LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT AND LOCAL FINANCE

Self-Serving Mayors and Local Government Consolidations in Hokkaido

This paper investigates local government consolidations with a focus on public choice aspects in the decision-making. Politicians could lose future payoffs if their locality merges with a larger counterpart, and they may sabotage the merger process. The analysis with data from 3,212 Japanese municipalities reveals that a long-serving mayor would present an obstacle to consolidation.

The Interconnection of the Local Democracy and the Finances of Local Self- Government

In this paper the author gives a legal vision of the link between the local democracy and finances of the local self-government by comparing the legislation and its impact in France and in Russia, as well as by introducing some comparative elements with Slovenia. The analysis, made essentially on the basis of the Russian federal law n° 131-FZ and the French General Code of Territorial Entities ...

Essays in Local Public Finance

- Local Government Regulatory Functions

a) Most regulatory functions of local government are prescribed by central govenment, and this is often done with little guidance that would ensure consistency or good outcomes; b) Increasing regulation prescribed by central government, without compensatory financial consideration. Local government is therefore often left to fund such regulations through rates or user charges; c) At the same ti...

Local Government Failure

A substantial public choice literature exists on the generic phenomenon of government failure in advanced western representative democracies. However, much less attention has been focussed on this question in the specific context of local governance, with the important exceptions of Bailey (1999) and Boyne (1998). In this paper we advance the argument that not only is government failure an esse...