Ana Yetano

Accrual Accounting in EU Local Governments: One Method, Several Approaches

This paper seeks to measure the degree of accrual implementation in EU local government accounting systems and also tries to give an answer to the question of why accrual accounting has overcome the resistance to other New Public Management (NPM) reforms in countries relatively suspicious of them. We carry out our analysis through the comparison of the accrual accounting legal requirements in force in each country, and the published financial statements, taking the IPSASs of the IFAC as a benchmark. The results show different degrees of accrual accounting implementation and legal compliance. The reason of accrual accounting dissemination lies partially in that the dual systems implemented in European Continental countries do not require the introduction of deep organizational changes and answer the democratic demands of citizens for higher responsiveness, transparency and accountability, while traditional budgetary statements are maintained for monitoring compliance with legality and for administrative decision-making purposes.

What is Driving the Increasing Presence of Citizen Participation Initiatives

Nowadays there is an imperative for governments to be more responsive to community needs, and public sector modernisation programmes are introducing opportunities for citizen participation. We look at citizen participation initiatives through the lenses of institutional and stakeholder theories. Using survey data and exogenous variables we analyse experiences in thirty OECD and MERCOSUR local governments. We find that the possible gains in legitimacy and trust explain the efforts made towards citizen participation. In addition, the different levels of commitment towards meaningful citizen participation suggest that factors such as power and urgency can be complementary to legitimacy when analysing citizen participation.

Citizen Participation in German and Spanish Local Governments: A Comparative Study

In recent decades, citizens have become more and more disenchanted with the traditional institutions of representative government, detached from political parties, and disillusioned with old forms of civic engagement and participation. This has favored a renewed interest in citizen engagement and citizen participation and a growing re-emergence in academic and political discourse of ideas and values of community, localism, and citizen participation. This article analyzes the main objectives and the actual implementation of citizen participation initiatives in the local governments of two European Continental countries, Germany and Spain. The aim is to find out the factors that affect the possible decoupling between the objectives and the “real” uses of citizen participation. Our results show that most local governments in these two countries are using citizen participation only to increase the level of perceived legitimacy or to comply minimally with legal requirements, without really taking advantage of citizen participation to enhance decision-making processes. These findings confirm that institutional theory becomes the rationale to explain the implementation of citizen participation in these two European Continental countries.

Crowdsourcing as a tool for e-participation: two experiences regarding CO2 emissions at municipal level

Public administrations need to find innovative approaches to solving changing problems and to fulfilling their duties. Crowdsourcing in local governments could be defined as the use of new technologies in order to take advantage of citizen knowledge to find solutions to municipal problems. This paper analyzes two experiences of crowdsourcing at local level, and the opinions of the citizens and managers involved, to provide an initial assessment of its effectiveness and suggest avenues for improvement. Engaging citizens in e-participation initiatives is a challenge but, for public sector crowdsourcing initiatives, intrinsic motivation and intangible rewards seem to be enough to motivate participants. Results show that managers find citizens’ propositions viable, but publishing the final results and indicating how the ideas selected will be further developed are pending tasks. Caution is needed as failure to deliver the benefits deemed essential by citizens can make them even more reluctant to engage.

What Drives the Institutionalization of Performance Measurement and Management in Local Government

Local governments are adopting performance measurement and management (PMM), but often in a manner more ceremonial than instrumental. This article conceptualizes PMM as organizational rules and routines that may be institutionalized and uses the dimensions of structuration theory to understand the process of institutionalization. It shows that PMM benefits from incremental rather than radical changes, as the latter may provoke resistance and lead to abandonment of PMM. The promotion of a new language, with concepts such as performance measurement and objectives, and the establishment of planning and reporting routines are the initial steps. Changes with a greater effect on power relations and resource distribution are the last to appear but generate purposeful use of PMM.

