ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF

LOCALGOVERNMENT
ORGANIZATION
Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed
Outline of Lecture
 Hirschman’s Voice and Exit Model
 Ad Hoc Resource Sharing Model
 Regional Organizational of Councils
 Area Integration or Joint Board Models
 Virtual Local Governments
 Agency Model

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 2

Hirschman’s Voice and Exit Model
 Political efficiency is enhanced by ready and:
◦ Relatively cheap entry by elected councilors
◦ Relatively cheap exit by elected councilors
 Regular elections are held.
 The ratio of elected representatives to voters

is comparatively low.
 The voice mechanism entails easy access to

elected councilors.
 Voice mechanism entails putting complaints

procedure in place.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 3

Hirschman’s Voice and Exit Model
(cont.)
 Voice mechanism entails establishing local media
outlets.
 Operational autonomy is ensured because:
 Managerial staff are hired by elected councils.
 Administrative staff are hired by councilors
 Elected councilors determine the delivery of goods
and services.
 Elected councilors adjust service delivery to meet
changed circumstances.
 However, councils are subject to financial
problems.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 4

Ad Hoc Resource Sharing Model
 Ad Hoc Sharing Model refers to voluntary
arrangements between geographically
adjacent councils to share resources on an ad
hoc basis whenever and wherever the need
arises.
 Arrangement of this kind can entail a wide

range of resources:
 Specialized employees (e.g. town planners);
 Capital equipment (e.g. earth moving

machinery);

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 5

 Justification for Ad Hoc Resource
Sharing Model
 Dire financial circumstances of LGs.
 Reduction in cost of service delivery.
 The improvement in quality of existing services.
 Augmenting the range of existing services.
 It arises spontaneously between councils.
 Inherent flexibility of the arrangement.
 Independence of participating councils.
 Democratic representation or citizen
participation is not compromised.
 The arrangement can be terminated at will.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 6

Limitations of Ad Hoc Resource
Sharing Model
 The arrangement is vulnerable because it can
 Easily be terminated or modified.
 Temporary disputes can easily disrupt or end

the smooth operation of the arrangement.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 7

Regional Organization of Councils
 ROCs are voluntary groupings of neighboring
councils.
 ROCs have existed in some countries like

Australia since 1922.

 ROCs consists of between 5 and 15 councils.
 ROCs are diverse in both geographic size and

population.
 ROCs are typically governed by a board.
 The board consists of two members from

constituent councils.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 8

 Regional Organization of Councils
(cont.)
 Usually the mayor and one other person,
often an elected councilor or general
manager are selected.
 They are supported by either an

administrative structure or specialist

committees.
 As of April 2002 there were 39 ROCs across

Australia (NOLG, 2003).

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 9

Advantages of Regional Organization
of Councils
 Meetings encourage the free exchange of common
concerns and potential solutions.
 Joint forums foster the development of common

policy positions.
 Facilitates the coordination and rationalization of the

activities of member councils.

 Promotes cost savings because of :

◦ joint Purchasing
◦ Resource sharing
◦ other mutually beneficial schemes
 Plays a critical political role as a regional lobby
group.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 10

Disadvantages of Regional
Organization of Councils (cont.)
 Factors that are critical to ROCs’ success include:
◦ Commitment
◦ Teamwork
◦ Regional vision
◦ Trust
◦ Openness
◦ Communication
◦ Leadership
◦ Willingness to cooperate
 These variables can be very scarce in many ROCs

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 11

Area Integration /Joint Board Model
 Area Integration is also known as the Joint
Board Model.
 The JBM is based on:
 The retention of autonomous existing councils
 The retention of the existing boundaries
 Shared administration
 Operations of a JBM are overseen by a joint
board.
 The board consists of elected councilors from
each of the member municipalities.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 12

Area Integration /Joint Board Model
(cont.)
 Constituent councils each retain their political
independence.
 It thus preserve existing local democracy.
 However, it merges their administrative staff and

resources into a single enlarged bureau.

 This enables the reaping of:
 economies of scale;
 economies of scope;
 other benefits.
 JBM are not novel as it appears to represent the

English system of parish councils.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 13

Area Integration /Joint Board Model
(cont.)
 Parish councils were attached to the
administrative apparatus of larger municipal
corporations.
 JBM rests on two traditions:
 Small councils usually facilitate effective

representation;
 But are presumed not to use the resources at

their disposal in an efficient manner.

 Large municipalities are deemed to diminish

effective democratic representation.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 14

Area Integration /Joint Board Model
(cont.)
 But at the same time employ resources more
effectively.
 Amalgamation addresses these dilemmas by
putting more emphasis on resource efficiency
concerns.
 But it neglects questions of representational
effectiveness.
 The JBM deals with both concerns (efficiency
and democracy trade- off) by retaining the
desirable democratic features of small councils.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 15

Area Integration /Joint Board Model
(cont.)
 While agglomerating their separate
administrative structures.
 This enables JBM to capture the touted

efficiency enhancing attributes of larger

municipal boundaries.
 JBM rest on the assumption that:
 Each council will largely preserve ownership

of its existing assets.

 Overtime assessment of usage would

determine economic viability.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 16

Advantages of Area Integration /Joint
Board Model
 It has a reversibility attribute if things go
wrong.
 This is especially so since transfer of the
ownership of some assets are not required:
◦ Office furniture
◦ Equipment
◦ IT system
◦ Depots
◦ Motor vehicles
 Increased accountability, public scrutiny,
citizen involvement.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 17

Advantages of Area Integration /Joint
Board Model (cont.)
 Ready access to elected representatives.
 Separation of policy decision making from

policy execution.
 Achievement of economies of scale and scope
 Social cohesion deriving from small

constituent communities.
 A balance between the social and economic

dimensions of municipal governance.

