Transformation of Local Governments

Introduction to Local Governments

            During the past couple of decades, there have been several researches made in different areas in order to answer some question marks regarding local governments. The increase in the number of researches about local governments is mostly due to the fact that local governments have been going through some changes in terms of direct democracy, decentralization and etc. It is stated by the consultants working on the area of change management in local governments in world-wide operating consulting company PWC that “Developing new and more efficient ways of working, whilst managing the change this involves, will become essential factors over the coming years as local authorities continue to adapt to the challenges the future holds” (Aidan Walsh, 2016). The changes seen in local governments during the past few decades have opened a new research area for researchers to make comparisons between the way local governments worked in the past and how they continue their operations now. This paper is simply an analysis of the current debates that arose from the comparative studies made for the past and present local governments and the question marks about the comparisons.

Reforms of Local Governments

            The reforms that have been done for the local governments are mostly political and administrative reforms which took place both in developed and developing countries. Those reforms have been done mostly in the areas of privatization policy, free market economy and new public management. Starting with early 1990s, the transformation of local governments in those areas became more and more favored.

When the transformations and reforms in local governments are taken into consideration, it becomes a undeniable fact that these changes in local governments have to be discussed in terms of how the governments benefited from these changes and how the reforms are going to affect local governments in the future. In addition to all these, the way that the current issues and problems got affected by the local governments should be taken into consideration as well.

Local Governments Past versus Present

            According to Montagu Harris, comparative analysis method have been used for several decades and it is still being used for government system analysis (Harris, 1948). In addition to what (Harris, 1948) states, it is also stated that “Since no model fits all systems, a comparative approach permits the study of what has and has not worked in other countries, and may identify a few ideas worth transplanting. However, it must be remembered that transplantation is a delicate business” (Simon James, 2005). Before moving on with the transformations and reforms in local governments, the theoretical upbringing of comparative studies on the area of public administration should be understood deeply. Robert Jackson makes a statement about comparative public administration saying that “the goal of the comparative public administration movement, not unlike that of public administration generally, is the development of a science of administration comprised of general propositions of universal applicability. Where the movement parts company with other approaches to the study of public administration is its choice of subject matter and methodology” (Jackson, 1966). Moving ahead from the statements made about comparative local governments and definitions of comparative local governments, it can be stated that comparative government and politics studies take into account the political dynamism, policies about decentralization and sociological and economics transformations and analyzes local governments and politics by the aid of the elements above.

            While making an analysis about comparative local governments and politics, the studies may come up with some thesis that show some issues and problems about local governments and politics and these may be addressed by coming up with some question marks. One of the main questions about politics and local governments addresses is about the municipality councils and asks whether those councils are literally free in such an environment that is autonomous during the decision making processes about the protection of urban rights.