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This research measured the impact of decentralisation on the promotion of good local governance in the Lilongwe District Assembly. The study explored the condition of local governance by examining the status of the facets that underpin local governance namely participation, transparency and accountability, gender equity and efficiency. It highlighted dilemmas associated with implementing decentralisation in areas where there are no functioning local institutions and where tendencies of centralisation still loom large.

Influenced by the global phenomenon of the third way paradigm, the reform of the New Zealand Local Government Act 2002 (LGA 2002) marked significant changes for local authorities. Under this Act, local authorities were required to consult with their communities to develop long term plans identifying social, economic, environmental and cultural outcomes and progress indicators within a sustainable development framework. Since 2002, local authorities have developed at least one long term plan with a full consultation process. This thesis explored the interpretation of cultural wellbeing based on ethnicity and cultural identity, identifying factors that may influence indicator development using Hamilton City Council’s Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) 2006 as a case study. The qualitative and secondary quantitative research has shown tensions exist, between the application of a western definition of cultural wellbeing and the cultural worldview within a governance model. Subsequent findings relate to the dearth of literature exploring the relationship between principles of citizenship, cultural diversity and cultural wellbeing within a New Zealand setting. Through the reflexive research process it has been identified that any further work in this area draws on community participatory research design and indigenous methodology. Cultural wellbeing is a live process moving beyond the manifestation of tradition and custom that traditionally has been associated with indicator development. The generic nature of cultural wellbeing indicators could be related to the need for more research into the epistemology of culture as a knowledge tradition in itself and how it is incorporated into development of wellbeing measures and indicators. By drawing on central, local and regional monitoring programmes, local authorities, such as Hamilton City Council have demonstrated an evolution in the type of cultural wellbeing indicators and outcomes used; however the full intent of broadening the role of local government to include cultural wellbeing is still to be realised.

This study of local public sector efficiency, the first attempted in an Australian context using frontier measurement techniques, seeks to survey and estimate the level and determinants of productive, allocative, technical and scale efficiency in Australian local government. It finds that a major influence on efficiency in local government is the imposed contextual environment, that efficiency varies markedly across particular local governments, and that productive efficiency in the provision of local public services has improved during the recent program of microeconomic reform. The first theoretical section of the study examines the econometric and mathematical methods that have been employed in the recent history of efficiency measurement. Starting with an assessment of the significance of Farrell's (1957) pioneering work on the analysis of productive efficiency, it extends this approach to the orthodox analysis of deterministic frontiers, and discusses the ongoing analysis of stochastic frontiers. The theoretical section also examines the alternative mathematical programming approach to the analysis of productive efficiency, as well as examining some extensions to this approach. The section concludes with a discussion of various theoretical issues involved in selecting an appropriate analytical technique and interpreting the resultant findings. The second section of the study contains a comprehensive survey of empirical work on frontier efficiency measurement techniques. It examines various applications using microeconomic efficiency methods in the fields of financial services, healthcare, education, local public services, and other selected applications. Attention is paid to the preferred analytical techniques used in each field, especially those concerning input/output specification. The main finding of this section is that the nature of the sample itself often requires careful analysis, especially as institutional and environmental factors can exert a strong influence on efficiency measures. The third section of the study provides a brief overview of local government in Australia, with particular emphasis on internationally distinguishable characteristics. The function and financing of Australian local government is discussed, with special attention paid to the state of New South Wales. The institutional section also examines the progress of microeconomic reform in Australian local government, and discusses the extant approaches to comparative performance measurement and process benchmarking. The final section of the study is concerned with a contemporary empirical evaluation of local public sector efficiency in Australia. The analysis is not only the first undertaken in Australia using frontier measurement techniques, but this is also the only study to simultaneously evaluate efficiency in a number of different local government functions, across both jurisdictions and time. The results indicate that allocative inefficiency, rather than technical inefficiency, represents the main source of productive inefficiency in local government, and that technical inefficiency is largely the result of scale inefficiencies.

Thesis (MPA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1986. / Bibliography: leaves 75-81.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1986. / Bibliography: leaves 75-81.

Thesis (M.A.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-157). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 296-329). Also issued in print.

Author's inaugural dissertation, Tübingen. / Added title: Darstellungen aus der württembergischen geschichte, hrsg. von der Württe. kommission für landesgeschichte. 27. bd. Added t.p. "Verzeichnis der benutzen quellen und darstellungen": p. [149]-155.