Assessing the Quality of Local Governance

Abstract

Over the past two decades, there have been a number of transformations affecting the nature and performance of local government systems at varying pace and intensity (Le Gales 2000; John 2000; Loughlin 2003; Kersting & Vetter 2003; Denters & Rose 2005). The shift from government to governance has been used to describe a series of transformations affecting all levels of decision-making, including local government (John 2001): the dynamics of economic integration and its impact on the performance of public and private agents; the growing demands for public sector change and the emergence of new public reform paradigms; the changing relations between tiers of government; new policy challenges; changes in political participation and changing importance of political parties. These transformations have led to a renewed interest in local government (Carmichael 2005). Borrowing from Kooiman & Van Vliet’s (1993), this new system of local governance defines a structure of collective action that, rather than being solely determined by governmental actors, is the result of a multiplicity of actors that interact and influence each other, and of which governments are (usually) a part, but not necessarily the only (or even the main) player. Instead, multiple stakeholders, acting at different tiers of government that do not fit traditional municipal organizational structures and hierarchies, but interact with municipal authorities as part of complex policy networks. In short, the means by which local communities are governed have changed (Rhodes 1996; Loughlin 2001; Geissel 2008). As such, it is important to reflect and measure the impact of these transformations upon QoLG. Assessing QoLG is challenging due to its complexity: it is a multidimensional concept and each dimension is hard to define and measure. For this reason, there is neither a roadmap nor a widely accepted tool to assess QoLG. In recent years, there has been an unprecedented effort to develop methods and techniques to frame and assess QoLG. Due to its social and political impact, QoLG indicators are likely to raise some criticism, especially if they are not theoretically grounded and/or have no practical meaning (OECD 2006). Therefore, assessing QoLG is a multidisciplinary challenge and needs to be addressed through an array of different diagnostics tools. The purpose of the panel is to map and discuss the conceptual, theoretical and methodological advancements in diagnosing and measuring QoLG.