As You Like It or Much Ado about Nothing?: Structural Reform in Local Government in Belgium

Structural Reform In Local Government: Trends And Approaches

In their comparative assessment of the status of local government at the turn of the 21^st century, Caulfield and Larsen (2002) discern a dramatic and sustained period of reform activity as a globally occurring phenomenon often ushering into conspicuous change. Some of these reforms can be determined as of the structural type in that they target the jurisdictional arrangements of local government (as opposed to the internal settings, modes and processes of local political and administrative decision-making). Aiming to alter these arrangements almost invariably impinges upon external multilevel constellations. Consequently, issues of structural reform are embedded in pre-existing and key to shifting central-local relations (Goldsmith & Page, 2010). Broadly speaking, structural reforms are often deemed as part-and-parcel of a common strategy to optimize the output-legitimacy of local government leading to a more effective and efficient production and delivery of public provisions and services in and under the authority of a hitherto delineated place-bound orbit (Vetter & Kersting, 2003a). They tend to have a central top-down policy impetus meeting diverse local bottom-up responses.