This dissertation explores the impacts of blockchain-based audit trails and stakeholder feedback loops on ethical conduct in U.S. federal and state public administration. The study addresses ongoing ethical problems in government, such as low levels of accountability, inadequate procedures, policy manipulation, and a waning public confidence in government, despite the existence of government ethics codes and oversight bodies. Ethical adherence is considered using two complementary theories: the virtue theory (Honesty, Fairness, Integrity, Responsiveness, Trust) and the deontological theory (Duty fulfillment, Rule following, Documentation, Accountability, Procedural compliance). The study was conducted with closed and open-ended answers from public administration participants who have experience in ethics, compliance, audit, procurement, oversight, stakeholder engagement, or other related areas using an anonymous online survey via Google Forms. Ten responses were received and nine valid responses were analyzed. The findings revealed that audit trails linked to blockchain were seen as the most beneficial for holding accountable, tracing, ensuring record integrity, reviewing and ensuring duty-based compliance. Stakeholder feedback loops were seen as most beneficial for fairness, honesty, telling the truth, responsiveness and public trust. The two tools were perceived as complementary tools and not as competing tools. The results, however, also showed that transparency instruments are not necessarily the drivers of ethical behavior. They rely on leadership, staff development, correct data entry, active data review, meaningful follow-up to feedback, and follow-through on actions. The study brings to the public administration literature a connection between mechanisms of transparency and ethical adherence in both virtue-based and duty-based approaches. It provides pragmatic advice to agencies that want to build ethical governance through technology, participation, and organizational culture in complex federal, state, and government-adjacent administrative contexts, in everyday practice.
Local government institutions (LGIs) are widely recognized as the cornerstone of democratic governance and sustainable local development. In Bangladesh, Union Parishads, Municipalities (Pourashavas), Upazila Parishads, Zila Parishads, and City Corporations play a vital role in delivering public services, promoting participatory governance, and fostering socio-economic development. Despite significant progress in decentralization, the financial autonomy of local governments remains limited due to excessive dependence on central government transfers and grants. The inadequate mobilization of own-source revenue (OSR) restricts the capacity of LGIs to finance infrastructure, maintain essential public services, and respond effectively to local development needs. This conceptual paper examines the relationship between strengthening local government institutions and improving own-source revenue mobilization in Bangladesh. Drawing upon theories of fiscal decentralization, public financial management, and good governance, the paper argues that sustainable local development requires financially autonomous local governments capable of generating, managing, and utilizing local revenues efficiently and transparently. The study identifies key institutional, legal, administrative, technological, and political constraints affecting local revenue collection while proposing policy options to enhance fiscal capacity. The paper further emphasizes that digital transformation, improved tax administration, citizen participation, institutional accountability, and fiscal transparency can significantly strengthen local revenue systems. Effective utilization of locally generated revenue not only improves service delivery but also reinforces public trust and democratic accountability. The findings contribute to the growing literature on decentralization and local public finance by providing a conceptual framework for strengthening local government finance in Bangladesh.
