Easier Monitoring of Results
The government services that normally become the responsibility of local
governments are services that are close to the people: primary and secondary
education, local transport, protective services, local cultural and recreational
facilities, housing and utilities, water and sewerage, waste management, and
the like. The citizenry are immediately influenced by the services provided,
and there is little need for sophisticated measurement instruments to judge
the success of the services. The citizens receive the services and can reach easy
conclusions about their quality and reasonableness.They can police the results
of the government agencies’ actions without any survey or reporting lags.
Communication of evaluations is also easy. Local lawmakers and
administrators are easier for citizens to contact than are comparable officials
of regional or national governments. Except for the governments of the
largest localities, there is no distant chain of command between the field and
the administration. Problems and results can be communicated simply and
quickly, making for high responsiveness. This is critical for establishing
citizen-oriented public governance. Because citizen monitoring of results is
relatively easy at the local level, it is reasonable for citizen participation to be a
regular component of the local budget process. This is important for the
formulation of budget programs as well as for the monitoring of program
execution and for the evaluation of program results.