This Policy Paper demonstrates the importance of institutionalizing risk management in elections. It discusses key terminological and methodological aspects of risk management in order to derive election-specific definitions, and outlines the key ingredients of risk management in elections. It also takes stock of existing electoral risk-management practices, based on the results of a global survey of 87 countries carried out by International IDEA.

Democratic decentralisation through ‘conventional’ institutions of local government is facing increasing challenges, whether from financial pressures, questions of representativeness, difficult central-local relations and from a perhaps growing belief that local government has failed to realise its potential and there may be better ways of achieving societal goals. It is clear there is need to contemplate quite radical change to ensure local government becomes or remains ‘fit for purpose’. This collection of papers illustrates the way in which the role of local government is evolving in different parts of the Commonwealth and provides practical examples of new local government at work. It showcases emerging practice, and highlights success stories from new ways of working and challenges confronting local government in both developed and developing countries. New Century Local Government makes a very valuable contribution to helping understand the changing role of local government, and will ensure that practitioners are up-to-date with the most innovative initiatives in local government planning and administration.

Integrating Amartya Sen's approach with the literature on place-based territorial development processes, this book recognises the interplay between the evolution of local development systems and the expansion of individual and collective capabilities.

This chapter traces the evolution and analytical underpinnings of local governance as background to a better understanding of the case studies of developing countries in this book. The next section outlines analytical approaches to local governance that can be helpful in understanding the role of governments and comparing and contrasting institutional arrangements. It further develops a model of local governance that integrates various strands of this literature. This model has important implications for evaluating and reforming local governance in both industrial and developing countries. The third section presents stylized models and institutions of local governance as practiced in different parts of the world during past centuries. It compares and contrasts the ancient Indian and Chinese systems of local governance with Nordic, Southern European, North American, and Australian models. The last section provides a comparative overview of local government organization and finance in selected developing countries as an introduction to the in-depth treatment of these countries in the rest of the book.

Decentralisation has become an integral part of local government reform programmes in recent years. But how to put these changes into effect? This book explores the reasons for making these changes, and applies recent thinking in change management to the particular challenges facing all those who are seeking to make their local governance systems more responsive. Written by internationally renowned experts from the International Development Department at the University of Birmingham, UK, and advisers at the Commonwealth Secretariat, Managing Change in Local Governance looks at the key drivers for change in local government, and at the factors which those implementing change need to take into account to ensure success. For senior managers in local government, policy makers in ministries of local government, and students and researchers in public administration with an interest in local government issues.