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The composition of municipal associations and policy requests to provincial governments: Selected cases
Author(s) -
Shott Alison
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
canadian public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1754-7121
pISSN - 0008-4840
DOI - 10.1111/capa.12204
Subject(s) - nova scotia , legislature , composition (language) , homogeneous , politics , government (linguistics) , public administration , political science , local government , geography , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , archaeology , thermodynamics
Municipal associations lobby senior levels of government for legislative changes. This article tests how the composition and size of municipal associations affects such policy requests for provincial programs or funding transfers by examining four Canadian associations in BC, Nova Scotia and two in Alberta between 1999 and 2013. The findings suggest that associations with more homogeneous member populations lobby primarily for provincial programs; those with more heterogeneous member populations are more likely to lobby for funds to enact municipal programs. This suggests that the collective intergovernmental lobbying of local government associations is influenced by the internal composition of members as well as the political norms and the external environment.