城际合作:治理能力的探寻?

Intermunicipal cooperation:The quest for governance capacity?

各国正在越来越多地通过城际合作应对辖区规模与资源配给间的困境。虽然各国面临着重新界定行政边界的压力,对城市协会作为有效、合法、灵活的政策主体的能力却不甚了解。本文针对该话题,从两个相互关联的维度进行分析。首先,本文试图定义治理能力的概念,将概念框架分解为可系统评估的维度。其次,本文基于对城市协会的专门调查,用实证方法来评估葡萄牙城市协会的治理能力。总体而言,尽管存在利益驱动,城市协会仍被证明是有效的,会员们意识到了这种可靠的制度安排带来的收益和溢出效应。然而,葡萄牙地方政府的路径依赖可能会对较低的治理能力产生影响。

Intermunicipal cooperation is being increasingly adopted in various countries to cope with the dilemmas of territorial scale and resource rationing.Despite the pressures towards the reshaping of administrative boundaries,litle is known about the capacity of intermunicipal associations to function as effective,legitimate and resilient policy actors.This article aims to contribute to this debate by addressing two interrelated dimensions.First,it seeks to present a conceptual definition of governance capacity,unpacking the conceptual framework into dimensions that can be measured systematically.Second,it aims to empirically assess the governance capacity of Portuguese intermunicipal associations,drawing on a unique survey of intermunicipal associations.Overall,results suggest that despite being instrumentally driven,intermunicipal associations have proven to be efficient,with members recognizing the benefits and the spillover effects of trustworthy arrangements.However,the path dependencies affecting Portuguese local governments may impact on the relatively low levels of governance capacity.