Governmental Strategies towards Poorly-Performing Municipalities: From Narrow Perceptions to Ineffective Policies

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between central government perceptions towards local failure and public policy aimed at the recovery of poor-performing local authorities. Faced with falling resources, some local authorities have experienced during the 1990s and 2000s organizational crisis, creating growing gaps between excellent and poor performers. The central issue addressed by the article is the inability of policy to accelerate recovery processes in local governments under crisis. Accordingly, the paper first suggests a typology of public organizational failure. Then, it theorizes about how perceptions of local failure influence the effectiveness of strategies with the aim of recovering poor-performing municipalities.