Academic Avenues

“The city is an apartment house”: property, improvement and dispossession in early twentieth-century Halifax, Nova Scotia

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“In early twentieth-century Halifax, municipal policies of property taxation and assessment became an important object of political discussion and contestation. Central to these political contests was a particular, theoretically informed distinction between “land” and “improvements.” This distinction would ultimately ground a set of changes in municipal taxation and assessment (introduced between 1914 and 1918) and would help to constitute a new and consequential logic of state action within property relations. Drawing on the literature on property “enactment,” this article examines how early twentieth-century struggles over municipal taxation and assessment reshaped the prevailing understanding of real property in the city of Halifax.

Consistent with existing research, I demonstrate how a new perspective on property—including a new distinction between land and improvements—gradually came into being through a series of performances, practices and material devices. Embedded within this new perspective, crucially, was a specific logic of dispossession, a new and calculative rationale for the expropriation and redevelopment of the city’s “underimproved” land. While the literature on property enactment has quite often investigated practices of dispossession, I point out that its analysis of dispossession’s logic or rationale has tended to be confined to a single property theorist, John Locke, and his justifiably famous distinction between land and improvements. Emphasizing the rather different, post-Lockean conception of property that emerged in early twentieth-century Halifax, I suggest that more attention ought to be paid to the multiple and varying logics of dispossession that are liable to be contained within prevailing property enactments.”

Published in Urban Geography | Ted Rutland | 2015, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/%E2%80%9CThe-city-is-an-apartment-house%E2%80%9D%3A-property%2C-and-in-Rutland/321d580be4e76c58238d61414b16b74050ec19c6, https://consensus.app/details/emphasizing-rather-conception-property-emerged-rutland/3a7efc4573bb57a88bc2044660fc731f/



Merger mania : the assault on local government

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“Outside the United States, forced municipal mergers were a popular policy in many European countries and Canadian provinces during the 1960s and 1970s. The city of Laval, just north of Montreal, and the “unicity” of Winnipeg owe their origins to this period – both amalgamations failed to meet their original objectives. Despite the emergence of “public choice” theory – which justifies municipal fragmentation on market principles – some politicians and public servants in the 1990s have continued to advocate municipal amalgamations as a means of reducing public expenditure, particularly in Ontario.

In Merger Mania Andrew Sancton demonstrates that this approach has generally not saved money. He examines the history of amalgamation, as well as studying recent forced municipal mergers in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Sudbury. In the concluding chapter he examines the case for municipal amalgamation on the Island of Montreal and argues that those who would abolish locally elected municipal councils are obligated to explain very carefully – especially in light of evidence to the contrary – exactly why they think such drastic measures are necessary. A compelling examination of a timely issue, Merger Mania is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of city governments.”

Published in Canadian Public Policy-analyse De Politiques | Andrew Sancton | 2001, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Merger-mania-%3A-the-assault-on-local-government-Sancton/ea446b4921df9d9999faf9438892a0d92f5649de, https://consensus.app/details/concluding-chapter-examines-case-amalgamation-island-sancton/6e36d71a6bd05a4383ce77233e2175dc/



The impacts of amalgamation on police services in the Halifax Regional Municipality

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“On 1 April 1996, the Nova Scotia government amalgamated the Town of Bedford, the cities of Dartmouth and Halifax and Halifax County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality. The Halifax amalgamation is one in a series of such mergers that have happened recently in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. This study compares the costs, resources, service levels, crime rates, workloads and citizen perceptions of police services before and after amalgamation. The findings suggest that, overall, amalgamation of police services in the Halifax region is associated with higher costs (in real-dollar terms), lower numbers of sworn officers, lower service levels, no real change in crime rates, and higher workloads for sworn officers.

The findings from three citizen surveys that compare perceptions before and after amalgamation indicate that when the comparisons are focused on persons who actually called the police in 1997 and 1999, nearly thirty-two per cent of those surveyed in 1997 felt that police services had gotten worse since amalgamation, and nearly twenty-five per cent felt the same way in 1999. In 1995, thirty-nine per cent of survey respondents expected services to get worse with amalgamation. Claims about the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of amalgamations have tended to rest on evidence that is generally inadequate to assess the actual consequences of this kind of organizational change. The current study suggests that when predictions are tested, there is a considerable gap between the rhetoric and what actually happens when police departments are amalgamated in an urban setting.”

