Local government reform in Jamaica and Trinidad: a policy dilemma

Issues of local governance have dominated Caribbean policy agenda for the past two decades, prompting considerable thought and action on local government reform by scholars, local government practitioners and policy makers, alike. No reforms have been as ubiquitous as those of local government. Perm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration and development 2007-05, Vol.27 (2), p.159-174
Main Author: Schoburgh, Eris D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administrative reform
Centre-periphery relations
Governance
Governmental reform
Implementation
Institutional change
Intergovernmental relations
International relations
Jamaica
Jamaica - Government and politics
local governance
Local government
local government reform
Organizational effectiveness
policy
Postcolonial government
Public administration
Public management
Public policy
Reforms
Studies
Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago - Government and politics
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Summary:Issues of local governance have dominated Caribbean policy agenda for the past two decades, prompting considerable thought and action on local government reform by scholars, local government practitioners and policy makers, alike. No reforms have been as ubiquitous as those of local government. Permitted by an international reformist agenda, local government reform policy is linked positively to efforts to redress incapacities of public management and administration. This article examines conceptual and empirical issues relating to implementation of local government reform in two Caribbean countries, Jamaica and Trinidad. It analyses how the vision for local governance is articulated through specific reform taxonomies and argues that, although local government reform is normatively a policy aimed at fundamental changes in intergovernmental relations, in Jamaica and Trinidad reform has led merely to adjustments in the internal administration of local government. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0271-2075
1099-162X
DOI:10.1002/pad.434