CHAIMAA EL HAMDANI, Jamaa LAMKIES, Zakaria ELMEKHLOUFI, Mohammed Kehel
Résumé : Objectif : Cet article examine dans quelle mesure le contrôle de gestion territorial peut servir de levier de résilience et d'agilité organisationnelles dans les collectivités territoriales marocaines, dans un contexte de contraintes budgétaires et institutionnelles. Malgré l'abondance des travaux sur le pilotage de la performance publique, la résilience et l'agilité organisationnelles, la littérature n'offre à ce jour aucune articulation systématique entre contrôle de gestion territorial, résilience et agilité dans les collectivités locales marocaines ; combler précisément cette lacune constitue l'objet du présent article. Méthodologie : Il s'agit d'un article conceptuel (conceptual paper) fondé sur une revue narrative de la littérature indexée dans Scopus et sur une analyse documentaire des réformes institutionnelles marocaines (Constitution de 2011, loi organique relative aux lois de finances de 2015), complétée par une grille d'analyse comparative public-privé destinée à identifier les pratiques de gestion transférables. Apports : L'article formule des propositions théoriques, et non des résultats empiriques, selon lesquelles le contrôle de gestion territorial peut renforcer la résilience et l'agilité par l'alignement stratégique, les systèmes de mesure de la performance, les mécanismes d'apprentissage organisationnel et les processus décisionnels adaptatifs. L'analyse conceptuelle met en évidence un écart de maturité significatif entre les dispositifs de contrôle de gestion des secteurs privé et public, tout en montrant que le cadre constitutionnel de 2011 et la réforme budgétaire de 2015 offrent des conditions favorables à une gouvernance territoriale plus agile. Trois facteurs critiques de succès sont dégagés de la littérature : l'alignement stratégique du contrôle de gestion avec les objectifs de développement local, l'investissement dans le capital humain et les infrastructures numériques, et une hybridation progressive et sélective des outils privés adaptée aux valeurs du service public. Implications : L'étude propose aux décideurs territoriaux des recommandations hiérarchisées selon leur horizon de mise en œuvre et identifie des pistes de validation empirique du modèle proposé. Originalité : La contribution de l'article réside dans l'intégration, au sein d'un cadre analytique unifié, de trois corpus jusque-là juxtaposés, appliquée au contexte des collectivités territoriales marocaines et transposable avec prudence à des contextes de décentralisation comparables. Mots clés : Contrôle de gestion territorial, résilience organisationnelle, agilité organisationnelle, collectivités territoriales, Nouveau management public, Maroc. Classification JEL : H70, H83, L38, M48 Type du papier : Recherche Théorique Abstract : Purpose: This paper examines the extent to which territorial management control can serve as a lever for organizational resilience and agility in Moroccan local governments facing budgetary and institutional constraints. Despite a growing body of literature on public sector performance management, organizational resilience, and organizational agility, no systematic articulation between territorial management control, resilience, and agility has been proposed for Moroccan local governments; addressing this precise gap constitutes the purpose of this study. Design/methodology/approach: The article is a conceptual paper based on a narrative review of Scopus-indexed literature and a documentary analysis of Moroccan institutional reforms (2011 Constitution, 2015 Organic Law on Finance Laws). A comparative public-private analytical grid is used to identify transferable management practices. Findings: The study derives theoretical propositions rather than empirical results. It suggests that territorial management control may enhance resilience and agility through strategic alignment, performance measurement systems, organizational learning mechanisms, and adaptive decision-making processes. The conceptual analysis points to a significant maturity gap between private and public sector management control systems, while indicating that the 2011 Constitution and the 2015 budget reform provide enabling conditions for more agile territorial governance. Three critical success factors are inferred from the literature: strategic alignment of management control with local development objectives, investment in human capital and digital infrastructure, and progressive, selective hybridization of private-sector tools adapted to public service values. Originality/value: The contribution of the paper lies in integrating three previously separate bodies of literature within a unified analytical framework applied to Moroccan local governments, with cautious transferability to comparable decentralizing contexts. Practical implications: The study offers local decision-makers recommendations prioritized by implementation horizon and identifies avenues for future empirical validation of the proposed model. Keywords: Territorial management control, organizational resilience, organizational agility, local government, New Public Management, Morocco. JEL Classification: H70, H83, L38, M48 Paper type: Theoretical Research
Niko Silitonga, Harya Widiputra, Fangky Antoneus Sorongan
Fiscal decentralization has been widely implemented to improve regional fiscal efficiency and strengthen local fiscal capacity. However, empirical evidence regarding its effectiveness remains inconclusive, particularly in developing countries with diverse institutional capacities. This study examines the associations between regional fiscal policy instruments and provincial fiscal performance in Indonesia, proxied by the growth of Locally Generated Revenue (PAD), while investigating the moderating role of fiscal decentralization. Unlike previous studies that examine fiscal instruments separately or focus mainly on macroeconomic outcomes, this research develops an integrated framework that evaluates financing allocation, development expenditure, transfer funds, and other legitimate revenues within a moderated panel-data model. Using panel data from 33 provincial governments during 2017–2024, the study applies a fixed-effects regression model with interaction terms. The results show that development expenditure is positively and significantly associated with provincial fiscal performance, indicating that productive public spending strengthens regional fiscal capacity. In contrast, financing allocation and transfer funds show no significant direct associations with fiscal performance. Other legitimate revenues demonstrate a positive but limited association. Fiscal decentralization plays a dual moderating role by strengthening the association between transfer funds and fiscal performance while weakening the effects of development expenditure and other legitimate revenues. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of fiscal decentralization depends on fiscal instruments and local institutional capacity rather than producing uniform outcomes. This study contributes to the fiscal decentralization literature by providing an interaction-based empirical framework and practical evidence to support more effective decentralization policies and improve provincial fiscal performance in Indonesia.
