Massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE 1 DEVELOPMENT LOCAL AND REGIONAL...
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Transcript of Massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE 1 DEVELOPMENT LOCAL AND REGIONAL...
massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE
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DEVELOPMENT LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
Massimo BALDUCCI
– Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform of the
Council of Europe
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development
What do we mean by
“DEVELOPMENT”?
Academia people might easily trigger off concepts such as “functional
differentiation”, “modernization”,
“secularization”
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development
Let’s forget academia
Let’s keep our discussion on a rather practical level.
What do people mean when they speak about a developed area and what do they mean when they refer to a not developed area?
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development
In our everyday jargon “development” implies real factors such as:
• Per capita income
• Education
• Health services
• Social services
• Networks, public utilities
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development
“Development" implies also:
• Democratic institutions
• Rule of law
• Human rights
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Development and Local Authorities
Development appears to be strictly linked to “decentralization”
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Development and decentralization
Development is linked to “decentralization”
As to:
• Issues of institutional development (rule of law, human rights, democracy
• Issues of economic welfare
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Decentralization and economic welfare
Economic welfare / development is linked to decentralization as to:– decision making overload– financial responsibility– involvement
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Decentralization economic welfare and decision making overload
It is not by chance that in the seventies and eighties western European countries were
stormed by a wave of heavy decentralization
Welfare State requires technically “decentralization”
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Decentralization economic welfare and decision making overload
Since government is supposed to deliver welfare services and to provide public
utilities, decision making is expanding at a very high speed
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Decentralization economic welfare and decision making overload
To avoid a bottleneck effect, routine decision (roughly 80%) must be sent
to the periphery
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Decentralization economic welfare and financial responsibility
Welfare services imply large amounts of financial resources
Keeping under control public expenditures becomes a “must”
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Decentralization economic welfare and financial responsibility
To keep public expenditures under control
Nothing proved more effective than
the rule
“he who makes decisions is supposed to pay”
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Decentralization economic welfare and financial responsibility
Instead of transfer of resources from center to periphery we should have transfer of tax
imposing powers
And equalization mechanism
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Decentralization and involvement
“Local democracy” has proved to be more effective than “administrative
decentralization”
Direct involvement
Responsibility
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Charter of Local Self-governmentcenter of expertise for local government reform
These principles are enshrined in the Charter of Local Self-government
The Center of Expertise in local government reform provides expertise and tools to
improve local government’s performance
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Development And Civil Society Organizations
The development of welfare state has brought not only problems of decision making overload but also problems of costs’
overload
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Development And Civil Society Organizations
Modern States try to curb costs by
• Externalizing, outsourcing
• Giving back to free market area
• Using civil society organizations
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Development And Civil Society Organizations
Some examples:• In Swiss cantons service to unemployed people
are outsourced to NGO’s to a remarkable extent• In Italy (via cooperatives), in Belgium (via a.s.b.l.)
service to the elderly are outsourced to NGO’s to a remarkable extent
• In Denmark education is managed by so called “institution” where stakeholders are involved in the management along with appointed public servants
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Development And Civil Society Organizations
The involvement of Civil Society Organizations
appears to have two positive effects:
• Costs’ containment
• Better decisions
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Civil Society Organizations And The Quality Of Decisions
Modern society is a complex society and implies the use of complex technological
tools
To make correct decisions on technically complex issues democracy is not enough
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Civil Society Organizations And The Quality Of Decisions
Democratically legitimized officers need to be assisted by knowledgeable people:
• In Swiss cantons NGO’s assist the cantons in developing policies to counter unemployment
• Quite a few Italian mayors find it useful to be assisted by stakeholders’ committees
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Civil Society Organizations and modernization of public authorities
In quite a few countries, Public Administrations (at central and local level)
Need to make a quality leap: to improve their performance, to be modernized
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Civil Society Organizations and modernization of public authorities
Not seldom, public authorities (both at central and local level) do not have the capacity to develop an adequate vision for development
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Civil Society Organizations and modernization of public authorities
Civil Society Organizations have proved often to be able to provide the necessary quality leap.
Personally I can tell the positive role plasied by Academia Istrapolitania in Slovakia, The Association for Local Democracy in Poland
ASMEZ in Southern Italy
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Development Local Democracy Civil Society Organizations
We have just been discussing the
PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY