Doctor Legum - LLD / The adoption of the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe heralded a new era with high expectations from ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe. Among other matters, the Constitution provides for a multilevel system of government with government organised at the national, provincial and local levels. The design of this system of government is linked to the need, inter alia, to realise development, build democracy and sustain peace in Zimbabwe. Provincial and local governments are expected to play a role in the realisation of these goals. The question is whether the law and policy governing provincial and local governments in Zimbabwe enables these governments to play that role. It will be argued that the law and policy hinders the role of provincial and local governments in realising development, building democracy and sustaining peace. The national government has excessive supervisory powers over provincial and local governments which limit the minimum level of local discretion required if these lower governments are to assist in realising development, building democracy and sustaining peace. Moreover, the legal and institutional design emphasises coordinative rather than cooperative relations among governments, thereby undermining opportunities for effective multilevel governance. It will be argued that the 2013 Constitution, however, provides the foundation upon which an effective system of multilevel government can be built. Mere alignment of the legislative framework with the 2013 Constitution is nevertheless unlikely to give full effect to the non-centralised system of government envisaged by this new Constitution. What is required is the development of a policy, institutional and legislative framework that gives effect to the constitutional spirit of devolution of power and cooperative governance.

Magister Legum - LLM / In 2014, the African Union (AU) adopted the African Charter on the Values and Principles of Decentralisation, Local Governance and Local Development (the African Charter on Decentralisation). The Charter is a first of its kind to provide a decentralisation framework for local government on the African continent. It seeks to use local government as a vehicle for improving the livelihoods of people on the African continent. Member States of the AU will only be bound by the African Charter on Decentralisation once they have ratified it. The actual impact of the Charter to improve the livelihood of people on the African continent is unknown. This research paper provides a critical analysis of the Charter in order to establish its potential. The analysis is undertaken against the background of the international literature on decentralisation and 'best' practices on local government. / South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI)

This research summarizes, compares and analyzes the origins and developments of integration in Europe, Asia and Africa since World War Two. There have been some interesting findings. Europe has been the most successful region, having realized free movements of people, goods, services and money in several countries within the European Union (EU). Africa has been more advanced in institutional integration than Asia, although its level of economic development, constrained by instability, corruption, and poor socio-economic conditions, has hindered integration; meanwhile, its regional economic communities (RECs) have been more successful than the continental organization. Despite the improved economic conditions, Asia has been experiencing difficulties in community building due to lack of consensus and a partnership among major powers. There has not been any continental organization in Asia; nor has the subregional grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), progressed far in economic and political integration. / x, 327 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D. in Political Science)--Vanderbilt University, May 2010. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

American cities have proliferated in the post-War era. More than 2,000 new cities were founded between 1950 and 2000. While the history of the local government boom has been documented, research into urban fragmentation has explored why there is no consolidation of metropolitan areas rather than exploring why Americans chose fragmentation initially. This dissertation proposes that individuals create new jurisdictions because individuals prefer to have governments which give them the services individuals desire, even if they could have similar (but not perfect) services cheaper in a larger jurisdiction. Individuals, however, must balance the benefit they get from better fitting cities with the price they must pay to live within the small cities. In the first part of the dissertation, I synthesize the literatures on urban governance and fragmentation with the literature on interest groups. This synthesis builds the argument for conceiving cities as interest groups and contributes a theory of urban behavior as the behavior of organized interest groups. I argue that urban fragmentation should exist anywhere there are urban areas –not only metropolises –and that fragmentation is produced by diversity in the population and constrained by the resources available for the formation of cities. In the second part of the dissertation, I analyze the fragmentation of both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas to determine what drives fragmentation. I use Poisson regression on 2-period panel data from 1992 and 2002 collected from various public sources. I find that there are differences in the forms of fragmentation in the metropolis and the non-metropolis. In both types of urban settlement, fragmentation is driven by political and population diversity and available resources for forming cities. Legal authority and intergovernmental revenue are particularly important. Finally, I turn my attention to cities’ interactions with each other. I use a survey of Kentucky mayors, fielded with the Kentucky League of Cities, to determine why mayors of different cities to communicate with each other. Using specialized network methods I find that mayor-to-mayor contact is not based on goal and interest similarities as expected, but rather depends on sharing an organization which encourages communication –an Area Development District.

