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Implications Of Local Government Autonomy On Rural Development
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Based on the following, the role of
government in maximizing social welfare through public goods provision
came to be assigned to the lower tiers of government. The other two
roles of income distribution and stabilization were, however, regarded
as suitable for the central government. To understand the rationale for
the assignment of the redistribution function to the central government,
we need to examine what the implications of assigning this
responsibility to the lower tier would imply. Given that citizens are
freely mobile across local or regional jurisdictions, a lower level
jurisdiction that embarks on a programme of redistribution from the rich
to the poor would be faced with the out-migration of the rich to
non-redistributing jurisdictions and in-migration of the poor from such
jurisdictions to the redistributing one. If on the other hand, the
powers to redistribute were vested in the central government, a
redistribution policy would apply equally to citizens resident in all
jurisdictions. There would therefore be no induced migration. The
central government is expected to ensure equitable distribution of
income, maintain macroeconomic stability and provide public goods that
are national in character. Decentralized levels of government on the
other hand are expected to concentrate on the provision of local public
goods with the central government providing targeted grants in cases
where there are jurisdictional spill-overs associated with local public
goods.
The next step in the theoretical framework was to determine
the appropriate taxing framework. In addressing this tax assignment
problem, attention was paid to the need to avoid distortions resulting
from decentralized taxation of mobile tax bases. Gordon (1983)
emphasized that the extensive application of non benefit taxes on mobile
factors at decentralized levels of government could result in
distortions in the location of economic activity.
The relevance of
the theory to this study to note is the need for true fiscal federalism
that will enhance all levels of government including local government
without interrupted in any form that will hinder them from rendering
their constitutional responsibilities. This is also in the form of lump
sum transfers from the central government to decentralized governments.
The arguments for equalization were mainly two. The first which is on
efficiency grounds saw equalization as a way of correcting for distorted
migration patterns. The second is to provide assistance to poorer
regions or jurisdictions. Equalization has been important in a number of
federations. For example, Canada has an elaborate equalization scheme
built into her inter-governmental fiscal arrangements. It should be
pointed out however, that recent literature emphasizes the importance of
reliance on own revenues for financing local budgets. A number of
authors (Weingast, 1995; McKinon, 1997) have drawn attention to the
dangers of decentralized levels of government relying too heavily on
intergovernmental transfers for financing their budgets.
1.9 Operationalization of the key concepts
·
Local Government: Is a system of local administration instituted to
maintain law and order, provide limited range of social amenities and
encourage co-operation and participation of inhabitants towards
improvement of their conditions of living.
· Autonomy: In
this context means a situation in which each government enjoys a
separate existence and independence from the control of the other
governments.
· Rural: Is those parts of the cities that are
yet to develop. That is villages and communities that lack necessary
social amenities that are needed for standard of living.
· Development: Is the process in which someone or something grows or changes and become more advanced.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This work titled, “Implication of Local Government Autonomy on Rural Development in Ebonyi State†A study of Ebonyi Local Government Area†was aimed at ascertaining the extent to which state interference in the management of local government revenue constituted the bane to rural development in Ebonyi State, examining the extent to which poor financial management practice in the local government hinders rural development in Ebonyi Local Government Area among others. “Fisca ... Continue reading---
