Governance

Governance and Territorial Development. Policy, Politics and Polity in Local Economic Development
Jörg Meyer-Stamer / mesopartner / 2004
This paper "addresses [...] the relevance of politics and polity in LED. The main focus is at governance, i.e. the effort of government and non-governmental players to shape the evolution of a local economy rather than just leaving it to the anarchy of the market. In the next section, I will address the tension between policy and politics. In the third section, I will look at the polity of LED, especially LEDAs and LED fora. In the fourth section, I draw some conclusions and present an alternative approach."
(pdf-file, 83 kb, 25 pp.)

Governance - die vernachlässigte Kategorie in der lokalen Wirtschaftsförderung
Jörg Meyer-Stamer / mesopartner / 2003
"Die Popularität von Lokaler Wirtschaftsförderung (LWF) steht in einem eigenartigen Kontrast zu ihrer fragwürdigen Wirksamkeit. Es gibt wenig harte Evidenz dafür, dass LWF irgendwann irgendwo signifikante Wirkungen entfaltet hat – weder in Industrie- noch in Entwicklungsländern. Es gibt einzelne spannende Stories, aber wenig systematische Evaluierungen und kaum impact assessments, und die vorhandenen Studien zu LWF und benachbarten Feldern zeichnen ein eher graues Bild..." Im Mittelpunkt des Artikels steht die Bedeutung von politics und polity in der lokalen Wirtschaftsförderung, ein weiterer Abschnitt betrachtet das Verhältnis von policy und politics, gefolgt von der Frage der polity in der LWF sowie der Präsentation möglicher Handlungsoptionen.
(pdf-file, 98 kb, 16pp.)

Local Enterprises in the Global Economy: Issues of Governance and Upgrading
Hubert Schmitz (Ed.) / IDS / 2003
"In order to achieve both export growth and rising incomes, it seems essential for local enterprises to ‘upgrade’. Policy makers in many parts of the world are looking for ways of helping their enterprises to achieve this. Particularly influential is the idea that the local sources of competitiveness need to be strengthened. The buzzwords are synergy, economies of clustering, systemic competitiveness, collective efficiency or local innovation systems. Studies carried out in the 1980s and 1990s showed many unexpected success stories of local enterprise clusters breaking into global markets. Simultaneously, there is a globalisation debate which centres on the new rulers of the global economy: the global companies that set the terms under which local export producers operate. The core competence of these global companies is seen to lie in research and development, design, branding and the co-ordination of suppliers in different parts of the world. If these companies pull the strings, how feasible is it to develop local strategies for avoiding the low road and embarking on the high road to competitiveness. In what circumstances are local upgrading strategies possible? Can local policy networks make a difference - or do global forces undermine them? Do global standards reinforce or undermine local strategies to compete on the high road.These are the questions addressed in this book."

The Concept of the "World Economic Triangle". Global Governance Patterns and Options for Regions
Messner, Dirk / Institute for Development Studies / IDS Working Paper 173 / 2002
The study develops the concept of the "world economic triangle" that emerges in the process of interaction between industrial locations, global value chains and global networks dedicated to setting standards. Regions are: (1) increasingly tied into global value chains that are characterised by forms of "private global governance" beyond pure market coordination; and (2) increasingly faced with global (technical, social, ecological, etc.) standards which are defined and often monitored by global policy networks. Taking into account the interactions between local and global governance in the "world economic triangle" helps to show new challenges, options and limits for local firms and for local policymakers.
(pdf-file, 712 kb, 107pp.)

Reforming Structural Funds: How to reconcile complexity with simplification?
Proposals for a New Model of Policy Making and Governance considering the peculiarities of Social Systems
Richard Hummelbrunner, ÖAR Regionalberatung, and Wolf Huber, Austrian Federal Chancellery, Division for Co-ordination of Spatial and Regional Policies / 2002
In this paper the authors want to show that simplification is not a mere technical issue, a question of reforming processes or of replacing one set of regulatory mechanisms by another. Instead it touches fundamental aspects of European regional policy making: Viable simplifications require an appropriate understanding of the processes which take place within and among the social systems involved in regional development (which are to be addressed by cohesion policies) as well as in the administration of Structural Funds (which require effective co-ordination among different levels of government). However, a model which pays due attention to the functioning and specific qualities of social systems will not only mean a departure from current practice, but will require fundamental changes in concepts and actions - in short: a paradigm shift in policy making and governance.
(word-file, 201 KB, 20pp.)

Local Partnerships for Better Governance
OECD / 2001
Local Management for more effective employment policies published in 1998 identified the potential of area-based partnerships in linking labour market policies to economic development. Partnership's role in reconciling the goals of economic competitivenes and social cohesion was emphasized by OECD ministers and policy makers from 25 countries when they met in Venice in 1998 to discuss the first results from ongoing decentralisation reforms across the OECD. This publication presents the findings from the study carried out in 1999-2000 in seven countries. 
(pdf-file, 2,7 MB, 328pp.)

Guidelines for Development Partnerships with the Private Sector (Public Private Partnerships - PPP)
(pdf-file, 29 KB, 8pp)

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