Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management

 

Special Issue on: "The Comparative Analysis of Local Government Performance Measurement Systems: A Global Perspective"

Guest Editors:
Eric Scorsone, Michigan State University, USA
Emanuele Padovani, University of Bologna, Italy
Hiraki Tanaka, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, Japan

Across the globe, local governments and their brethren regional and national governments, are facing the growing prospect of undertaking performance measurement and management. Extensive research has been conducted over the last two decades on understanding the evolution of performance measurement systems (PMSs), their adoption and, in some cases their effectiveness, both subjective and objective (see, for example, Poister, 2003). More recently, progress has been made in understanding challenges in measuring and comparing bureaucracies across countries at the national level (see, for example, Van de Walle, 2005, 2006).

The next stage or evolution in this arena of interest is the comparison of local government performance and bureaucracy. This is particularly important given the continuing push by many international agencies for devolution or decentralisation of government functions (for example, OECD, 2001). In order to address this lack of a unifying framework, this call for papers seeks work that will build our theoretical, conceptual and empirical understanding of the functioning of local government performance measurement systems and benchmarking efforts across countries and the potential implications of the functioning of such systems on comparisons across countries.

Subject Coverage
Specifically, we are seeking papers that include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Comparing performance measurement systems across local governments
• Discussion and analysis of cross-national benchmarking projects concerning local governments
• Theoretical issues connected to the comparison of local public sector performance across countries
• Consequences at the policy and managerial level of cross-national comparisons
• Performance measurement in local and regional government in the reporting process to the EU (accountability for funds).

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Papers Submission section under Author Guidelines

Important Dates

Submission of full paper before: 1 July, 2008

Notification of acceptance before: 15 August, 2008

Submission of final and revised manuscripts: 1 November, 2008