Comparative Local Politics and Administration A Research Study

COMPARATIVE LOCAL POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION;
A RESEARCH STUDY
Local politics is described or defined as the political activity at the local level. It
consists of the process by which goods, services, and privileges are allocated by
government. Local politics is more exercised in the local government as a political
subdivision of a national or regional government which performs functions that are
culturally defined as being “local” in character, which in nearly all cases receives its legal
powers from the national or regional government but possesses some degree of discretion
in the making of decisions and which normally has some taxing powers. Local politics,
therefore, consists not merely of local activities which relate to national political matters,
but it involves a degree of choice to be made within the boundaries of the local unit of
government relative to the selection of office holders and the making and execution of
public policy. These decisions are not necessarily made unilaterally through a local
political system and its institutions. Often decisions are shared with other governments,
and local political institutions and processes are commonly interwoven with those of
neighbouring localities and with regional and national political systems.
On the other hand, administration may be defined as “group activity which involves
cooperation and coordination for the purpose of achieving desired goals or objectives”.
It is a process of systematically arranging and coordinating the human and material
resources available to any organization for the main purpose of achieving stipulated
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/local-politics
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/local-politics
http://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/25454/1/Unit-1.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273143560_Introduction_to_Educational_Administration_A
_Module
https://www.managementstudyguide.com/what-is-public-administration.htm
1987 Philippine Constitution
Local Government Code of 1991
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/community-power
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332864241_The_Philippine_Context_of_Public_Policy_and_
Policy-Making
goals of that organization. Moreover, Marx defines administration as - Administration is
determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is the systematic ordering
of affairs and the calculated use of resources aimed at making those happen which one
wants to happen. In addition, Frederic k Lane defines administration as organizing and
maintaining human and fiscal resources to attain a group’s goals.
Comparatively, local politics is an activity or process at the local level which looks
into the allocation of goods, services and privileges. It also looks into the composition of
people at the local level in making and in executing local policies. Local politics focuses
on decision and policy making at the local level. It also focuses into the relationship
between levels of government. While administration looks into the cooperation and
coordination of resources in order to achieve a common goal. It also look into the
importance of arranging the resources available in the implementation of certain policies
and regulation imposed police maker.
Consequently, in understanding local politics and administration. The two concepts
works hand in hand in public administration. As F A Nigro explained, public administration
cannot be divorce with social and political systems, who argues that public administration
is essentially a cooperative group effort in public setting. Secondly, it covers all the three
branches of government machinery, the executive, the legislative and the judicial. He
further added that since public administration plays a crucial role in formulation of policies
therefore it is a part of the political process as well (for e.g. Bills and Acts).
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Policy-Making
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, COMMUNITY POWER,
POLICY MAKING, ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS AND STRATEGIES FOR
DEVELOPMENT
Local Government is a system of management of local affairs which is exercised
by special elected bodies directly representing the population of particular administrative
territorial unit of the country (Leybo and Entin 291). Another definition is that, Local
Government is the system of locally elected members representing their communities and
making decisions on their behalf. In the Philippine setting, local governments constitute
the foundation of the entire structure of the government. The acts of the local
government units affect the ordinary citizen more directly than those of the national
government. The average citizen has more and closer contacts with the local
governments and their agencies than with the national or provincial government, and is
more concerned with the local affairs than with those of the national or provincial in
scope. As a legal basis, the Constitution of the Philippines recognizes the importance of
local governments. It provides as a policy that "the State shall guarantee and promote
the autonomy of the local government units -- especially the barangays -- to ensure their
fullest development as self-reliant communities." Moreover, in strengthening the local
government, the congress enacted the local government code of 1991 which provides for
a more responsive and accountable local government structure instituted through a
system of decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and referendum,
allocate among the different local government units their powers, responsibilities, and
resources, and provide for the qualifications, election, appointment and removal, term,
salaries, powers and functions and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating
to the organization and operation of local units. In addition, the local government
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Policy-Making
structure is classified into provinces, cities, and barangays. Each level is composed of
executive branch, legislative branch and of course administrative bodies which are
composed of different offices as prescribed by the local government Code of 1991. The
code also emphasizes the participation of private sector in the fulfilment of local
governance.
Community power in earlier studies focused on how decisions and outcomes are
produce. It focuses on the participation of the community in policy and decision making.
Community power highlights participation and decision making with this points, First, all
individuals were assumed to be aware of their grievances and to act upon them by
participating in the decision-making process and using their influence to determine key
decisions. Second, the decision-making arena was assumed to be open to everyone and,
therefore, the absence of participation indicated that actors agreed with decisions. Third,
it was assumed that power was exercised only in decisions where conflict was clearly
observable, and that conflict was resolved only through decision-making and not in other
ways (Lukes 1974). Moreover in other studies, community power have several structure
such as pluralistic, elitist, class based, and growth machine. Pluralistic highlights individual
influence and collaborative grouping in relation to policy making. In elitist structure, it
explains that small, wealthy, powerful elite controls government and makes policy to
benefit its members and perpetuate their power, while, class based looks into the social
classes in the community and determines who holds power. On the other hand, growth
machine shows different groups with specialized interest which focuses on and single
cause. Community power explains how does the community participate in policy and
decision making.
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Policy-Making
In the Philippines setting, community power is emphasized under the Philippine
Constitution and the local government code of 1991 which emphasizes that the
participation of the private sector in local governance, particularly in the delivery of basic
services, shall be encouraged to ensure the viability of local autonomy as an alternative
strategy for sustainable development. Such provision is exercised trough the
representation of private organizations and civil society organizations in the different
committees of governance including the representation of different groups in legislative
system. Moreover, the Constitution provides the people the power initiative, referendum
and recall which emphasizes community power in the Philippine setting.
Policy making describes the actions of government. Usually created in response to
issues brought before decision makers, these policies come in the form of laws and
regulations. They may be created by any governing body, from president down to city
council members including the barangay. The goal of public policy cannot entirely be
separated from its source. Both government and public policy help meet basic societal
needs and obligations; decide how communities, states or nations manage resources;
and keep general order in society.
Consequently, policy making goes to different processes in our democracy from
data gathering, community or citizen participation, to committee hearings and policy
legitimization or through the process of legislation. In order for a policy to be legitimated,
the public considers the government’s actions to be legal and authoritative. To gain
legitimacy, a policy must be moved through the legislative process. Once this
happens, it is considered the law of the land and can be implemented as such. It
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Policy-Making
must be mentioned that the legitimacy of a policy is only as good as the willingness
of citizens to accept it. Therefore, it is possible for people to reject policy if they
view the policy makers’ behavior or the legislation itself as unacceptable in some
way.
In the Philippines, public policy is a government action to achieve a certain
goal in addressing social problem that are of major public interest. Such policies
are oriented to solve issues in housing, welfare, crime, illegal drugs, tax,
corruption, and international affairs. It is governed by officials and administrators
inclined in policy-making that is finalized by a policy decision and implementation
of that decision. Regulatory policy, distributive policy, and redistributive policy
comprises the three major types of public policy (“Objective 5: Public
administrators and public policy”, n.d.)
Regulatory Public Policy is conceived to preserve orderliness in a
community by prohibiting behaviors perceived negatively by the general society.
This can be attained by setting up a set of restrictions that hinders citizens,
groups, or corporations from engagement in activities that disrupts political and
social order. An example of this are policies that hinders creation of
monopolies. Distributive Public Policy provides incentives to citizens groups or
corporations to encourage them and inherently provide positive economic impacts.
One example is the distribution of farm subsidies for farmers that is expected to
increase supply of agricultural products that can positively affect supply and
demand. Lastly, Redistributive Public Policy is purposely created to promote