 A higher degree of policy coherence over a

larger spatial area.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 18

Advantages of Area Integration /Joint
Board Model (cont.)
 Greater regional participation.
 A respect for history of communities.
 A preservation of sense of place.
 Avoidance of the pooling of reserves and

accumulated debts between provident and

improvident member councils.
 Every constituent council continues to enjoy full

autonomy.
 Determines its range of works and services.
 Determines its financial plans to provide funding.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 19

Disadvantages of Area Integration
/Joint Board Model
 Organizational complexity increases greatly.
 Ambiguity over the appropriate institutional site
for some decisions with system wide
externalities.
 Competing and irreconcilable demands by
different member councils could induce conflict.
 Potential for problems of demarcation and
definition between the wide area committee
(joint board) and the integrated local area
councils.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 20

Virtual Local Governments
 The VLG rests on two presumptions:
◦ Small councils, with limited populations and a low ratio
of elected representatives to constituents provide
superior decision making units in terms of the
appropriateness and effectiveness of service provision,
since they are closer to the people
◦ Large councils may enjoy economies of scale in the
provision of some goods and services
 It is possible to remove potential trade-offs
between council size and council efficiency
 Virtual local governments would be made up of
aligned groups of councils

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 21

Virtual Local Governments (cont.)
 If cost efficiency improves for some tasks, but
policy appropriateness and service effectiveness
deteriorates, the bigger a municipality becomes.
 An obvious solution then becomes the separation

of council decision-making from council

administration (Allan, 2001: 27).
 Given these two dimensions of reality about

municipal governance, Allan (2001) argues that it

is possible to remove potential trade-offs
between council size and council efficiency.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 22

Virtual Local Governments (cont.)
 A virtual council would thus consist of two main
elements:
 1) Relatively small councils would encompass

elected councilors and a small permanent

secretariat.
 They would decide on questions of policy

formulation, and monitor service delivery to

determine its effectiveness.
 2) In a specific metropolitan area several small

adjacent virtual councils would share a common

administrative structure or shared service center.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 23

Virtual Local Governments (cont.)
 These structures would provide the necessary
administrative capacity to undertake the
policies decided upon by individual councils.
 Service delivery itself would be contracted out

either to private companies or to the service

center.
 This will depend on the relative costs of

service provision.
 It will also depend on the feasibility of using

private firms.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 24

Agency Model
 The central government in Ghana has final
responsibility for the efficacious delivery of
local government services
 The 1992 Constitution provides for the

dissolution of local governments.

 They can be dissolved if:
 They are inept and corrupt;
 They are financially incapable;
 They are involved in other forms of

misconduct.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 25

Agency Model (cont.)
 The central government can then dissolve the
elected council.
 It can then appoint an administrator to manage
the local government for a designated period.
 In this sense, local governments are service
delivery agencies for central government.
 In other words, local governments possess a
high degree of autonomy over a defined range
of functions so long as they carry out their
allotted responsibilities adequately.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 26

Agency Model (cont.)
 Given these characteristics of Ghanaian local
governments, it is possible to conceive of
councils as having an agent-principal
relationship to central government.
 As agents, local government are charged with
delivering services on behalf of central
government in an efficient manner.
 Along analogous lines, area health boards are
elected bodies that oversee the administration of
central-funded health services without
producing the services directly.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 27

Agency Model (cont.)
 This conception of the role of local governments
can be referred to as the agency model.
 Under an agency model, local governments

would completely surrender operational control

of the services they direct.
 But at the same time still enjoy political

autonomy as elected bodies for a spatially

defined jurisdiction.
 All service functions would be run by central

government agencies.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 28

Agency Model (cont.)
 The service functions would be funded by
central/state government
 Central/state government employees would run the
functions.
 This would be done in the same way as central/state
police services and central emergency services
presently operate.
 Elected councils would act as advisory bodies to these
agencies.
 They would be charged with determining the specific
mix of services required over their geographical
jurisdictions.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 29

Agency Model (cont.)
 For example, domestic waste removal and
disposal would be conducted and managed
by central/state garbage agency.
 But the frequency of garbage collections

would be determined by democratically

elected councils.
 With a predetermined budget for a given

council area, individual local governments

could express the preferences of their voters
in determining the mix of services.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 30

Agency Model (cont.)
 Thus, less frequent garbage collection could be traded
off against more opulent public parks and recreation
zones, depending on the decision of the council.
 The composition of municipal services would thus be
chosen by the council.
 While the production and provision of these services
would be carried out by the central/state government
agencies.
 Compared with virtual LGs, agency model
municipalities would have even less operational
control, but roughly the same degree of political of
political economy.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 31

Advantages of Agency Model
 Elected and largely amateur councilors could
focus exclusively on ascertaining the tastes and
preferences of their constituents without having
to struggle with the complexities of actual
service delivery.
 This would be left in the hands of professional
specialist bureaucrats.
 This would capture the comparative advantage
of both groups
 Elected representatives could exploit their skills
in local grassroots democracy

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 32

Advantages of Agency Model
 They can also identify community needs.
 While career public servants employ their

professional abilities to operate efficient

service-delivery systems.
 Uniformity in the provision of services might

produce scale and scope economies.

 It will also develop technical capacities,

synchronize delivery systems, and provide

considerable purchasing power.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 33

Disadvantages of Agency Model
 Unlike virtual LGs, agency model councils
would enjoy none of the immense advantages
attendant on competition between
prospective service providers, drawn from the
private sector, public agencies and NGOs.
 Local governments would be entirely captive

to large state bureaucracies, equivalent to

current state education or health
departments, with a questionable record of
cost-effective service delivery.

Prof. Abdulai Kuyini Mohammed 34