Explaining Horizontal and Vertical Cooperation on Public Services in Michigan: The Role of Local Fiscal Capacity
Explaining Horizontal and Vertical Cooperation on Public Services in Michigan: The Role of Local Fiscal Capacity
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解释密歇根州公共服务的横向和纵向合作：地方财政能力的作用
DOI：
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发表时间：
2007
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Eric W. Lupher
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jered B. Carr;Elisabeth R. Gerber;Eric W. Lupher
密歇根州地方政府参与了广泛的合作活动。然而，关于什么因素促使地方政府参与政府间合作，以及地方政府官员如何在各种形式的合作中进行选择，人们知之甚少。我们开发并测试了政府间合作理论，该理论解释了导致地方政府与其他地方单位进行横向合作的因素与与县或州政府进行垂直合作的因素的差异。我们的主要关注点是财政能力：我们假设，有限的财政能力导致许多地方政府，特别是乡镇政府与州或县行为者合作提供政府服务。财政能力较强的地方政府，特别是城市，是更强大的潜在合作伙伴，因此更有可能与其他地方政府采用横向安排进行合作。我们预计，其他因素，如人口特征、当地和地区经济因素、联邦或州的授权以及合作伙伴的存在，也会起到重要作用。我们用密歇根州公民研究委员会2005年收集的调查数据验证了这些假设，调查数据涉及115个服务类别的460个密歇根州地方政府所采用的服务提供模式。我们强烈支持我们关于地方财政能力与政府间公共服务合作之间联系的主张。
Michigan local governments engage in a wide range of cooperative activities. Little is known, however, about what factors motivate local governments to engage in intergovernmental cooperation and how local government officials choose among various forms of collaboration. We develop and test a theory of intergovernmental cooperation that explains differences in the factors that lead local governments to engage in horizontal cooperation with other local units versus vertical cooperation with county or state governments. Our primary focus is on fiscal capacity: we hypothesize that limited fiscal capacity leads many local governments, especially townships, to work collaboratively with state or county actors to provide government services. Local governments with greater fiscal capacity, especially cities, are stronger potential partners and so are more likely to collaborate with other local governments using horizontal arrangements. We expect other factors, such as population characteristics, local and regional economic factors, federal or state mandates, and the existence of collaborative partners, to matter as well. We test these hypotheses with survey data collected in 2005 by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan on the mode of service provision employed by 460 Michigan local governments across 115 service categories. We find strong support for our propositions about the linkage between local fiscal capacity and intergovernmental cooperation on public services.