism. Sontag also addresses post-colonial issues related to the AIDS epidemic. If AIDS had been a purely African disease, notwithstanding the scale of the epidemic, it would have been considered a “natural” cataclysm similar to famine. But once the epidemic affected the West, it was no longer perceived as a natural disaster. In First World countries, disasters are understood as historical events which bring about important social change, while in Asian and African countries they are viewed as one part of a general cycle of nature and as something closer to natural phenomena. The new disease has changed very little in the operation of that logic.

4. The primacy of patronage politics

2018 ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Ian Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern State ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Coercive Control ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Patronage Politics

A great number of post-colonial African countries, bounded by formal frontiers and with an international presence at various international institutions such as the United Nations, function quite differently from conventional understandings of what a formal state is and should do. ‘The primacy of patronage politics’ explains that to understand African politics, the concept of neo-patrimonialism must be considered. Neo-patrimonialism is where patronage, clientelism, and rent-seeking exist, but where the structures of a modern state are also in place. In general, post-colonial African leaders have relied on coercive control and patronage through capturing power over the state, rather than through constructing a functioning impartial administration.

Local Multiparty Democracy in Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 92-116
Author(s):  
Nico Steytler
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
National Level ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The People ◽  
National Leaders ◽  
The Government ◽  
Winner Takes All

This chapter argues that democratic local government embeds the culture of democracy at grassroots: as the government closest to the people, it establishes a culture of responsiveness, transparency, and accountability more readily and effectively than by holding national leaders to account. Local democracy can also be used strategically when a country seeks to move from an authoritarian or military regime to democracy. Furthermore, it provides space for political inclusivity—an argument with particular relevance in ethnically diverse societies, where a winner-takes-all paradigm of competition at the national level typically results in the marginalization of geographically concentrated losers. Finally, local government allows for experimentation in different forms of inclusive politics, be they representative or participatory. However, although most African countries have adopted decentralization policies, the dividends are meagre. Local government is but feebly equipped to play a democracy-constituting role: operating in a constrained constitutional environment, central governments have generally not allowed local governments the opportunity to hold regular free and fair elections and thereby play a role in democratization. Despite these findings, there is also some evidence that on occasion local democracy has indeed played such a role and thus enhanced democratic participation.

scholarly journals New Governance of Urban Areas in France

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-496
Author(s):  
Michæle Breuillard
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Perfect Model ◽  
Institutional Architecture ◽  
Turf Wars

The paper analyses urban governance and decentralisation in France. It explains the “quiet revolution” that wants to set the legal base of French local government back to the drawing board with special focus on the reform of local government in urban areas. The context of the too many too small communes – at the heart of the reform programme – is described since it is a typically French evil (part 2). In the absence of any successful top-down policy of amalgamating communes, new communes are deemed to be the effective solution along with a new mapping of intercommunal joint bodies (part 3). Finally, the paper describes what the metropolis “à la française” consists of (part 4) with a special focus on Lyon – the perfect model for the whole country – and Paris and Aix-Marseille as the worst pupils in transition. France stands out as an important case where new powers bestowed upon metropolitan governments have curbed the jurisdictions of regional governments. The ambiguity over the powers and functions of local governments triggers obdurate turf wars between the two levels of government, which clearly indicates that the governance of any modern society needs to be simplified. If left unaddressed, competition – not coordination or cooperation – between regionalization and metropolitanisation, regionalization and local governments, governability and multilevel governance is likely to become the norm. The author concludes that France desperately needs an in-depth reform of its institutional architecture, which is regularly postponed. What is required is a simplification of governmental machinery: more efficiency in local policies, a clearer allocation of responsibilities, reduced expenses, and governance closer to citizens.

scholarly journals ‘Deal or no deal?’ Governing urban infrastructure funding and financing in the UK City Deals

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 1448-1476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter O’Brien ◽  
Andy Pike
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban Infrastructure ◽  
International Investment ◽  
National State ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Administrative Culture ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Political Economic

How urban infrastructure is funded, financed and governed is a central issue for states at the national, city-regional and city scales. Urban infrastructure is being financialised by financial and state actors and transformed into an asset in the international investment landscape. Local governments are being compelled by national state and financial institutions to be more entrepreneurial in their infrastructure funding and financing and to reorganise their governance arrangements. This article explains the socially and spatially uneven unfolding and implications of urban infrastructure financialisation and local government attempts to implement more entrepreneurial practices and governance forms. The empirical focus is the City Deals in the UK: a new form of urban governance and infrastructure investment based upon negotiated central–local government agreements on decentralised powers, responsibilities and resources. The continued authority of the highly centralised UK national state, its managerialist institutions and conservative/risk-averse administrative culture have constrained urban infrastructure financialisation and entrepreneurial urban governance in the UK City Deals. Situated in their particular spatial, temporal, political-economic and institutional settings, financialisation is understood as a socially and spatially variegated process and urban governance is interpreted as the articulation and mixing of new entrepreneurial and enduring managerialist forms.

Local Government Law, Development and Cross-border Trade in the Global Cities of SADC

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-157
Author(s):  
Marius Pieterse
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Southern African Development Community ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
City Governments ◽  
African Development ◽  
Economic Competitiveness ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Border Trade

AbstractThe ways in which cities function and are governed matter economically. While the growing literature on ‘global cities’ shows that city governments often pursue economic competitiveness, not much work has been done on whether the formal powers and competencies of cities and towns, as well as the ways in which these are wielded, are conducive to the achievement of developmental and socio-economic objectives. This article considers the interactions and interdependencies between local government law, urban governance, developmental objectives and formal as well as informal cross-border trade between cities in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. While supporting increased devolution of local government powers, it cautions that cities of SADC must take care to wield their powers in ways that ensure the economic flourishing of the majority of their inhabitants. In particular, this requires a change of mindset in relation to the municipal regulation of informal economic activity.

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