Nuno F. da Cruz

Measuring Local Government Transparency

Abstract Despite the importance of government transparency to promote accountability and prevent maladministration, empirical research has failed to produce proper tools to assess and compare government transparency practices. Most contributions to the topic do not address it from a stakeholder’s perspective, particularly in selecting the indicators to include in transparency indexes. This paper contributes to the debate by developing a municipal transparency index based on information available on local government official websites. The methodological approach borrows insights from the decision analysis literature to structure the index through a participatory process. An application to the Portuguese local government setting is briefly discussed.

New development: the challenges of designing municipal governance indicators

Quantitative governance indicators are being increasingly used to investigate the quality of governance and to ‘measure what matters’ in local government. This article addresses the challenges of developing appropriate and accurate indicators and presents a model for assessing governance systematically.

Delivering Local Infrastructure through PPPs: Evidence from the School Sector

AbstractThis paper discusses the use of public–private partnership (PPP) contracts in the school sector. With this purpose, four Portuguese case studies are carefully examined. The authors argue that the lessons provided by the literature are not being implemented by public authorities. In fact, while crafting these new governance structures, local governments seem to fail in protecting the public interest. To cope with this state of affairs, the authors draw a risk management strategy and advocate several contract management guidelines. The authors’ findings suggest that increasing transparency in procurement procedures and fostering the standardization of the tender documents and contractual clauses are absolute requirements in achieving value for money. Albeit these best practices are now beginning to be prevalent among academics and practitioners, local decision makers still strive to cope with the complex process of handling the whole life-cycle management of PPP arrangements.

Structuring composite local governance indicators

ABSTRACT The importance of good governance is praised by many academics and practitioners. The prominence of the subject suggests that measurement is important. However, setting out to measure the quality of governance empirically is controversial. Doubts regarding the feasibility and meaningfulness of this undertaking are widespread in the literature. Recognizing the potential caveats, the current article discusses a set of guidelines for structuring a theoretically sound local governance assessment tool based on the Decision Analysis and Operational Research literatures. The authors argue that using a multi-criteria model which employs several objective (quantitative and qualitative) indicators and relies on a participatory method to aggregate them is a suitable way of developing sensible Local Governance Indicators. The purpose here is to provide a detailed roadmap for any country (or region, or locality) willing to engage in the assessment of the quality of local governance. The real-world implementation of a model developed according to these guidelines could help raise awareness, promote good practices and increase the ‘governance literacy’ of citizens. By operationalizing good governance, analysts may also be able to further investigate the relationships between local governance practices and several socio-economic factors.

Managing Public Utilities: Lessons from Florida

This paper considers the institutional and regulatory framework of local infrastructure services in Florida. Furthermore, it examines how decision-makers perceive the governance structures of publicly-owned utilities in this state. After reviewing the theory, the study describes the current system in terms of rate setting, investments, consumer protection and quality of service. A state-wide survey was developed to identify potential sources of tension between managers and politicians. The responses were supplemented by interviews with managers, enabling the authors to identify good practices of local governance, including the de-politicization of the decision-making and the managerial attention to sustainable approaches to funding infrastructure.

An Application of a Multicriteria Model to Assess the Quality of Local Governance

This article presents a method to assess the quality of local governance practices. The multicriteria decision analysis modeling approach is illustrated through a real application (Portuguese municipalities). To define the criteria, performance descriptors, and reference levels in each dimension of local governance, and to account for the differences in preference of scoring in each criterion, the judgments of legitimate stakeholders were considered through decision conferencing. The constructed “Municipal Governance Indicator” is calculated for the case of Lisbon to show the outputs of the model and its potential usefulness.

Rocky Road of Urban Transportation Contracts

The provision of urban transport services entails several challenges. Past research has been concerned with economic (e.g., tariff setting and financial sustainability), technological (e.g., different modes or energy sources), social (e.g., the impact of public transportation on social cohesion), and even institutional or policy issues (e.g., privatization). However, few studies focus on governance issues or on the scrutiny of the contractual relations between the competent authorities (local governments) and the operators. The current paper attempts to address this gap in the literature. The objective is to assess the rationale behind each governance structure and the quality of contracting procedures. To accomplish this, the authors consider the Portuguese regulatory framework and analyze six contracts signed between the local governments and the operators, corresponding to three different governance models: municipal companies, mixed companies, and concessionary companies. All cases present serious governance problems, especially regarding the initial decision-making process, the access to the market of private investors, and the clear definition of objectives monitored through output-oriented indicators. The case-study analysis shows that municipal companies are prone to being politically steered, and the complex web of contracts of mixed companies fails to protect the public interest. Although the contract design lacks development, in concessions the conflicts of interest are attenuated and the roles of the public and private partners are better understood.

New urban governance: A review of current themes and future priorities

ABSTRACT This review article explores some of the key concepts, trends, and approaches in contemporary urban governance research. Based on a horizon scan of recent literature and a survey of local government officials, it provides a big picture on the topic and identifies areas for future research. Bridging the gap between the scholarly research focus and the perceptions and requirements of city administrators represents a major challenge for the field. Furthermore, because global and comparative research on urban governance is confronted with an absence of systematically collected, comparable data, the article argues that future efforts will require experimenting with methodologies that can generate new empirical insights.

Governing urban accessibility: moving beyond transport and mobility

Abstract Access to people, goods, ideas and services is the basis of economic development in cities. The better this access, the greater the economic benefits through economies of scale, agglomeration effects and networking advantages. The way in which cities facilitate accessibility also impacts directly on other key aspects of human development, social inclusion and well-being. Accessibility is created through a complex interplay of urban form and transport systems. Thus, governing urban accessibility requires moving beyond conventional urban transport considerations linked to mobility and movement. Such a re-framing implies a far greater recognition of urban form characteristics like land use, distribution of densities and urban design, in addition to transport characteristics like infrastructures, service levels and travel speeds. A new interface between these characteristics has emerged as a result of shared mobility systems, putting additional pressure on city governments to act as system integrators. Based on a literature review, empirical insights from a global survey and the case-study cities of London, NYC and Berlin, this paper explores the institutional capacities of shifting from governing urban transport to urban accessibility. The evidence shows that there are entrenched misalignments which may impact negatively on the capacity to pair planning and policies essential for delivering better accessibility. Furthermore, it is clear that “hierarchies” and “networks” are not mutually exclusive when it comes to integrated governance of accessibility. The findings also suggest that cities may be better equipped to integrate shared mobility and consider mobility as a service than to pursue more wide-ranging metropolitan accessibility policies.