Purpose This study aims to examine whether fiscal autonomy improves capital expenditure efficiency in decentralized systems by addressing the overlooked possibility that its effects are nonlinear and context-dependent. Focusing on Ghana’s 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), the study investigates whether fiscal autonomy enhances efficiency uniformly or only beyond certain institutional thresholds. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a balanced panel data set from 2018 to 2024 to detect continuous nonlinear and regime-specific effects using fixed-effects estimation with a quadratic specification and threshold-based robustness analysis. The data were obtained from Ghana Audit Service-certified financial reports and Ghana Statistical Service demographic indicators. Findings Fiscal autonomy is associated with a U-shaped relationship with capital expenditure efficiency, although the nonlinear effect is modest and only weakly statistically supported. At low levels of autonomy, increases in internally generated funds are associated with lower capital expenditure shares, while beyond an estimated threshold of approximately 37% of total revenue, the relationship becomes positive. Intergovernmental transfers complement local fiscal capacity, whereas population density and urban classification are not significant predictors in the regression models. Practical implications The findings indicate gradual capacity-sensitive decentralization strategies. Enhanced fiscal autonomy in the absence of institutional development may reduce expenditure efficiency. Policymakers should prioritize administrative capacity, revenue systems and accountability before increasing budgetary discretion. Originality/value This study provides panel-based evidence consistent with a U-shaped fiscal autonomy–efficiency relationship in African local governments. By highlighting threshold effects and institutional conditioning, it advances fiscal decentralization research and contributes to the application of nonlinear modeling in public finance.
Why do local elected representatives facing similar institutional constraints choose different strategies? This dissertation develops a theory of strategy choice under incomplete decentralization, where municipal councilors remain electorally accountable but depend on bureaucratic and higher-level political actors for implementation, finance, and approval. Administrative, fiscal, and political constraints define the institutional setting, while leverage, the capacity to induce response, and cover, protection from sanction, capture councilors’ unequal positions within it. Drawing on more than 450 interviews, 67 municipal council meeting transcripts, and an original survey of 506 current and former councilors in urban India, I distinguish collaborative strategies based on coordination and follow-up from combative strategies based on public pressure and cost-imposition. Collaboration overwhelmingly dominates. Perceived bureaucratic discretion is the strongest correlate of movement toward combativeness, while leverage and cover do not reliably predict the binary shift between strategies. Instead, leverage more clearly distinguishes procedural from discretionary forms of collaboration. These findings show that incomplete decentralization does not eliminate local representation. It channels representation through continued dependence on actors councilors do not command and shifts attention from whether councilors collaborate to how they collaborate and when they escalate.
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) represent one of the most consequential experiments in organizational design to emerge from blockchain technology. By encoding governance rules into smart contracts and recording every vote, proposal, and treasury decision immutably on-chain, DAOs offer globally distributed communities a high degree of transparency and accountability in collective decision-making. This study examines governance design and participatory innovation across three DAOs: RARI DAO, Arbitrum DAO, and Optimism DAO. Each has taken a distinct structural approach to the problem of collective decision-making at scale. Using a qualitative comparative case study method, the research draws on governance forum discussions, proposal records, and official documentation, analyzed through thematic coding and cross-case comparison. The theoretical frame draws primarily from Ostrom’s (1990) commons governance principles, with Scott’s (1995, 2014) institutional theory and Donaldson’s (2001) contingency theory applied as supplementary analytical lenses. Across all three cases, the findings indicate the emergence of increasingly formalized governance architectures designed to balance decentralization, coordination efficiency, and operational security. Communities building governance infrastructure from scratch, iterating rapidly in response to community feedback, and developing structural solutions: delegate incentive programs, participation incentive mechanisms, bicameral legitimacy systems, constitutional frameworks, and dedicated legal entities that represent an emerging configuration of governance mechanisms. Two cross-case findings are particularly notable. First, all three DAOs independently converged on a three-body governance architecture comprising a legal foundation, a security council, and token-holder governance — suggesting that similar governance problems, encountered in similar technical and legal environments, tend to produce similar structural solutions. Second, while these architectures are structurally similar, they differ significantly in how governance processes are implemented in practice, reflecting differences in scale, formalization, and community context. These findings contribute to the literature by providing a structured cross-case analysis of DAO governance design and offering practical insights into programmable institutional design and blockchain-enabled coordination systems.