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Policy-Making
equality. Societal wealth is redistributed within groups that benefits the
community by implication of social programs such as welfare. An example
of this is progressive taxation where tax rates simultaneously increase with the
individual’s income.
In policy-making, policy analysis is detrimental in ensuring the quality
of the policies that are of major public interest. It integrates science with art that is
oriented to improve good governance (Lynn, 1999). The Philippine policy-making
process can be viewed in a legislative and executive perspective (Trillanes,
2017). Cochran (1999),2 stated that it is divided it into two stages, pre-policy stages
and policy stages. The pre-policy stages are listed as follows: problem
definition, policy demands, and agenda formation. On the other hand, the policy
stages are listed as follows: policy adoption, policy implementation, policy
evaluation, and problem redefinition. The policy formation is categorized into
rational planning (systematic planning) and subjective reacting (haphazard
planning). The former is perceived to be a proactive approach while the latter is
passive (“PPA 503 – The Public Policy-Making Process”,n.d.). The next steps
are crucial to which stages included are policy adoption and policy implementation.
It is referred as a detrimental part in policy-making because it heavily depends
on public support, government’s availability of resources, allocation of budget, and
additional manpower/infrastructures.
A strong administrative system is also important in the fulfillment of good
governance. Philippine administrative system is a network of organizations with

