A conceptual model for group support systems in local councils

This paper proposes a conceptual model of a context-aware group support system (GSS) to assist local council employees to perform collaborative tasks in conjunction with inter- and intra-organisational stakeholders. Most discussions about e-government focus on the use of ICT to improve the relationship between government and citizen, not on the relationship between government and employees. This paper seeks to expose the unique culture of UK local councils and to show how a GSS could support local government employer and employee needs.

State and society in the English countryside: the rural community movement 1918-1939

This paper assesses the relationship between state and society in interwar rural England, focusing on the hitherto neglected role of the Rural Community Councils (RCCs). The rise of statutory social provision in the early twentieth century created new challenges and opportunities for voluntaryism, and the rural community movement was in part a response. The paper examines the early development of the movement, arguing that a crucial role was played by a close-knit group of academics and local government officials. While largely eschewing party politics, they shared a commitment to citizenship, democracy and the promotion of rural culture; many of them had been close associates of Sir Horace Plunkett. The RCCs engaged in a wide range of activities, including advisory work, adult education, local history, village hall provision, support for rural industries and an ambivalent engagement with parish councils. The paper concludes with an assessment of the achievements of the rural community movement, arguing that it was constrained by its financial dependence on voluntary contributions.

Keeping Hertfordshire green: the implementation of strategic environmental policy 1983-1993

This paper evaluates the implementation of environmental policy in the County of Hertfordshire during the 1980's and early 1990's. It emphasises that the recent growth of interest in environmental policy and sustainable planning initiatives should not cause researchers and practitioners to ignore the long history and experience of environmental policy implementation in local government. By looking at the experience of strategic environmental policy in Hertfordshire, the paper identifies the successes and failures of a range of implementation tools utilised by the County and district planning authorities to progress policies concerned with the conservation and improvement of urban and rural environments. It concludes that the planning authorities of Hertfordshire have stabilised the deterioration in the County's environment and have established some programmes which provide good examples of coordinated action in environmental policy implementation. These types of mechanism will need to be built upon in the new policy epoch where environmental sustainability and capacity planning take centre stage.

Is the future of electoral reform local?

The Electoral Reform Society has recently published two reports putting the case for electoral reform in local government. These suggest acceptance, in the wake of defeat in the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum, that the group’s ultimate goal of change to the Westminster electoral system is unlikely to be fulfilled soon and that a more gradual strategy is therefore needed. This paper examines this shift by asking three questions. First, is Westminster electoral reform really a dead letter? Second, is local electoral reform more likely—and, if so, just how much more likely? Third, would local electoral reform matter in itself?

Desenvolvimento local, cidadania e arranjos produtivos locais: um estudo no estado do Rio de Janeiro

The aim of the present study was to verify how the participation and interaction of the local government public and private instittutions and civil society, might promote sustainable development, taking as a reference the Local Productive Arrangements (LPA) of Nova Friburgo and its Region. This work was conducted after a theoretical discussion concerning local development, citizenship, local development with citizenship and local productive arrangements. Afterwards, semi-structured interviews were realized with 32 citizens from five cities that were part of the Fashion Development Council, using the discourse analysis to data treatment. It was verified that the productive arrangement in the Centro-Norte Fluminense region of the Rio de Janeiro State has one of its main competitive advantages the pool of institutions, that articulate and support the underwear fashion sector. However, the APL presents many other characteristics making impossible to classify it as a cluster or an industrial district since there is still a need for cooperation among institutions and undertakers. In addition, there is no integration between the government instances and civil society in relation to the LPA development. So, it is concluded that there is a need for more union and dialogue among all of these involved actors, to overcome ¿bottle-necks¿ in the sector of underwear fashion in the region, such as informality of a huge number of companies and the low qualification of employees and undertakers.

