Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "May 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-134). Online version available on the World Wide Web. Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2005]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left">This study focuses on the Performance Management System in the South African local government with specific emphasis on policy implementation.</p> </font></p>

<p>Despite a highly centralised system of government, Tanzania, has attempted several measures aimed at achieving decentralisation of its immense powers to allow people to have a say on matters affecting their respective areas of jurisdiction. By discussing the autonomy of local government in Tanzania, this research will highlight whether or not local government in Tanzania has the autonomy to exercise its functions without undue interference from the central government. There is not much literature on the local government laws of Tanzania .Therefore, this research will contribute to the concept of decentralisation in Tanzania in particular and Africa in general.</p>

<p>There is a realisation that urbanisation has overstretched the ability and efforts of central governments to serve from the centre, thus, giving rise to the search for a robust decentralisation policy that vests urban local governments with some level of autonomy.1 It is in this context that decentralisation has become critical in order to sufficiently respond to the varied service delivery challenges brought about by increasing urbanisation. However, all efforts to capacitate urban councils through the process of decentralisation are futile if the urban local governments lack the necessary financial means to fulfil their responsibilities.</p>

This study, therefore, inquires into whether the regional states are discharging their constitutional obligation of creating adequately empowered local government. It will attempt to do so by examining the decentralisation programme of four of the nine regional states of the Ethiopian federation.The argument in this study is developed in the following manner. First, it will be examined whether decentralisation is favourable for democratisation, development and accommodation of ethnic minorities. Second, institutional frameworks will be identified which will be used to examine whether Ethiopia’s local government is indeed empowered enough to achieve these objectives. Third, the structural organisation, powers and functions of local government of four of the nine regional states of Ethiopia will be described. The regional states are Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and Southern Nations and Nationalities and Peoples’ regional states. Fourth the Ethiopian local governance system will be assessed in light of the institutional principles that are identified in chapter 2.

Most research on Chinese protests’ outcomes focuses on aspects such as the strength, resources, and strategy choices of these protests. Although studies on Chinese contentious politics have taken great consideration of the significant role played by the state in the political process, little attention has been paid to the state itself which is actually the provider of “political opportunity”. With a state-centered perspective, this thesis examines how elite division within the authority shapes the Chinese local governments’ policy responses to popular protests. Based on a case of protest in Shifang, an environmental protest targeting the Shifang local government on its construction of a chemical plant, this study shows an elite division between the Shifang local government and the police force who were dispatched to Shifang to maintain stability by its vertical professional leadership and how this division has contributed to a successful policy outcome of this protest. To further understand the Shifang case in a larger institutional background of China’s modern political climate, this chapter provides a possible explanation that the elite division in the Shifang case is an embodiment of the structural division between Chinese local governments and the stability maintenance system which has grown into a powerful interests group as a result of the policy priority of maintaining rigid social stability in the last decade.

Government reorganization movement around the world and public management theories put foci on ¡§Government Performance¡¨ in order to attain an ideal government. In such government, people can have the best government performance output while using the least public resources. Due to the characteristics that the administration scope of local governments is shrinking and that local governments are able to adapt to local conditions, performance appraisal might be easier. But with the ambiguous accountabilities among government organizations, the performance itself is still hard to be judged. Furthermore, differences between quantitative indicators and qualitative standpoints make it much challenging in the development and establishment of the important tool of local government performance appraisal-performance indicators. This research attempts using the establishment experiences and results of the performance indicators by the U.K., the U.S. and the Japan governments, contrasting the current domestic methods, and conducting in-depth interviews of experts, scholars, and representatives of government agents. This research not only considers the difficulties and plights while developing performance indicators of domestic local governments, but also provides possible directions and suggestions as references for the development of performance indicators of local governments in our country, for the propellant of government reorganization as well as for the increase of national competition.

Abstract Financial transparency has been playing the role of one of the most significant approaches to financial reform since the eighties. This is true of not only advanced countries but also developing countries where democratic awareness is blooming among the public, especially countries in poverty, because people there tend to demand more and more aggressively that the government publish important financial information such as the revenue and annual expenses as they get to realize how much the governmental budget impacts on the economical development and the distribution of resources of the country, and Taiwan is among the rest. As democratic trends cracked Taiwanese autocracy in the late eighties, the government began to take a relatively open stance towards publicizing the budgeting processes and the information concerned. Unfortunately, such changes seem to be limited to the central government only. As for the local governments, however, budgeting still tends to be done in black boxes as always. Indeed, little has been done to enhance the financial transparency of the local governments. People still focus on the facts of local financial difficulties and deficits as well as their demands on the systemization and transparency of central grants-in-aid to the local governments, neglecting the persistent lack of proper financial information publication. What exactly is the cause of local governmental financial unbalance? Does it come from improper expenditure increase or shortage of income or both? Neither the central government nor the local ones have provided solid and complete background information for the public to make their own judgments from. In fact, the central government should actively help the local governments construct handy, thorough financial information databases and thereby optimize the transparency of critical data, minimizing people¡¦s cost for accessing information and maximizing their interest in participating in local public financial affairs. On December 6, 2005, Taiwanese Legislative Yuan passed the Law of Governmental Information Publication to ensure people¡¦s right to knowledge, promoting their understanding of, trust in, and supervision upon public affairs, taking a big step towards administrative and financial transparency. The purposes of this research are: 1. By looking back on the literature concerned, the author wishes to make a comparison between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in terms of how they define the financial transparency of a member country and thereby to get the industrial circle, the government, the academia, and the general public to better understand and to value the concept of financial transparency. 2. Through depth interviews, the author wishes to institutionally, legally, and administratively explore possible strategies and steps that local governments can take to enhance the financial transparency, so that the general public can be better encouraged to participate in and to supervise local financial administration, raising the efficiency in making good use of resources of all kinds, strengthening local finances. The author suggests that the following steps be taken to enhance local governmental financial transparency: 1. Put together general, concise financial information reports. 2. Open new channels for the publicizing of financial information. 3. Formulate laws and codes concerning governmental financial information release. 4. The central government should build up a platform on which all financial information countrywide can be shown and processed. 5. Set up a national treasury payment information system. Keywords: Financial transparency, Local government, Tax expenditure

The purpose of this thesis endeavors to discuss about the environmental perspectives of central government, local government and NGOs. By China¡¦s environment now, we can know their positons of environmental protection. The differences of the environemtal protection is because the benefit. However, the method of management in China is decentralization. It leads central government and local governemt will have different opinions about environmental protection. The role of NGOs is as the supervisor of central government and local government. It tries to develop the concept of environmental protection and promote these kinds of concepts. It is also the intermediator between central government and local governemt. The postion of NGOs helps to implement environmental policies easily. The roles of central government, local government, and NGOs are the main issue in this thesis.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 338-369). Also available online.