In the twentieth century, we are experiencing rapid urbanization and metropolitanization in North America. Following this metropolitan area explosion are the severe social, human, and physical problems that have occured in our big urban areas. Solutions of these problems are inhibited by the complex structure of local governments in metropolitan areas. The problem is described as too many governments and not enough government. Today, regional planning deals not only with the problem of resource development, but also with the development of metropolitan areas. However, if metropolitan planning is to be effective, it must be integrated into a formal area-wide political structure with legitimate power. Thus, the hypothesis is established: for planning at the metropolitan level to be successful, it must be integrated into a well organized area-wide government authority, and must obtain a well-co-ordinated working relationship with suitably modified local governments and local planning bodies. Cities of our time are governed by two kinds of gravitational forces: forces of concentration (centripetal), and forces of dispersal (centrifugal). The inter-action of these two trends produces a new form of settlement called the metropolis. This phenomenon is the result of the scientific and technological advances of the past century. The spread of population outward from the core has brought with it a corresponding decentralization of the government pattern. New units of local government have multiplied with astonishing rapidity in the outlying areas. Metropolitan problems, such as water supply, sewage disposal, open space, transportation, unbalanced taxation, cannot be met without some fairly substantial institutional changes and comprehensive planning on an area-wide basis. In Canada, we have generally used a committee system for our local government organization. However, our local governments are unable to deal with these recently developed metropolitan problems. They have to be re-organized; and the attempts to re-organize local governments have been along the following lines: (1) inter-governmental arrangements; (2) special-purpose authorities; (3) annexation or consolidation; and, (4) city-county separation and consolidation. However, none of these attempts has furnished a satisfactory solution to the manifold problems involved in the development of the metropolitan area as a whole. Although community planning can be traced back to ancient times, the modern era of city planning began in this century. Today, city planning has been recognized as an aspect of the process of local government. However, regions of high population density and complex urban development activities require a responsible planning function for the development of regional interests. The metropolitan planning agency should seek establishment and acceptance of goals, both long-range and immediate, for the metropolitan area's physical, economic, and social development. It should strive to co-ordinate local planning, both public and private. The most desirable arrangement is that the metropolitan planning function is integrated into an area-wide and multi-functional government. By this, the planning function can more easily be tied into the programs and decision-making processes of an on-going body that has operational powers. We desire efficient government. Large-scale, metropolitan wide organization is not the most appropriate scale of organization for the provision of all public services required in a metropolis. Local governments still have vital roles to play in the lives of their citizens and in these roles they should be conserved. However, municipalities can be made more nearly equal in size through consolidation and amalgamation to strengthen the capacity of their local governments. Then, a division of functions between the "metropolitan" government and the "local" governments is necessary. The same argument is that reasonable distinction can be drawn between the concerns of metropolitan planning and those of local community planning. Duties and authorities must be appropriate to area, population, and financial resources. Only when all of these factors are balanced at the highest level, will community satisfaction be maximized. Based on the theoretical findings, the Criteria for the purposes of testing the actual cases can be derived as in the followings: I. Metropolitan government authority should be organized as general--purpose government. II. Metropolitan government authority should have enough legal powers to perform services. III. Metropolitan government authority should remain controllable by and accessible to its citizens. IV. Local municipalities should be modified to make efficient local governments, and local planning functions should be encouraged. V. Geographic adequacy. VI. Basic metropolitan planning function should be research, planning, co-operation and co-ordination, and advice and assistance. VII. Metropolitan planning body should have power of review over local plans. Three actual cases are studied based on Criteria to test the hypothesis on its practical grounds. The three cases are Metropolitan Vancouver Area, Metropolitan Winnipeg Area, and Metropolitan Toronto Area. The three metropolitan government authorities are studied under Criteria I to V; and the planning functions are studied under Criteria III to VII. The study both in depth and in scope of these three metropolitan areas is able to prove the validity of the Criteria which are derived from the theoretical findings. Therefore, the hypothesis is properly proved to be both theoretically and practically valid. In Canada, the provinces have vital roles to play in resolving our metropolitan problems. However, this should be the subject of another work. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

M.Comm.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Public Administration))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / A country's decentralization process can be one of the pillars of democratic participation, local and regional accountability, sub-national empowerment, and under certain conditions, economic growth. Fiscal decentralization, a sub-division of decentralization, plays an important role in defining the assignment of expenditure and of revenue sources to subnational levels of government. The proper assignment of revenue provides all the different governments of a country with the necessary financial resources to operate efficiently. In this mini-thesis, I analyze the assignment of taxes as revenue sources to local governments, giving special focus to the Peruvian case. It aims at proposing an optimal local taxation system for Peruvian local governments.

Thesis (MTech (Public Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020 / Public participation in governance and public service delivery is increasingly pursued in a bid to improve the performance of government. Improving delivery of public services continues to be a key objective that has occupied the agenda of public administrators and researchers alike. Despite various legislative prescriptions, which encourage local community participation in service delivery initiatives, there is prevalence of a top-down approach when municipalities bring services to communities. This occurs when municipalities follow their own developmental priorities for communities and they do this without the consultation of the concerned communities. The main purpose of this study was to explore the involvement of communities in determining the infrastructure services that are delivered to them by government. The study was done in Khayelitsha, a township situated in the Cape metropolitan area in the Western Cape province of South Africa. A qualitative and quantitative methodology was employed in the study. It is relevant to the study and assisted the researcher to gain insight into the Khayelitsha municipality and understand the challenges caused by not involving the community in service delivery. The main findings reveal that the role of the community is not clearly defined during the process of service delivery resulting in poor public participation. Poor communication with communities also contributes to this problem and there is no formal collaboration between the community and the municipality. Thus, the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on public participation and service delivery, as well as democracy. Furthermore, the study concludes that for the successful delivery of services to communities, it is essential that government officials comply with the legal prescriptions that are enshrined in the relevant legislation. In addition, communities should begin to own service delivery initiatives and protect their facilities from vandalism.

