Filipe Teles

Local government and the bailout: Reform singularities in Portugal

Portugal is working on the reform of its local government. Although amalgamation was one of the recommended strategies, as a consequence of the European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout process, an alternative approach has been suggested. This reform is mostly a development of inter-municipal cooperation mechanisms combined with partial devolution strategies. However, as the bailout agreement was its main catalyst, the urgency to cut public administration costs required in the memorandum and the imposed deadlines gave a perverse incentive for central government to produce ad hoc and fragmented modifications. I argue that these political and economical demands, which sanctioned the argument for rushed measures, together with the country’s strong local identities, historical municipalism, political centralism and the political costs of significant territorial changes, can explain the absence of a comprehensible reform strategy and the singularities of its policies. This article explores the framework that justifies the reform and assesses the impacts of the bailout agreement.

The Distinctiveness of Democratic Political Leadership

One recognises that political leadership still makes a difference. However, scholarship seems incapable of offering the proper tools to provide further and relevant understanding on the theme, particularly when we consider liberal democracys current trends, namely its egalitarian ethos and the personalisation of politics. One of its key features, even in strongly controlled democracies, with tight systems of checks and balances, is the ascendancy of assertive leaders, to whom voters look when deciding on which party to vote for. Therefore, a dispassionate assessment of political leadership is needed in order to adjust our analysis: from the qualities of particular individuals, their intentions, perspectives and preferences, to the way leaders perform their role. This article intends to identify what is the specific nature and distinctiveness of contemporary political leadership, arguing that the nature of the task sets new problems in the political science literature and asks for new approaches.

Beyond Paternalism Towards Social Capital: Local Governance Reform in Portugal

An urge to reform local government in Portugal requires a sensitive approach to the role of social capital and, particularly, to the consequences of local governance arrangements in its formation. This research agenda, greatly influenced by the identification of positive externalities of social capital, has generated several claims regarding the need for proactive and objective top-down initiatives. Though assuming that institutions and public policies can have positive effects on social capital building, this article tries to contribute to the debate, focusing on the challenges met by local administration reform, arguing that it requires a four-fold approach: the identification of local government functions and the role of the State; a close look at institutional design and citizen engagement mechanisms; correct tools for allowing civil society reinforcement and social capital building; and recognizing political leadership as a fundamental aspect of a governance arrangement.

Facilitative Mayors in Complex Environments: Why Political Will Matters

Under certain circumstances the style of leadership of mayors can be the result of their context perceptions and their sense of political autonomy and efficacy. This assessment indicates that the political action of the mayor discloses a particular style of leadership that derives from his/her political will. This article suggests an analysis of political will that intends to explain why local leaders adopt facilitative styles of leadership. In this formulation, the leadership facilitative style is a consequence of the political will to act accordingly, and this is explained by three main determinants: the leaders’ awareness of their complex and networked context, their independent sense of autonomy and their belief about their own political efficacy. Results from case studies, with extensive interviews with mayors, conducted in Portuguese municipalities, will be presented to reinforce and explore these hypotheses and to discuss the feasibility of this framework.

Paving the (Hard) Way for Regional Partnerships: Evidence from Portugal

ABSTRACT A fundamental dilemma which troubles advocates of interinstitutional partnerships in regional development pertains to the extent to which partnerships enhance the effectiveness of governance processes and outcomes. This dilemma is particularly relevant in contexts that lack strong cohesive regional development alliances, such as the Portuguese case. This article aims to shed light on the debate regarding the role of partnerships in regional development, drawing on a unique collaborative interinstitutional partnership. It explores the responses to complexity across the different stakeholders, as well as its effects at the formulation and implementation stages of the strategic plans devised to apply for EU funding. Findings suggest that interinstitutional partnerships induce significantly different allocative choices at the agenda-setting. However, the established partnership was unable to cope with the several obstacles that emerged during the implementation, suggesting several vulnerabilities of partnerships, which are explored. Findings suggest the need to reinforce governance mechanisms during the implementation stage.

