Comparative Study of Local Politics, Administration, and Development

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
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_P
olicy-Making
achieving stipulated 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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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
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officials, and all other matters relating to the organization and operation of local units.
In addition, the local government 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
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focuses on and single cause. Community power explains how does the community
participate in policy and decision 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
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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 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
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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 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
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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
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is a network of organizations with 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.
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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 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
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Comparative Study of Local Politics, Administration, and Development

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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

On the other hand, administration may be defined as “group activity which

objectives”. It is a process of systematically arranging and coordinating the human

as - Administration is determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is

administration as organizing and maintaining human and fiscal resources to attain a

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

public administration is essentially a cooperative group effort in public setting. Secondly,

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

by special elected bodies directly representing the population of particular

ensure their fullest development as self-reliant communities." Moreover, in

instituted through a system of decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall,

in the fulfilment of local governance.

decisions. Second, the decision-making arena was assumed to be open to everyone

highlights individual influence and collaborative grouping in relation to policy making. In

participate in policy and decision making.

In the Philippines setting, community power is emphasized under the Philippine

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

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

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

moved through the legislative process. Once this happens, it is

considered the law of the land and can be implemented as such.

It must be mentioned that the legitimacy of a policy is only as

good as the willingness of citizens to accept it. Therefore, it is

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

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 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