A tese examina o municipalismo brasileiro após a Constituição de 1988, verificando como os municípios se saem no provimento dos serviços locais de saúde face à descentralização desta política com a criação do SUS. Argumenta-se que o processo de descentralização da saúde desenvolveu-se, ao longo dos anos 90, em duas fases distintas: a fase da descentralização autonomista, entre 1990 e 1998, quando os municípios tinham total liberdade nas escolhas da política local de saúde, e a fase da descentralização dirigida, após a introdução do Piso de Assistência Básica - PAB, quando os municípios começaram a receber recursos \"carimbados\", destinados exclusivamente a determinados programas de saúde, determinados pelo Ministério da Saúde. Todavia, conforme demonstramos, ambas as fases não foram capazes de minorar as desigualdades regionais existentes, em termos de oferta, acesso e financiamento aos serviços municipais de saúde. Enfim, demonstramos que as desigualdades em saúde produzidas pelo nosso federalismo não foram equacionadas pelo desenho adotado pela política de municipalização da saúde. Somado a isso, demonstramos que os argumentos normalmente utilizados pela literatura sobre federalismo e municipalismo no Brasil, críticos à \"onda municipalista\" e à existência de milhares municípios pequenos e altamente dependentes dos repasses do Fundo de Participação dos Municípios, não são suficientes para explicar a produção local de políticas sociais, dado que não são estes os municípios que apresentam os piores resultados na política de saúde no que tange à oferta, acesso e financiamento da saúde pelos gestores municipais. Por fim, demonstramos que o consorciamento pode ser um mecanismo eficiente na superação de um dos principais problemas enfrentados pelos pequenos e carentes municípios na provisão de serviços de saúde: o acesso a serviços de maior complexidade, inexistente em diversas pequenas municipalidades, sem que isso acarrete um \"efeito carona negativo\", ou seja, ao encaminhamento de pacientes para outras municipalidades sem a correspondente contrapartida financeira. / This thesis examines the Brazilian municipalism after the Constitution of 1988. It verifies the municipalities performance in the provision of local health services vis-à-vis the decentralization of this policy due to the creation of the SUS (Unified Health System). It argues that the process of health services decentralization developed during the 90\'s presented two different steps: the step of autonomist decentralization, between 1990 and 1998, when the municipalities were totally free to choose their own local health policies; and the step of the driven decentralization, after the creation of the Basic Assistance Floor - PAB, when the municipalities started receiving targeted incomes, which could be used exclusively for specific health programs, determined by the Health Department. However, as we demonstrate, the both steps were incapable to decrease the extant regional inequalities in what regards the supply, the access and the financing of municipal health services. To summarize, we demonstrate that the inequalities in health produced by our federalism were not balanced through the outline of policies that municipalized the health services. In addition we demonstrate that the arguments usually raised by the literature on federalism and municipalism in Brazil, which are critical to the \"municipalist wave\" and to the existence of thousands of small municipalities - which are very dependent to the transfers from the Municipalities Participation Fund (FPM) - are not sufficient to explain the production of local social policies, since such municipalities are not the ones which present the worst outcomes in the supply, access and financing of health services by the municipal managers. Finally, we demonstrate that the consortiums can be an efficient mechanism to overcome one of the main problems which are faced by the small and poor municipalities to provide health services: the access to services of higher complexity - which do not exist in many small municipalities - without causing the \"negative free-riding\", i.e., the transferring of clients to other municipalities without the correspondent financial retribution.

Forum: EU-Diplomatie im Jahre 2020

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Yukon is unique in Canada for its four orders of government—federal, territorial, First Nation and municipal. Determining the differences in communication characteristics, strategies, mechanisms, and processes of the governments can assist with effective communication among them, leading to new opportunities. Interviews with 20 participants representing elected, appointed, and senior staff positions from four orders of government extracted thoughts and experiences on intergovernmental communication through the phenomenological tradition. Strong internal communication complements effective external communication; government individuals do not understand all the structures and processes of other governments, but instead make assumptions that can create friction and conflict while a sincere desire to improve communication is evident. Lack of time, capacity, and knowledge are contributing factors to poor communication efforts. Interpersonal communication is the key to establishing stronger relationships and rebuilding trust. Recent self-government status for Yukon‘s First Nations provides opportunities for expansion and inclusiveness of intergovernmental communication. Key words: intergovernmental communication, interpersonal communication, Yukon governments, relationships.

Thesis (doctoral) - Universität, Marburg, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references and sources (p. 353-397)