Arranjo produtivo local: o caso de São João Del Rei-MG

O objetivo dessa dissertação foi investigar o processo de formação do Arranjo Produtivo Local (APL) de estanho em São João del-Rei - A7 Estanho, particularizando suas contribuições para o desenvolvimento local do município. O trabalho foi conduzido mediante uma discussão teórica sobre a situação das micro e pequenas empresas no Brasil, sobre a importância econômica e social dos arranjos produtivos locais, seus impactos no desenvolvimento regional e/ou local, principalmente de municípios sem infra-estrutura para atrair grandes empresas, e sobre políticas públicas que estão em andamento e que se voltam para o fomento desse tipo de aglomerado. Foram realizadas cerca de quatorze entrevistas no município de São João del-Rei: seis integrantes da Associação, uma funcionária, dois representantes das principais instituições parceiras, um representante do governo local e quatro membros da sociedade civil, que possuíam informações relevantes sobre a A7. O método empregado no tratamento dos dados foi a análise de conteúdo. Como resultados, no que diz respeito à análise dos programas que deram origem e/ou sustentação ao aglomerado, verificou-se que dois programas foram mais contundentes em suas contribuições à Associação: o Programa Empreender, da Federaminas, que permitiu a união dos empresários em torno de um objetivo comum, e o Projeto Via Design, do Sebrae, que possibilitou uma série de vantagens ao grupo, solidificando-o no mercado. No que se refere à participação dos diversos atores (membros da A7, poder público, instituições parceiras, sociedade civil) na construção do APL, pode-se perceber que o nível de atuação e comprometimento variava de acordo com as motivações pessoais, cargos ou funções formais exercidas e grau de relacionamento com a Associação. As contribuições ao desenvolvimento local do município, geradas pelo arranjo produtivo, foram enumeradas como geração de emprego e renda, ainda de forma incipiente, mas com possibilidades de crescimento futuro, e divulgação do turismo e cultura sãojoanense.

O orçamento do governo local sob condições de participação dos cidadãos: o caso da Prefeitura de Santos

Este trabalho trata de um estudo de caso sobre a participação direta dos cidadãos no orçamento público municipal. Discute-se a teoria democrática sustentando-se que a democracia representativa apresenta fàlhas que exigem mecanismos corretivos e que a participação direta dos cidadãos se apresenta como uma alternativa para corrigir esses desvios. A premissa básica que permeia toda a pesquisa é a da participação direta como meio eficiente de controle do cidadão sobre as ações do Estado - Governo Local. Por meio da análise do Programa de Governo do Partido e do Plano de Governo da Prefeitura de Santos~ procurou-se verificar quais os fundamentos teóricos da participação direta que orientam as ações do Governo Municipal Santista. A dimensão institucional da participação é explorada por meio da descrição e análise crítica das formas de participação direta~ previstas na legislação constitucional - Constituições Federal e Estadual de São Paulo e Lei Orgânica do Município de Santos. Busca-se identificar quais são os limites dos mecanismos de participação direta, previstos na legislação. quando aplicados ao orçamento municipal. A investigação sobre o processo decisório orçamentário visa a captar qual lógica subjaz no processo de alocação de recursos no orçamento público. Embora se tenha assinalados certos embaraços jurídicos e operacionais à participação direta dos cidadãos no orçamento~ esses entraves não invalidam a importância da experiência com orçamento participativo no Município de Santos. A proposta da Prefeitura Santista, por seu caráter inovador e educativo revela-se uma valiosa contribuição para a prática de uma gestão mais democrática e transparente no âmbito municipal.

Três ensaios sobre o gasto local no Brasil: descentralização, eficiência e voto

Partindo de uma avaliação sobre o contexto mundial de descentralização fiscal e de democratização em que o Brasil se encontrava no final do século XX, essa tese apresenta na primeira parte uma análise empírica para países em desenvolvimento evidenciando o condicionamento do tipo de regime de governo na relação entre descentralização fiscal e tamanho de governo. Estimações por system-GMM para países em desenvolvimento mostram que existe um nível de descentralização fiscal, entre 20% e 30%, que uma vez superado, resulta em democracias com tamanhos de governos menores do que as ditaduras. Esses resultado, que chama a atenção tanto para os governos locais, como para a influência da democracia no gasto público, estimulou a continuação da pesquisa na avaliação da eficiência dos gastos municipais no Brasil e sua relação com o voto. Assim, no segundo ensaio, são calculados indicadores de evolução da eficiência e da produtividade do gasto municipal (fatores de Malmquist) entre 2004 e 2008, para as áreas da saúde e educação. Os resultados da análise por fronteira estocástica mostram que tanto na educação, como na saúde, houve avanços na fronteira de produção (TFPC, em média, de 18.7%, na educação e de 14.2% na saúde) por avanços de mudança técnica (Technical Change - TC), ao invés de elevação da eficiência (Technical Efficiency Change – TEC). No último ensaio, os indicadores de eficiência e de produtividade são usados para testar a hipótese de que o eleitor municipal premia com o voto os prefeitos que melhoraram a eficiência do gasto da educação e/ou saúde em sua gestão. Os resultados não rejeitam a hipótese para a educação, mas rejeitam para a saúde. A fim de tratar prováveis erros de medida das variáveis de produtividade, as estimações são instrumentalizadas em regressões por dois estágios.

