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‘Successful African local government’: Some methodological and conceptual issues
Author(s) -
Therkildsen Ole
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
public administration and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1099-162X
pISSN - 0271-2075
DOI - 10.1002/pad.4230130505
Subject(s) - politics , equity (law) , pluralism (philosophy) , conceptual framework , local government , political science , public economics , government (linguistics) , public administration , economics , development economics , economic growth , sociology , social science , law , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology
Attempts to identify and explain successful African local governments are made in a special issue of Public Administration and Development (Vol. 12, No. 1, 1992). These attempts are critically assessed, specifically the choice of indicators, the analysis of structures and actors, aggregation, and the role of political factors. It is argued that methodological and conceptual improvements in these areas are needed to advance the comparative study of African local government performance. Future studies should also pay more attention to equity, to resource mobilization from poor and declining economic bases, and to the impact of political pluralism.