Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Evolving out of my past experience as municipal manager, the study addresses one of the topical issues in municipalities, viz. the quest for more effective and sustainable local economic development (LED) in small towns. Through an extensive review of the literature and best practices of LED among South African and international municipalities, viable and reproducible strategies were examined and compared. The focus of my in depth research falls primarily on towns in the Western Cape, but lessons from other parts of South Africa also form part of this research. The conclusions drawn are not only relevant in South Africa, but can also be applied in southern Africa and other African sub-continents. Based on the qualitative evidence gathered from three in-depth case studies and a Western Cape sample of tourism places, the study explores the interaction of public- and private-sector involvement in the generation of LED momentum. As such the study focuses on the principles of successful public-private partnerships and how such partnerships can be enhanced through different types of projects. The study presents an LED framework, also referred to as a "development hub", to bring together the different elements of an integrated strategy. Based on the lessons drawn from the case studies and the literature review, the final section of the study presents a strategy framework which should be useful and applicable to other small towns, even if their growth is not tourism-based, and they are not located in South Africa's Western Cape. Hopefully the study will stimulate serious and in-depth debate among policy planners as well as key development stakeholders in small towns regarding viable LED strategising and the practical implementation of those strategies.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Evolving out of my past experience as municipal manager, the study addresses one of the topical issues in municipalities, viz. the quest for more effective and sustainable local economic development (LED) in small towns. Through an extensive review of the literature and best practices of LED among South African and international municipalities, viable and reproducible strategies were examined and compared. The focus of my indepth research falls primarily on towns in the Western Cape, but lessons from other parts of South Africa also form part of this research. The conclusions drawn are not only relevant in South Africa, but can also be applied in southern Africa and other African sub-continents. Based on the qualitative evidence gathered from three in-depth case studies and a Western Cape sample of tourism places, the study explores the interaction of public- and private-sector involvement in the generation of LED momentum. As such the study focuses on the principles of successful public-private partnerships and how such partnerships can be enhanced through different types of projects. The study presents an LED framework, also referred to as a "development hub", to bring together the different elements of an integrated strategy. Based on the lessons drawn from the case studies and the literature review, the final section of the study presents a strategy framework which should be useful and applicable to other small towns, even if their growth is not tourism-based, and they are not located in South Africa's Western Cape. Hopefully the study will stimulate serious and in-depth debate among policy planners as well as key development stakeholders in small towns regarding viable LED strategising and the practical implementation of those strategies.

Le développement durable territorial se compose de deux axes. Chaque collectivité est censée concilier les piliers du développement durable sur son territoire, puis articuler sa démarche de développement durable avec celles des autres collectivités. Ainsi, l’application du développement durable serait généralisée et harmonieuse. Cependant, le manque de force contraignante de ces deux axes emporte deux conséquences opposées. Une partie des collectivités profitent de la marge de manœuvre qui leur est laissée pour adapter le développement durable aux spécificités de leurs territoires. A l’inverse, d’autres collectivités tirent avantage de ce droit « doux » pour appliquer le développement durable de manière superficielle, voire pour en faire abstraction. En outre, les inégalités entre les territoires rompent la cohésion territoriale et la solidarité inhérentes à la notion de développement durable. En l’état actuel du droit, l’application du développement durable par chaque collectivité est inaccessible. Des moyens juridiques permettent d’étendre le développement durable au-delà des seules collectivités volontaires. Ceux-ci présentent, néanmoins, des failles. Pour que chaque collectivité territoriale soit tenue de mettre en œuvre le développement durable, le droit doit être modifié. Le premier axe doit devenir un standard. Ainsi, les collectivités pourront adapter le développement durable aux caractéristiques de leurs territoires, mais plus l’ignorer. Une décentralisation qui obligerait à une meilleure articulation entre les échelons de collectivité permettrait de mieux respecter le deuxième axe du développement durable. Enfin, une péréquation mieux pensée soutiendra financièrement ces modifications juridiques. / Two milestones guide the implementation of local sustainable development by local governments : first each local authority must conciliate sustainable development pillars on its territory ; then this approach must be integrated with the one of the other local authorities. Only then can local sustainability management be overspread and harmonious. However, the lack of legal constraint imposing the implementation of these milestones has two consequences: on the one hand, Sustainable development norms can be adapted by local authorities to the specificities of their territories, on the other hand, other local authorities do not apply these rules or only partially, taking advantage of “soft law”. Those diverse levels of commitment to sustainable development norms disrupt the territorial cohesion and solidarity that should be part of the notion of sustainable development. In the actual state of law the implementation of sustainable development norms by every single local authority is unattainable. There are nevertheless legal means to enforce sustainable development norms beyond the circle of willing territories. But these means are not completely effective. Therefore, in order to make every local authority apply sustainable development norms, some changes have to be made to the existing Law. The first pillar must become a standard so that local authorities won't be able to ignore sustainable development norms anymore, only to adapt it to their local specificities. Moreover,decentralization would lead to a better articulation between each local governing body, therefore allowing forbetter respect of the second pillar of sustainable development. Finally a better financial redistribution between those local authorities would support these legal changes.

