This paper develops the fiscal health index of 21 local governments in Taiwan over the 1984 to 2010 period. A quantile regression analysis was used to explore the extent that economic variables, political budget cycles, and legislative checks and balances, impact different quantiles of fiscal health index for a country over a sample period of time. Our findings suggest that local governments at...

The ongoing review of decentralisation in South Africa will defi nitely affect political parties’ legitimisation mechanisms at the local level. For this reason, one may expect the same actors, together with civil society organisations (CSOs), to be actively involved in the policy process of review. Their apparent low involvement in this process is taken as this policy brief’s starting point, wh...

INTRODUCTION Between 2005 and 2010, Australian notification rates for chlamydia infection increased by 64% from 203 to 333 per 100 000 population. Interpreting this trend is difficult without examining rates and local patterns of testing. We examined the effect of adjusting for local testing rates on chlamydia notification trends in New South Wales (NSW), Australia from 2000 to 2010. METHODS ...

Recent developments in wireless local area network (WLAN) technologies are raising new hopes for sustainable Internet diffusion in the rural areas of the developing world. These technologies allow drastic reductions in network deployment costs, particularly for last-mile connectivity in low-density areas. More important, the technologies make possible an infrastructure development model based o...

Women are less likely than men to reach recommended levels of physical activity and have unequal access to active leisure time. Studies in Australia have consistently found that women are only half as likely as men to be adequately active. A community-based multi-strategic health promotion intervention, 'Concord, A Great Place to be Active', was implemented from 1997 to 1999. It aimed to increa...

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS ARE THE SMALLEST AND MOST BASIC UNIT OF representative democracy (Dahl and Tufte 1973, 13). Politicians serving in these governments—mayors and members of municipal assemblies—perform important functions in the policy process by meeting residents on a regular basis, discussing policy matters with them, and making policy decisions that affect the communities in which they r...

Greater energy efficiency can be achieved in existing dwellings thanks to longer lifecycles, slow replacement rates, and technical innovations. Many such dwellings are located in dense urban neighbourhoods, where urban renewal projects are undertaken. Local government can encourage the setting of ambitious goals as a stepping stone to realizing energy efficiency goals that achieve high levels o...

BACKGROUND Efforts are underway to strengthen Nigeria's routine immunization system, yet measuring impact poses a challenge. We document limitations in using administrative data from 12 states in Nigeria and explore alternative approaches. METHODS We compared state-reported coverage with the third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (DTP3) to district-reported coverage and data from ...

Though the There is ever increasing evidence of increased terrorist activities that spread entire world. In the wake of modern technologies and diversified threats, it is indispensable to comprehend, detect and prevent with reliable countermeasures. In this context detection of explosives is an active research area. Towards this end many detection systems came into existence. The government age...

This paper examines disparities between unitary central governments and local governments in how environmental policy is defined and implemented at the local level. This is done within the context of northeast Asia, where results can often differ from expectations driven by traditional models of local government behaviour offered by the West. A theoretical measure for policy distance between th...