development local and regional democracy and civil society organizations

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massimo balducci /centre of expertise local govern ment reform/ CoE 1 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 LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS. Massimo BALDUCCI – Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform of the Council of Europe. development. What do we mean by “DEVELOPMENT”? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: DEVELOPMENT  LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS

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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massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE

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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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massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE

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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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massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE

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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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massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE

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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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massimo balducci /centre of expertise local government reform/ CoE

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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