In Search of Efficiency in Local Governance: Size and Alternatives

Efficiency and scale concerns are at the core of territorial reforms in Europe. Control over a complex network of service delivery institutions, organisational fragmentation and multi-territorial public and private entities, with overlapping territories and areas of responsibility which don’t always coincide, are, from a governance efficiency point of view, some of the justifications for territorial and functional reforms. Alternative strategies to deal with the challenges of local governance size include cooperation, amalgamation and competition. This chapter presents the different approaches to address size and efficiency dilemmas.

The Governance of Childcare in Transition: A Comparative Analysis

Local governments are important childcare service producers. This chapter delineates their corresponding features across Europe, explores adjustments in childcare governance and discusses its consequences. The EU has, to a certain extent, harmonized child daycare by setting common goals. However, the recent changes in this policy area, arising from the economic crisis, policy-specific motivations, and more generic reforms concerning municipal tasks and obligations, have led to different service reorganization and provision strategies in terms of scaling and re-scaling. The public debt crisis in 2010 has impacted child daycare too, and recent local government reforms have had an impact on the autonomy of municipalities in this sector. With the retrenchment of local government, public coverage of childcare is threatened, while tendencies of up- and trans-scaling are enhanced.

Local political leaders and context awareness: identifying perceptions of autonomy and efficacy

Leadership theories fail to explain how leaders acquire and interpret context. This article claims that political leadership styles articulate a choice of action that results from the leaders discerned possibilities to act. In order to explore these interpreted contextual determinants of leadership styles and the degree to which “possibility” has an influence over them, our research used a multiple case study design, with extensive interviews. Focusing on context awareness as a way of unveiling style determinants, I claim that it will produce different effects on leadership styles as a consequence of the leaders sense of autonomy and of political efficacy.

Intermunicipal cooperation: The quest for governance capacity?:

Intermunicipal cooperation is being increasingly adopted in various countries to cope with the dilemmas of territorial scale and resource rationing. Despite the pressures towards the reshaping of administrative boundaries, little is known about the capacity of intermunicipal associations to function as effective, legitimate and resilient policy actors. This article aims to contribute to this debate by addressing two interrelated dimensions. First, it seeks to present a conceptual definition of governance capacity, unpacking the conceptual framework into dimensions that can be measured systematically. Second, it aims to empirically assess the governance capacity of Portuguese intermunicipal associations, drawing on a unique survey of intermunicipal associations. Overall, results suggest that despite being instrumentally driven, intermunicipal associations have proven to be efficient, with members recognizing the benefits and the spillover effects of trustworthy arrangements. However, the path dependencies affecting Portuguese local governments may impact on the relatively low levels of governance capacity. Points for practitioners This article undertakes a conceptual analysis of the governance capacity of intermunicipal associations. This analytical framework can be crucial for leaders, practitioners and professionals working in management and administration especially those working in complex and demanding settings. Given the general trend towards intermunicipal cooperation – strongly encouraged by national and European regulations and reforms – practitioners need to be able to measure the capacity of the cooperative arrangements to be established and to be maintained. This article also strives to enlighten those professionals as to which dimensions mostly need to be strengthened so as to allow intelligent collective choices to be made and to set strategic directions for the allocation of (increasingly) scarce resources.

The Fourth Helix in Smart Specialization Strategies: The Gap Between Discourse and Practice

Despite the academic and political discourses regarding smart specialization strategies and the entrepreneurial ecosystems, particularly underlining the additional role of society (“knowledge society”) referred by the quadruple-helix model, literature is more fragile in assessing the dilemmas it poses. Although innovation is regarded as an essential tool in European policy for the 2014–2020 period and considered as instrumental for the promotion of economic growth and employment, this cannot be considered with disregard to the specific territorial resources, governance and institutional capacity of each region. This chapter seeks to address these gaps in literature. Empirically, it presents an in-depth case study of a particular regional setting (the Region of Aveiro in Portugal) and the process that led to the definition of its Territorial Development Strategy for the 2014–2020 period. Within this backdrop, this chapter also strives to shed light on the current debate on regional governance.