_Module
Policy-Making
specific rules and goals, structures, resources and programs. It includes the
internal processes of and the interaction between and among public organizations,
which are constituted to implement, help formulate and monitor or assess public
policies. Administrative system in the Philippines empowers people,
institutionalizes access to administrative services, decentralizes and makes
operations transparent and listens and works with people.
1. Components of PAS• Public organization - legal mandates, majorfunctions and structures, etc.• Internal
procedures and interactive efforts - performpublic functions thru defined rules and proceduresinternal to the
org.• Responsible for implementing public policies –formulated jointly by the legislative and
executivebranches• Conscious of the different kinds of clientele that itdeals with socio-political, economic
environment –• PAS as part of the bigger social system withcompeting claims to limited resources
and,institutions play a role in determining the utilizationof resources
2. 7. Sources of Power• Instrument of the state – government functions areexercised legitimately, supported
by enabling statepolicies and authority• Enforcer and implementer of public policy – discretionin policy
implementation• Service delivery system – discretion to determinequantity, quality, adequacy and
timeliness of servicesit provides• Participant in policy formulation – advice is sought onlegislation and
policy-making• Technical expertise –professional training of civilservants in areas of competence on policy
issues• Nationwide presence – expansive reach to mobilizesupport for programs all over the country.
Administrative system in the Philippines composed of the central
governments and its political subdivisions which enjoy local autonomy such as the
provinces, cities and the barangay. The Administrative system in the Philippines
composed of Constitutional commissions, constitutional created/mandated special
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Policy-Making
bodies, special bodies, government owned and controlled corporations and
chartered institutions created by law. The Philippine administrative system ensures
that policies from the central level would be properly implemented downt to the
lowest
_Module
Policy-Making

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COMPARATIVE LOCAL POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION;

government. Local politics is more exercised in the local government as a political

subdivision of a national or regional government which performs functions that are

neighbouring localities and with regional and national political systems.

It is a process of systematically arranging and coordinating the human and material

determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is the systematic ordering

wants to happen. In addition, Frederic k Lane defines administration as organizing and

maintaining human and fiscal resources to attain a group’s goals.

importance of arranging the resources available in the implementation of certain policies

and regulation imposed police maker.

Consequently, in understanding local politics and administration. The two concepts

works hand in hand in public administration. As F A Nigro explained, public administration

Local Government is a system of management of local affairs which is exercised

by special elected bodies directly representing the population of particular administrative

fullest development as self-reliant communities." Moreover, in strengthening the local

a more responsive and accountable local government structure instituted through a

system of decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and referendum,

influence and collaborative grouping in relation to policy making. In elitist structure, it

services, shall be encouraged to ensure the viability of local autonomy as an alternative

strategy for sustainable development. Such provision is exercised trough the

representation of private organizations and civil society organizations in the different

committees of governance including the representation of different groups in legislative

and recall which emphasizes community power in the Philippine setting.

Policy making describes the actions of government. Usually created in response to

and keep general order in society.

Consequently, policy making goes to different processes in our democracy from

data gathering, community or citizen participation, to committee hearings and policy

legitimization or through the process of legislation. In order for a policy to be legitimated,

In the Philippines, public policy is a government action to achieve a certain

corruption, and international affairs. It is governed by officials and administrators

inclined in policy-making that is finalized by a policy decision and implementation

of that decision. Regulatory policy, distributive policy, and redistributive policy

comprises the three major types of public policy (“Objective 5: Public

administrators and public policy”, n.d.)

Regulatory Public Policy is conceived to preserve orderliness in a

community by prohibiting behaviors perceived negatively by the general society.

This can be attained by setting up a set of restrictions that hinders citizens,

groups, or corporations from engagement in activities that disrupts political and

social order. An example of this are policies that hinders creation of

monopolies. Distributive Public Policy provides incentives to citizens groups or

corporations to encourage them and inherently provide positive economic impacts.

demand. Lastly, Redistributive Public Policy is purposely created to promote

community by implication of social programs such as welfare. An example

In policy-making, policy analysis is detrimental in ensuring the quality

oriented to improve good governance (Lynn, 1999). The Philippine policy-making

process can be viewed in a legislative and executive perspective (Trillanes,

stages are listed as follows: policy adoption, policy implementation, policy

evaluation, and problem redefinition. The policy formation is categorized into

rational planning (systematic planning) and subjective reacting (haphazard

planning). The former is perceived to be a proactive approach while the latter is

It is referred as a detrimental part in policy-making because it heavily depends

on public support, government’s availability of resources, allocation of budget, and

A strong administrative system is also important in the fulfillment of good

governance. Philippine administrative system is a network of organizations with

policies. Administrative system in the Philippines empowers people,

institutionalizes access to administrative services, decentralizes and makes

operations transparent and listens and works with people.