Reforming Local Government: Consolidation, Cooperation, or Re-creation?

✍ Scribed by Joseph Drew

• Publisher: Springer Singapore;Springer
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 168
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book is a bold prescription for local government reform that moves well beyond the old arguments regarding consolidations (also referred to as amalgamations) and co-operation (sometimes referred to as shared services) to paint a picture of an efficient, effective tier of government that strikes a balance between the right of persons to pursue their existential ends and the need to promote the common good.

The book presents a system of local government that balances human dignity with the common good, restrains Leviathan, provides a voice for the disenfranchised (and even the disinterested), and delivers goods and services efficiently and effectively. Ironically, what is often argued to be the weakness of local government in many jurisdictions – the fact that it is merely a creature of statute – is also the best hope we have of making the oft cited rhetoric about how ‘local government is the closest to the people that serves the people best’ become reality.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter ....Pages i-vii
An Introduction to Reforming Local Government (Joseph Drew)....Pages 1-11
Why Reform Local Government? (Joseph Drew)....Pages 13-30
A Comprehensive Theory of Local Government (Joseph Drew)....Pages 31-52
Boundary Change (Joseph Drew)....Pages 53-72
Selling Boundary Reform (Joseph Drew)....Pages 73-85
Shared Services and Other Co-operative Arrangements (Joseph Drew)....Pages 87-103
The Ideal Remit of Local Government (Joseph Drew)....Pages 105-121
The Ideal Political Institutions of Local Government (Joseph Drew)....Pages 123-138
Ideal Financing for Local Government (Joseph Drew)....Pages 139-159
Conclusion (Joseph Drew)....Pages 161-166

✦ Subjects

Political Science and International Relations; Governance and Government; Political Theory; Public Administration; Public Policy; Comparative Politics