Published in Canadian Public Administration-administration Publique Du Canada | J. Mcdavid | 2002, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-impacts-of-amalgamation-on-police-services-in-Mcdavid/1dc13543a2d4c07e12f277e9baa3e585c45f5c8e, https://consensus.app/details/findings-suggest-amalgamation-police-services-halifax-mcdavid/0e7244fbcc5c56959d58e9bd45a22283/



Misconceiving Regional/Local Tensions: Two case studies from Tasmania

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“While tensions between the imperatives of regional, state and national development and local autonomy are common, there is no necessary trade-off between the two since regional development can co-exist with a vibrant system of local government. However, this is often not readily appreciated in Australian policy debates, which frequently juxtapose regional and local governance structures.

This paper examines two cases studies of this approach in Tasmania, which have generated bitter controversy, in the form of the Southern Tasmania Council Association (STCA) sponsored Independent Panel into Local Government in the Southern Tasmania regional area which produced a Final Report (the ‘Munro Report’) entitled Independent Review of Structures for Local Governance and Service Delivery in Southern Tasmania and the Tasmanian Division of the Property Council of Australia sponsored Deloitte Access Economics (2011) Report entitled Local Government Structural Reform in Tasmania. It is argued that both documents err poorly in both conceptual and empirical terms and this renders their recommendations for radical local government amalgamation fatally flawed.”

Published in Public Policy | B. Dollery | 2012, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Misconceiving-Regional%2FLocal-Tensions%3A-Two-case-Dollery-Kortt/b7becd8ac91f9c63ba73a4256e1b938a5d33fe1d, https://consensus.app/details/documents-poorly-terms-renders-recommendations-dollery/bd04a9371a69576d96bdce1c6c2c8fcb/

Integral local development: ‘accommodating multiple interests’ through entrustment and accountable representation

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“Accommodating multiple interests involves integrating across highly stratified societies. Integral local development is a means of integrating across these interests through locally accountable representative authorities entrusted with public powers. It is integral to the local community because it is based on democratic representation – where “democratic” is substantively defined as a system of public power holders who are accountable to the public.

Customary authorities, NGOs, local environmental agents and ad hoc committees do not necessarily represent the public nor are they systematically accountable. This paper advances elected local government as a legitimate representative of local people in environmental and other matters.”

Published in International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology | J. Ribot | 2001, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Integral-local-development%3A-%E2%80%98accommodating-multiple-Ribot/e854e73d216eeefd84852b23cae6f802cae63460, https://consensus.app/details/this-paper-advances-elected-government-people-matters-ribot/ec12c40e9ed655b1abbfaed8fe1d4430/



Local Self-Government Theory and Its Evolution in Modern China

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“In traditional Chinese society, there have existed certain forms of local self-government theory, which constitute the pre-knowledge and foundation of local self-government theory and its evolution in modern China. Since the late Qing Dynasty, the western theory has been far from overturning the tradition al Chinese theory, rather it has given the Chinese theory a legal form. That is the local entity as a public legal person.

The argument that local self-government theory was transplanted from western to China could only make sense within the transformation from political sense to legal sense. The notion of local entity is the most important fruit of the late evolution of local self-government theory and it could also be constructive and helpful in the current reform of local government law.”

Published in Journal of Xiamen University | Wang Jian-xue | 2011, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Local-Self-Government-Theory-and-Its-Evolution-in-Jian-xue/34625f6692ef69057b282c9249cb6d4cd2117eaf, https://consensus.app/details/notion-entity-fruit-evolution-selfgovernment-theory-jianxue/bf7c8060ab9059b0a71256ccc1c7a6df/



The effects of local government amalgamation on public spending and service levels

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“We use difference-in-difference estimation to study how municipal amalgamation affects local government spending and public service levels in the Netherlands. Employing different models, different control groups and a number of robustness tests, we find no significant effect on aggregate spending.

We explore whether this finding is a result of amalgamation effects working in opposite directions for different types of municipalities, cancelling each other out. However, the amalgamation effect for small municipalities does not differ significantly from that for large ones, and the effect for municipalities with homogeneous preferences does not differ from that for jurisdictions with[out] heterogeneous preferences. We also investigate whether amalgamation leads to better public services instead of lower spending.