Perceptions About the Effectiveness of E-Participation: A Multistakeholder Perspective

Local authorities increasingly need to demonstrate the legitimacy of their decisions and to develop effective and appropriate forms of citizen engagement. Previous literature has highlighted many advantages of citizen engagement, but has also acknowledged that authentic public participation is rarely found. This chapter uses different sets of empirical data reflecting the opinions of different stakeholders about e-participation initiatives. We aim to analyze whether citizens are familiar with e-participation tools, what citizens and organizers think about the effectiveness of citizen participation, and, finally, whether there is a perceived effectiveness gap between online and offline (traditional) forms of participation. Results show that, despite a high rate of Internet use, the level of use of e-participation among citizens is quite low. Nevertheless, the opinions of citizens and public sector managers regarding e-participation tend to be positive. As regards perceived effectiveness, some differences exist between citizens’ and managers’ perceptions. Citizens feel that e-participation is less costly and at least as good as offline participation, but it seems that greater changes are achieved through offline participation. Managers tend to agree that online participation is better in reaching a higher number of potential participants, and also in its immediateness and in the lower effort required, whereas offline participation is thought to be better at building social capital.

Municipal Performance Measurement in Practice: Which Factors Matter?

Performance measurement systems have two contrasting facets. On one hand, they assist managers to take rational actions; on the other, they disclose important information to citizens on their “value for money”. For political reasons the latter may prevail over the former, and this can undermine the validity, legitimacy and functionality of performance measurement systems for managerial action (Bouckaert 1993). Departing from the neo institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the drivers that affect the use and implementation of managerially oriented performance measurement systems in municipalities, and how these drivers could affect the validity, legitimacy, and functionality of performance measurement itself. A multiple case study approach is used, with extensive document analysis and direct interviews in four municipality (two in Spain and two in Italy), that have successfully implemented performance measurement systems. Findings provide evidence to inform practitioners about the conditions under which the introduction and use of performance measurement systems in municipalities might be successful, identifying the important drivers of a successful implementation effort and help to increase municipal managers’ understanding of the factors that play a role in the successful implementation of a managerially-oriented performance measurement system in a municipal context.

Keeping Citizens Engaged: A Comparison Between Online and Offline Participants

This study analyzes whether there are any differences in enrollment and drop-out rates between e-participation and traditional participation in a long-term citizen collaboration project. The theoretical framework is based on networked individualism. Results show that capturing and maintaining citizen interest is a daunting task, even in a sensitive topic that might generate positive and tangible benefits for citizens. The higher levels of accessibility offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs) are not enough to reverse public apathy, and person-to-person contact is more effective to maintain engagement. Based on the findings, some actions to reduce dropout in long-term citizen collaboration projects are suggested.

E-Participation and Climate Change: Are Local Governments Actively Promoting Responsible Behaviors and Offering Opportunities for Citizen Involvement?

Citizens are demanding greater transparency and accountability from their governments, and seek to participate in shaping the policies that affect their lives. The diffusion of the Internet has raised expectations that electronic tools may increase citizen participation in government decision-making and stop the decline of trust in political institutions. This paper brings together two relevant topics, e-participation and climate change, analyzing the websites of the environment departments of European local governments that have signed the Aalborg+10 commitments, to establish to what extent European local governments are making use of the Internet to promote e-participation and environmental-friendly behaviors among their citizens. Our results show that the developments on e-participation are higher in those areas just giving information than in the areas related to interactivity. The Internet as a tool to revitalize the public sphere is still limited to those countries with higher levels of transparency and a culture of citizen engagement.

Impact Measurement via Carbon Calculators

Intervention studies have shown that eco-feedback is a useful measure leading to a reduction in energy consumption. Eco-feedback is most powerful if it is combined with goal setting, action-relevant information, and social comparison and if it is behaviorally relevant. Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) calculators are eco-feedback systems that are suitable for measuring the carbon balance of individuals and households. They also make it possible to measure the impact of activities aiming to reduce the carbon emissions of individuals by influencing behavior and changes in everyday life routines. Citizens participating in the e2democracy (e2d) project used such a tool over a period of up to 2 years. This chapter reviews the criteria followed to select the CO2e calculator and to adjust it for continuous measurement with various feedback functionalities. The different categories of CO2e measurement are presented, and how consumption, such as kilowatt hours (kWh), is converted into CO2e emissions is explained. The chapter also describes the actual functioning of the calculator, how participants interacted with it and the feedback provided to them. Finally, some challenges, such as the lack of data about emission factors (EFs), interpolation, validation, and comparability, are also discussed.