Dans les Constitutions française, italienne et espagnole, les mentions expresses relatives au droit des assemblées régionales sont rares, mais elles sont déterminantes. L’autonomie régionale a, en effet, pour composante organique l’existence d’une assemblée, dotée d’une nature représentative et d’un caractère délibérant, que l’État soit de forme décentralisée ou régionale. Or, la reconnaissance constitutionnelle d’un organe délibérant propre à chaque région conditionne nécessairement sa nature ainsi que les règles relatives à son organisation et à son fonctionnement. L’étude comparée du droit des assemblées régionales à travers le prisme du droit constitutionnel révèle que l’action des auteurs de ce droit est encadrée par la Constitution. Quelle que soit la valeur des normes qui les consacrent, différents principes issus du droit parlementaire s’imposent ainsi comme des garanties des exigences constitutionnelles en la matière et permettent d’assurer l’autonomie statutaire et fonctionnelle de l’organe. Il existe, dès lors, un degré minimum d’harmonisation du droit des assemblées régionales et parlementaires, qui découle des prescriptions constitutionnelles. Pour autant, ces deux types d’assemblées ne peuvent être confondus dans un État unitaire, ce qui implique que cette transposition ne vise pas les principes liés à leur nature propre. Il existe donc également un degré maximum d’harmonisation qui ne peut pas être dépassé. Par ailleurs, le droit des assemblées régionales peut s’éloigner du droit parlementaire et prendre une forme innovante, pour mieux garantir les fonctions de ces assemblées en prenant en compte leurs spécificités. Donner les moyens aux assemblées régionales d’exercer leurs fonctions, que ce soit en leur appliquant des règles issues du droit parlementaire ou en créant des règles propres à cet échelon, c’est garantir l’autonomie de la région, telle qu’elle est définie par la Constitution. / Within the French, Italian and Spanish Constitutions, the direct references to laws regulating regional assemblies are rare, yet determining. Regional autonomy in any of the three countries entails the existence of an assembly, having a representative nature and a deliberative character, regardless of whether the national state of the given country exists in a decentralized or regional form. The nature and internal rules of the regional assemblies are conditioned by the extent to which they are recognized in the constitutions of their respective countries. This comparative study examines the laws governing the regional assemblies, through the prism of constitutional law, and shows that their normative sources are structured by the Constitutions. Different principles of parliamentary law protect the assemblies' structural and functional autonomy, and serve as guarantees for the constitutional exigencies they are submitted to, no matter the value of the normative sources. The constitutions prescribe the minimum threshold for the level of harmonization between parliamentary and regional assembly laws. Yet, a regional assembly cannot be equated with the parliament of a unitary state, and as a consequence, the transposition of laws does not target the inherent principles of each assembly’s particular nature. Hence, there is also a maximum threshold of harmonization that cannot be exceeded. Further, regional assembly law may deviate from parliamentary law and take an innovative form in order to secure the assemblies' functions through the accommodation of their specificities.To give regional assemblies the means to exercise their functions, either through the application of rules governed by parliamentary law or by the creation of particular rules at the regional level, is to guarantee the regions' autonomy as defined by the Constitutions.

From the middle of 20th century, as a result of devastating effects of world wars conservation activities intensified on the protection in area scale. Together with central government and local authorities, the owner or the user of the building, entrepreneurs, groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and society were meant to be included in the process. Today, local authorities play important role in the implementation of the restoration or street rehabilitation projects. Today in Turkey, municipalities are the second most important actors in the field of conservation after Ministry of Culture and Tourism. There are seen important changes after 1980s in Turkey in the field of conservation, which are that the localization in conservation increased and the role of local governments became more important. From the beginning of 2000s, the power of municipalities increases with the transfer of decision-making power to the municipalities. In this thesis, the role of local authorities in the field of conservation was discussed with the case of Hamam&ouml / n&uuml / -Ankara, a good example of the conservation implementation of a local authority showing the approach and study process of the municipality. Before explaining implementations of Altindag Municipality in Hamam&ouml / n&uuml / and their different effects on site and the people / a short start giving general information about development of role of local authorities in the field of conservation throughout the world was done and the legislative process in Turkey was stated. Moreover, after the assessment of implementation under different titles, some proposals for future of Hamam&ouml / n&uuml / were done.

This thesis consists of five papers, which concern expenditure decisions and economic growth within Swedish local government.Paper [1] explores the hypothesis that local fiscal shocks have short run effects on revenue and expenditure decisions made within local government. It is found that although fiscal shocks do not affect local authorities' revenue decisions, they do induce municipalities to change expenditures and financial costs along with short term loans. Local authorities are also found to respond more powerful to unfavorable fiscal shocks (deficit shocks) than to favorable fiscal shocks (surplus shocks).In Paper [2], we study the hypothesis that local (municipal) expenditures, in part, can be explained by regional (county) expenditures. We formulate and estimate a demand model for municipal services that is defined conditional on the county expenditures. The results imply a positive dependency between the provision of county and municipal services. Moreover, the results suggest that the hypothesis of weak separability between the provision of county and municipal services can be rejected. In addition, we cannot reject the hypothesis that the regional expenditures are weakly exogenous in the local expenditure equation.In Paper [3] the existence of spillover between Swedish municipalities in the provision of recreational and cultural services is analyzed. A representative .voter model is derived and the demand for recreational and cultural services is estimated using spatial SUR techniques. The results suggest a negative relationship between recreational and cultural expenditures provided by neighboring municipalities, which indicates that these services are substitutes.Paper [4] concerns the regional growth pattern in Sweden by analyzing what factors might determine the growth rate of regional average income levels and the net migration rates. Our results suggest a negative dependence between the initial average income level and the subsequent income growth, which supports the conditional convergence hypothesis. Among other things, we also find that the initial endowments of human capital have a positive effect on subsequent net migration while the initial unemployment rate is found to have a negative impact on net migration.Paper [5] complements the analysis made in Paper [4] by studying which factors determine average income growth and net migration at the local level of government. The conditional convergence hypothesis cannot be rejected. Local government investments are found to have a positive effect on the subsequent net migration while leaving the growth in mean income unaffected. This may indicate that the net migration caused by these investments does not significantly affect the proportion of skilled and unskilled labor. / <p>Härtill 5 delarbeten.</p> / digitalisering@umu

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.