Povoações, freguesias e vilas na Paraíba Colonial: Pombal e Sousa, 1697-1800

The towns presently named Pombal and Sousa, located in the hinterland of the State of Paraíba, Brazil, still keep vestiges of the colonization process they went through along the 18th and 19th centuries, when they both emerged as settlement nuclei in the extreme West of the then captaincy of Paraíba and attained the status of freguesia and vila in a later period. This research aims to comprehend the process of urban formation and development of the colonial urban nuclei of Pombal and Sousa as they became povoados (hamlets), freguesias (parishes) and vilas (small urban communities with a local government), according to territorial expansion policies implemented by the Portuguese government from 1697 to 1800. The choice of the two urban settlements for this survey lies in the fact that they were part of the great conquest and colonization program undertaken by the Portuguese Crown. Another aspect that was considered was the fact that those towns are the oldest urban nuclei of Paraíba s hinterland. They came into being as early as in the times of the colony, thus producing a favorable environment to the study of the changes that occurred in the captaincy s hinterland scenery resulting from the process of formation and development of the colonial urban space. Three fundamental categories of analysis were defined since they have a direct bearing upon the urban configuration of the two colonization nuclei: povoado, freguesia and vila. The three of them are related to civil and ecclesiastic jurisdictions. Field, documentation and bibliography surveys were undertaken in order to develop the study. They allowed for the finding of vestiges of the old, colonial urban structures and for the development of theoretical analysis based on present-day studies of issues relating to the colonial urban history. The study purposes were, therefore, to try to understand how the old urban nuclei of Pombal and Sousa fit in the territorial expansion policies undertaken by the Portuguese government; to relate the process of urban formation and development of such nuclei with the categories of analysis povoação-freguesia-vila by discussing the relations and influences they exert over one another and their territory, as well as to unveil, as much as possible, the configuration the urban spaces that were shaped along the 18th century

Turismo em jogo: a dinâmica da reterritorialização em Tibau do Sul/RN

The work seeks to understand the process of reterritorialization triggered by tourism development in Tibau do Sul / RN, noting its economic, socio-cultural and political implications to the local society. Tourist activity was addressed as socio-cultural phenomenon, considering the case of (dis) (re) territorialization and power relations between staff producers of the tourism space. Given the complexity of this issue and the need for further studies that focus on the reterritorialization cases generated by tourism in the northeastern coast, given the action of the agents involved in the construction of the spaces generated by tourism, this work is then justified. For such a study an exploratory and qualitative study was conducted, through a survey of secondary and primary data, and interviews with leaders of public, private nonprofit community in the investigated county. In this sense, it was found that the process of (dis) (re) territorialization in the city investigated, permeates the contradictions resulting from the conflicts existing power while providing the location and implications for economic and sociocultural dimensions, its heart is found in the political, the relationship between entrepreneurship - established mainly by outsiders who own businesses in Pipa - and local government - composed entirely by insiders who work in the municipal headquarters, that until then, hold the political and the economic power. Thus, to understand the regionalization of tourism it is necessary to analyze its economic, socio-cultural and political dimensions, referring to the complexity of relationships between producing space agents. It is believed that the reterritorialization can be capable of producing territorialities contextualized to the culture, history, economy and local politics, understanding that the active participation of the natives will contribute to a less perverse, since this has been one of the faces experienced by local people

Orçamento participativo e gestão democrática no poder local

The end of the authoritarian regime in Brazil resulted in new forms of democratization of politics and its institutions, with the strenghtening of the civil society. The Participatory Budgeting is an important experience of that new way, characterized by the assumption of the new responsibilities by the local governments. The comparative approach of those experiences, conducted from different party coalitions - in Piracicaba (1989-1992) and in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste (1997-2000) -, allows a test of their powers and limits from a procedural conception of democracy and the complementary role of the participation. In contrast to a view that gives priority to representation, the analysis discusses the range of the new civil society actions from the perspective of the democratization process in the scope of the Local Government. © 2007 CEDEC.

Nuevas experiencias de concertación público-privada: las corporaciones para el desarrollo local: estudio de casos en las comunas de Santiago y Huechuraba, Area Metropolitana de Santiago de Chile

Incluye Bibliografía

Servicios públicos urbanos y gestión local en América Latina y el Caribe: problemas, metodologías y políticas

Incluye Bibliografía

Do coronelismo ao neo-coronelismo: um estudo sobre a ascensão, a queda e o ressurgimento de Antônio Lorenzetti Filho

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)