Fahd Ghalib Basheikh, Ida Widianingsih, Ahmad Zaini Miftah
Decentralized government units in the Global South frequently experience ineffective service delivery because of inadequate funding and weak administrative structures. Using Lamu County Government that allocates bursary funds yet continues to experience operational inefficiencies, this study examines how administrative capacity influences the governance effectiveness of the Lamu County Bursary Programme (LCBP). Guided by Administrative Capacity Theory, the study uses an explanatory sequential mixed methods design using quantitative data from 350 beneficiaries and qualitative data from key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Linear regression results show that administrative capacity is a statistically significant predictor of governance effectiveness (β = 0.627, p < 0.001). Thematic analysis from qualitative data shows three constraints: verification problems, aggravated by geographic dispersion and staffing problems; procedural uncertainty and communication problems, that erode the trust of applicants; and a structural timing penalty, where administrative delays reduce the timeliness and reliability of bursary support, sometimes resulting in temporary school exclusion. The results indicate that the LCBP experiences a capability trap, formal structures are in place but service delivery is weak. Therefore, decentralized units require both financial allocations and effective administrative capabilities. To improve policy outcomes, findings suggest the importance of digitization, staffing at ward level and synchronization of the disbursement calendar with academic cycles.
Introduction: Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are an emerging organizational form that operates entirely on blockchain infrastructure. Within a DAO, organizational governance rules are hardcoded in transparent and immutable smart contracts. In principle, these rules are intended to facilitate decentralized decision-making among token holders who collectively create, discuss, and vote on proposals that govern the organization. Despite their promise, the extent to which DAOs achieve true decentralization in practice remains unclear. This study addresses an underexplored area in the literature by empirically investigating key aspects of DAO governance, particularly the degree of decentralization and participant composition.Method: Network analysis is used to examine proposal voting coalitions among participants as a proxy for decentralization. Sentiment analysis is employed to assess trust among participants. The analysis draws on data from 54 DAOs, including 774 unique proposals and 13,085 associated token holder comments.Results: The findings indicate that DAOs may not achieve the level of decentralization originally envisioned. Moreover, decentralization and participant composition within governance structures play a critical role in shaping trust, voting participation, and overall financial performance in DAOs PracticalImplications: Although current voting mechanisms aim to reduce the dominance of large token holders (whales), DAOs may still fall short of the level of decentralization originally envisioned. Accordingly, more advanced voting mechanisms may be required to further mitigate coordination and strategic behavior in proposal voting. In addition, DAOs could benefit from adjusting the threshold requirements for the Foundation to improve accessibility for token holders and encourage broader participation. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) may also help streamline the voting process and improve the clarity of proposals.
Setyo Tri Wahyudi, Al Muizzuddin Fazaalloh, Kartika Sari, Amalia Rahmawati
Fiscal decentralization has expanded the responsibilities of local governments, yet substantial disparities in fiscal performance persist across jurisdictions. This study examines how governance capacity influences fiscal performance and revenue sustainability within Indonesia’s decentralized metropolitan governance framework. Using panel data from seven local governments in the Gerbangkertosusilo metropolitan area during 2015–2024, the analysis develops a Composite Fiscal Performance Index (CFPI) that integrates revenue effectiveness, expenditure efficiency, fiscal autonomy, and revenue sustainability. The results reveal significant and persistent variation in fiscal outcomes. Jurisdictions with stronger governance capacity, particularly Surabaya City and Sidoarjo Regency, consistently achieve higher CFPI scores, reflecting more effective revenue mobilization, greater fiscal autonomy, and stronger expenditure management. In contrast, lower-capacity jurisdictions exhibit weaker fiscal performance, slower growth in own-source revenues, and greater dependence on intergovernmental transfers. Revenue forecasting further indicates that high-performing jurisdictions are more likely to sustain favorable fiscal trajectories over the medium term. By combining multidimensional fiscal performance measurement with forward-looking revenue sustainability assessment, this study contributes to the subnational public finance literature. The findings identify governance capacity as a critical institutional determinant of fiscal resilience and highlight the need for capacity-sensitive policies to improve the effectiveness of decentralized governance systems.
