Nowadays, municipalities form strategies & interact with the challenges & opportunities offered by the context in which they operate. From now on, Flemish municipalities are even obliged by the ...municipal decree to draw up a multiannual strategic plan (albeit in a transitory phase for the current legislature). That plan must formulate a coordinating strategy for the municipality & must contain guidelines for policy. In our contribution we want to examine on the one hand the particular meaning of this strategic plan for local governments. Which contents are given to these plans? How did these plans came about? What is the further course of these plans? What is the possible influence of local finances? Etc. On the other hand, we also want to take a broader look: how do we place the strategic plan in the light of the challenge of broader strategy formulation & decision-making which plays a vital role in contemporary local government? Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.
With the local elections in 2006, new organizational schemes have been applied by the Flemish government to the 308 municipalities. These schemes included institutional reform aimed to change the ...outset of local government. In this article we studied the influence of these reforms in practice. Are they actually carriers of change? We thereby focused on the direct aspects linked to these reforms. While many instruments of reform had indirect intended effects, acceptance & action among key decision-makers (both voters & local governors to the extent of their discretion) to use them directly becomes crucial. Our analysis has shown that, with some exceptions, direct autonomous space for action was only limitedly used, hence reducing the chances for indirect change. While it is still too early to fully assess the foreseen indirect effects, in our opinion it is crucial to understand the nature of these local reforms within the central (Flemish) bargaining arena. The latter seems to have transformed the new schemes of local governmental organization to the path-dependent art of the political feasible. Tables, Figures. Adapted from the source document.