No description available.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / Plaaslike owerheidsaangeleenthede in Suid-Afrika het in die algemeen deurlopend heelwat aandag vanaf owerheidsweë geniet (cf. die talle verslae en bevindings van komitees van ondersoek na aangeleenthede rakende plaaslike bestuur sedert Uniewording in 1910). Hierdie proses is sedertdien voortgesit, maar vanaf 1994 het dit verdere momentum verkry met die nuwe grondwetlike bedeling wat tot stand gebring is. 'n Verskeidenheid van wetgewing het gevolg wat spesifiek op plaaslike owerhede van toepassing is. Die belangrikste hiervan is die Grondwet van die Republiek van Suid-Afrika, 1996; die Oorgangswet op Plaaslike Regering, 1993; Oorgangswet op Plaaslike Regering Tweede Wysigingswet, 1996; Wet op Ontwikkelingsfinansiering, 1995; Wet op Plaaslike Regering: Munisipale Strukture, 1998; Wet op Plaaslike Regering: Munisipale Stelsels, 2000; asook' die belangrike Witskrif op Plaaslike Regering van 1998. Hierdie verwikkelinge vestiq weer eens die aandag op die belangrikheid van instellings op die derde owerheidsvlak. Soos aanvanklik die geval was, is die oogmerk tans ook om onder andere werkverrigting en dienslewering te bevorder en effektiewe en doeltreffende aanwending van skaars hulpbronne te verseker. Hierdie aangeleentheid het veral momentum verkry met die Heropbou- en Ontwikkelingsprogram (HOP), wat in 'n groot mate op plaaslike oweheidsvlak afgestem is.

Local economic development successes and failures at municipal level, and specifically in secondary cities in South Africa, is deeply influenced by the constitutional imperatives for establishing developmental local government. The local planning, economic development and policy frameworks introduced between 1999 and 2006 were largely based on, and moulded according to, the wave of new public management paradigms and public sector reform 'good governance best practises' implemented in South Africa post the 1994 democratic elections. The study makes two claims about municipal designs and practises, one that the governance design for these expressions of developmental local government in South Africa has been driven by solution based and theoretical mechanisms rooted in primarily new public management frameworks and development approaches. The second claim is that this development approach manifested in practise in specific plans and frameworks which municipal governments and entities are required to implement and this implementation is characterised by mimicry and isomorphism through compliance, specifically in intermediate cites The motivation for the study, and the third claim which the study investigates, is that the implementation of these plans in practise is not doing so well in terms of delivering the results as envisaged, and secondary cities and towns are often in economic, social and service delivery crises and exhibit very high levels of spatial exclusion despite the local economic development profiles and governance arrangements in these settings increasingly being a matter of policy discussion and debate. The study then introduces a proposed alternative by focusing on implementation at local level and explores how things might be done differently. It looks at the possible contribution of the current search for more effective public service reform, generally referred to as 'doing development differently' or 'smart(er) development', to this local economic development debate. Through a conceptual analysis and application of the approaches and methodologies introduced by problem driven iterative adaption, the study identifies possible different approaches for local economic development in secondary cities and explains what it looks like. The study concludes that doing local economic differently in intermediate settings in South Africa can provide more realistic expectations for the results of local economic development initiatives through fundamentally rephrasing the problem as one that matters, and make recommendations for approaches through which problem driven iterative adaptation processes and practises can be introduced in the context of the institutional constraints present in these intermediate settings.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Communication Science in the Department of Communication Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2014 / This study investigates the effectiveness of communication strategies used by local government with the hope of improving service delivery. Municipalities around the country have been continuously facing challenges with regard to service delivery. According to the Centre for Policy Studies (2010) protests are common in municipalities across South Africa. For example in 2010, the Minister of Local Government announced that 38 municipalities were under investigation for fraud and corruption. The 2011 local government elections were marked by service delivery protests which turned violent and led to the destruction of property. According to Department of Provincial and Local Government (2009), angry residents blocked roads and began burning tyres and throwing stones against the lack of services in their communities. This led to clashes with the police. Dissatisfaction with service delivery is the primary cause of civil unrest. Nepotism in conjunction with bribery and corruption are key reasons for the presence of unqualified staff at most public and social service departments. This research provides a comprehensive study of how local government operates in rural areas of South Africa. This study also exposes profound observations about current service delivery initiatives by local municipalities. Further, the study demonstrates how challenges faced by local municipalities through poor, ineffective communication techniques caused it to fail to meets its intended purpose. The findings identified the need to enhance public participation and effective communication in local government. / National Research Foundation

Complaint handling is an effective tool for public sector governance. Effective complaint handling improves relationships between organizations and citizens by fostering trust and accountability, helps address gaps in public service delivery, and supports innovation in public service design. Despite these benefits, complaint handling practices at the local government level in British Columbia (BC) is often ad hoc, poorly designed, or non-existent. This thesis asks: what are the drivers and barriers for effectively handling complaints at the local government level in BC? The thesis argues that complaint handling occurs within a context of limited resources, which informs the drivers and barriers for effectively handling complaints. The thesis explores the drivers and barriers of complaint handling through a reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with senior-level local government administrators. The analysis revealed that operating in a context of limited resources led to the emergence of creative practices for handling complaints, including preventing complaints before they arise and handling complaints informally. Additionally, complaint handling is characterized by a tension between its private sector roots and public sector values like equality and fairness. The thesis concludes by making recommendations to improve complaint handling at the BC local government level. / Graduate