ABSTRACT A long‐standing topic of concern in the literature on governmental auditing is whether the aims of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) or other central audit institutions should include detecting fraudulent use of public money. The balance of opinion has been against this proposition, largely for reasons of infeasibility. This article takes up the same topic, but in policy contexts appropriate to this special issue, namely, where federally financed health, education, and infrastructure programs are implemented through program spending and delivery by local governments. Such policy contexts heighten the need for a capability to prevent and prosecute cases involving the fraudulent use of public money. This need, recognized within Brazil's federal executive since the early 2000s, has been addressed by its Office of the Comptroller General (Controladoria‐Geral da União—CGU) through systematic field audits of municipal implementation coupled with strategic collaboration with the Federal Police. This article examines CGU's integrated audit‐investigation approach and its policy and institutional contexts. By explaining how these strategies have functioned in attaining operational capacity and support, the article provides evidence on possibilities of how audit institution strategies aiming to detect fraudulent use of public money can be feasible within decentralized governance systems that call for innovative vertical coordination mechanisms.
Sylvester Kyei‐Gyamfi, Prince Boamah Abrah, Frank Kyei‐Arthur
ABSTRACT This study examines how Ghana's decentralized governance system shapes public social welfare service delivery, with a specific focus on the Department of Social Welfare (DSW). In Ghana, decentralization involves the transfer of administrative and fiscal responsibilities for social services from the central government to Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies, within which the DSW operates. Using a qualitative case‐study design, the study purposively sampled 30 national and regional DSW officers (60% male, 40% female). Data were collected through in‐depth interviews and analyzed thematically. The findings reveal three interrelated challenges: role conflicts arising from dual reporting lines, human resource gaps that undermine effective service delivery, and persistent funding and logistical constraints. In response, officers adopted coping strategies such as informal inter‐agency collaboration, role multitasking, and internal financing mechanisms. Participants proposed reforms including clarifying institutional mandates, professionalizing social welfare practice, securing sustainable budgetary allocations, and introducing digital monitoring systems to enhance accountability. Overall, the study underscores the need for structural reforms to strengthen decentralized social welfare service delivery in Ghana.
This study aims to analyze and synthesize prior research on navigating human resource capacity and accountability challenges in decentralized public finance through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The review focuses on how human resource capacity, fiscal autonomy, digital governance, and accountability mechanisms interact in shaping the effectiveness of decentralized public financial management. The SLR method was employed because it allows a structured and transparent synthesis of previous findings, identifies recurring patterns, and clarifies inconsistencies across studies. Literature was searched through the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), covering publications from 2022 to 2026, using combinations of keywords related to fiscal decentralization, human resource capacity, accountability, transparency, local government finance, and public financial management. The initial search identified 63 records, which were then screened based on title relevance, abstract suitability, research focus, publication year, full-text availability, and substantive alignment with the topic. After the selection process, 11 articles were retained for final review and analyzed through descriptive-qualitative synthesis. The findings indicate that decentralized public finance becomes more effective when supported by competent human resources, merit-based administration, strong internal control, adequate digital systems, and meaningful citizen participation. In contrast, weak technical capacity, fiscal dependence, fragmented institutions, and limited managerial autonomy repeatedly hinder accountability outcomes. This review contributes to the literature by reinforcing the capacity–accountability linkage as a central explanatory framework and by offering practical insight for policymakers and public administrators seeking to strengthen local fiscal governance in decentralized settings.
Vabuk Pahari, B. Chandrasekaran, Johnnatan Messias, Krishna P. Gummadi · 5 authors
A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is a governing entity that empowers its stakeholders (i.e., users who hold one or more of its tokens) to manage blockchain-based protocols (i.e., smart contracts) collaboratively. The governance of a DAO is explicitly encoded in the DAO's governance contract, which defines how stakeholders participate in governance and how much influence (or voting power) they have in any decision. While decentralization and autonomy are the fundamental tenets of a DAO's design, empirical evidence suggests that in practice governance is often highly centralized. In this work, we study the designs and implementations of 48 public and actively used DAOs, with substantially large capital, deployed on Ethereum. We identify how three key governance mechanisms--token registration, staking, and delegation--originally introduced to improve security or participation, contribute to the concentration of voting power. Unlike prior work on centralization of voting power in specific DAOs, our findings reveal that these governance mechanisms of DAOs themselves systematically reinforce centralization. By elucidating the relationship between governance design and voting centralization, this work advances the understanding of DAO governance structures and highlights the inherent trade-offs between decentralization, security, and usability of DAOs.