As it turns out, amalgamation reduces spending on administration, but there is no corresponding spending increase on public services. Finally, amalgamation does not raise house prices, which we would expect were it to improve public services.”

Published in The annual research report | M. Allers | 2014, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-effects-of-local-government-amalgamation-on-and-Allers-Geertsema/021eaf16e230389203ad80ba31712a81d9587b12, https://consensus.app/details/finally-amalgamation-raise-house-prices-would-expect-allers/98abc2cd4fc451fbb72111dba024e991/

Purpose Built for Failure? Local, Regional and National Government in Britain

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“A critical analysis of the formal structure of government in Britain as it relates to questions of regional and local development is presented. According to a broadly economic framework, the argument is developed that the way that two of the most influential policies—local economic development and land-use planning—have developed is increasingly in conflict with the present structure of government. The logic of the policies is only compatible with a regional tier of government.

The emerging paradigm for regional policy prescribes a ‘bottom-up’ approach to development which is focused on supply-side instruments. But policy in England is entirely driven and largely delivered from the centre. Wales and Scotland have an administrative structure which is rather less inconsistent with ‘bottom-up’ policies. Land-use planning, which in practice has a significant impact on the regional pattern of development, has been increasingly displaced to the most local tier of government—the districts. Conflict between the goals and implementation of policy arises in this case because, although the costs of physical development are contained at the local level, the benefits of development arise at the regional level.

Thus two policy sectors which should be complementary and coordinated are increasingly in conflict; and the economic logic of the policies is inconsistent with the governmental structures through which they are delivered. The solution to this problem is the introduction of a regional tier of government and an appropriate balance of functions between national, regional, and local government.”

Published in Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy | P. Cheshire | 1992, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Purpose-Built-for-Failure-Local%2C-Regional-and-in-Cheshire-D%E2%80%99Arcy/f86ec69fa5052e6e4d297d213e0a4c4d9358eaef, https://consensus.app/details/solution-problem-introduction-government-balance-cheshire/33215023405e530d8d2625c7574ab710/

Community, Cooperation and Metropolitan Democracy

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“The discourse of local governance in Britain has placed heavy emphasis on the concept of community and the virtues of cooperation.  This paper looks at the origins of this discourse in the 19th century and the reasons for its revival at the end of the 20th century.  

It argues that there is a tension between the formal structures of representative local government and the desire to encourage community involvement. But it concludes that the increasing complexity is an inevitable consequence of the complexity of modern metropolitan life and that the problem is to ensure the legitimacy and accountability of the new structures created.”

P. Booth | 2010, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Community%2C-Cooperation-and-Metropolitan-Democracy-Booth/ae56cf0257f633767da1fcc1f08ecc68b4f866f4, https://consensus.app/details/argues-tension-structures-government-desire-encourage-booth/7731cba94eb55bcd94e3d0769d5b3b5c/



Advocating within and outside the shadow of hierarchy: local government responses to Melbourne’s outer suburban deficits

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“Where urban and regional development processes create deficits in infrastructure, services or employment, governments are expected to respond. One specific dimension is local government advocacy within a multi-tiered state. Although democratically proximate to residents, local government represents a creature of higher government tiers and is subject to the centralist ‘shadow of hierarchy’. To interpret whether advocacy is stunted by hierarchical influences, a distinction is drawn between passive, active and aggressive advocacy.

Using interviews conducted with outer Melbourne’s growth area councils, the paper evidences the multidimensional and evolving nature of local and regional advocacy within the shadow. Illustrative of intra-sector variation, some peripheral councils have stepped beyond the metaphoric shadows and adopted politically confrontational or aggressive advocacy. Overarching conceptual framings must be appreciative of spatial and temporal variation in local government advocacy, and the local embeddedness of all government tiers through representative structures.”

Published in Local Government Studies | Steven R. Henderson | 2018, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Advocating-within-and-outside-the-shadow-of-local-Henderson/40c609358ab286c986f04935a32c37e212541fb7, https://consensus.app/details/overarching-framings-must-appreciative-variation-henderson/d599c69c09585622a1d76a60ba197736/



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