Local government forms the cornerstone of democratic decentralization and grassroots governance across political systems. This study presents a comparative functional analysis of local government models—namely the Anglo-Saxon, Continental (French), and Indian systems—focusing on key areas such as policing, education, finance, and governance structures. By examining variations in autonomy, administrative control, and fiscal capacity, the paper highlights how historical, constitutional, and political contexts shape the functioning of local institutions. The Anglo-Saxon model emphasizes decentralization and flexibility, the Continental model reflects centralized supervision and uniformity, while the Indian model represents a hybrid framework balancing constitutional recognition with fiscal dependence. The analysis underscores that while local governments are universally recognized as vital instruments of democratic governance, their effectiveness is contingent upon adequate financial empowerment, functional clarity, and institutional capacity. The study contributes to the broader discourse on decentralization, governance efficiency, and democratic deepening in the 21st century. Keywords Local Government; Comparative Politics; Decentralization; Anglo-Saxon Model; Continental Model; Indian Model; Fiscal Autonomy; Governance; Public Administration; Democratic Decentralization
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are designed to disperse control, yet recent evidence shows that effective governance is often concentrated in a small number of participants. This note studies one simple mechanism behind that pattern. Because decentralized governance is monitor-intensive, rising proposal flow may eventually outpace the capacity of broad-based participation. Using a DAO--quarter panel, I estimate a fixed-effects kink model with DAO and quarter fixed effects and find a statistically significant decline in the marginal responsiveness of active voters once proposal activity crosses an interior threshold. I then study realized voting concentration using kink specifications with data-driven cutoffs. Across specifications, decentralization gains do not persist indefinitely once governance workload becomes sufficiently high, and load-based measures show especially clear evidence of a transition toward more concentrated realized control. The results provide reduced-form evidence consistent with a ``too big to monitor'' mechanism in DAO governance: when proposal flow grows faster than broad participation can keep up, effective control may drift toward a smaller set of highly active participants.
This study examines how Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) could be incorporated into municipal administration to improve citizen participation and transparency. As DAOs in governance are attracting growing academic and practical attention, this research uses scenarios to analyze the conditions for their application at municipal and regional levels. It takes a conceptual, scenario-based approach to develop a model for DAO-based e-participation, identifying key concepts and their relationships to explain how DAOs operate as self-regulated systems for digital participation. The research is structured into three phases: First, in the foundational phase, this study synthesizes existing research on DAOs and participatory governance models, contrasting blockchain-based and traditional processes to establish a framework for DAO integration. Second, the application phase uses illustrative scenarios to explore how DAO mechanisms might influence participation and decision-making in municipalities. Third, the evaluation and recommendation phase consolidates insights into a structured model for implementation, highlighting task characteristics, contextual conditions, and organizational capacities that shape DAO feasibility. The analysis suggest that DAOs may enable new forms of participation and more transparent procedures, but only when antecedent conditions such as digital literacy, administrative capacity, and infrastructure stability are sufficiently met. Future work should look at long-term effects, compare cases across municipalities, and examine the role of legal and regulatory frameworks.
Introduction Metagovernance in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) refers to the mechanisms through which one DAO shapes or constrains another DAO’s governance, typically through token-based influence. Despite the growing inter-organizational relationships in decentralized ecosystems, metagovernance remains significantly understudied. Methods This scoping review followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines and systematically searched seven electronic databases from 2008 to 2025. From the 979 initial records, seven publications met the inclusion criteria. Results Three mechanism families emerged: voting and control links, architectural layering through nested DAO structures, and participation coupling via airdrops that create governance interlocks. Recurrent challenges include procedural complexity, participation concentration, security vulnerabilities in multi-stage voting pipelines, and cross-chain infrastructure risks. A metagovernance trilemma emerged, whereby simultaneously maximizing decentralization, security, and participation proves impossible. Conclusion Metagovernance spans forum deliberation, off-chain polling, and cross-chain execution, where decision points become obscured. Future research should focus on developing uniform definitions, interoperable measurement tools, and legal frameworks for cross-jurisdictional DAO governance.
Zubair Ahmed Pirzada, Nida Shafaat, Shoukat Ali Mahar
This study examines how incomplete devolution shapes governance in Sukkur, Pakistan. Despite Article 140-A’s constitutional mandates decentralization, municipal functions including water and sanitation, urban planning, and local revenue mobilization, remain under provincial control. An exploratory qualitative case study drew on six semi-structured interviews with municipal officials, legislators, and citizens, supplemented by government documents, and scholarly literature. Thematic analysis identified four interlinked challenges: (1) limited local authority and overlapping jurisdictions, (2) fiscal constraints undermining local projects, (3) service delivery gaps that erode citizen trust, and (4) competing narratives over whether devolution deficits are genuine or politically exaggerated. Findings show politicized fiscal transfers intensify constraints, weakening accountability, delaying improvements, and depress civic participation. Local capacity deficits also contributes. Policy recommendations prioritize activating the Provincial Finance Commission, strengthening municipal capacity, and progressively devolving authority. Sukkur’s case illustrates ‘incomplete decentralization’ in the Global South, informing reforms in Pakistan and comparable contexts.
The two outstanding trends in 1966 had been: (a) the organizational development of the hospital, resulting from a flexible social structure and evolution toward a largely decentralized hospital; and (b) the increasing quantity and quality of trained staff. These trends continued, resulting in three county units for both patients and staff. The total separation of the hospital into three semi-autonomous units based on their geographical identity was not fully realized. Our total patient population of 400 patients did not make it practicable to have three separate admission units with their inevitable drain on staff. The same applied to the special unit for the mentally retarded. So we ended up with a mixture of geographical and functional hospital units.
This paper examines human resource management (HRM) practices in Ghana's local government and advances a twofold argument. First, it shows that decentralization reforms introduced in the 1980s and 1990s locked the system into a path-dependent governance trajectory. This has narrowed the scope for alternative approaches to achieving an effective HRM system. Second, despite formal provisions establishing local governments as autonomous and non-partisan, the findings reveal that informal norms, political patronage, and asymmetric power relations remain central in shaping HRM decisions. These realities affect staff motivation, retention, and organizational performance, often impairing formal HR procedures and meritocratic intent. The paper challenges taken-for-granted assumptions that implementing cookbook governance and/or new public management prescriptions can automatically improve institutional effectiveness and service delivery in developing countries. Instead, it argues for greater attention to historical legacies and political contexts. The paper contributes to scholarly debates on public sector management and state capacity by highlighting the limits of technocratic and one-size-fits-all approaches to strengthening subnational governance
This thesis examines how the structure of municipal finance and budget governance affects the economic capacity of municipalities on the Faroe Islands. In recent decades, Faroese municipalities have been assigned increasing responsibility for welfare services, including elderly care, while substantial differences persist in municipal size, tax bases, and administrative capacity. These structural differences raise questions about whether the current decentralized governance system provides sustainable economic conditions for all municipalities. The study analyzes how the Faroese municipal financing and budgeting model is organized and explores the economic challenges municipalities face in practice. The analysis draws on qualitative interviews with Faroese mayors combined with document analysis of policy reports, legislation, and economic assessments. The empirical findings are interpreted through theoretical perspectives from fiscal federalism, incremental budgeting, soft budget constraint theory, and research on intermunicipal cooperation.The analysis shows that differences in population size, demographic composition, and tax bases create unequal economic conditions across municipalities. Smaller municipalities appear particularly vulnerable to economic shocks, demographic ageing, and large investments. While intermunicipal cooperation can enhance administrative capacity, it may also generate coordination challenges and common-pool dynamics. Furthermore, the financing model for elderly care contributes to uneven financial pressures between municipalities. The thesis concludes that the current institutional framework may create long-term challenges for the sustainability of municipal welfare provision. Possible policy responses include adjustments to the financing model, stronger equalization mechanisms, or structural reforms aimed at ensuring more economically robust local governments.