Theorising on policy initiatives
For effective urban governance to be realised, city governments have developed institutional leadership that encourages decision-making, utilises local knowledge and heightens public support. Thus, nine countries in the EU have researched alternative means to urban leadership and community involvement in an effort to further sustainable development at the local and national level. When it comes to modern urban governance, leadership and community involvement go hand in hand. This is beneficiary in the sense that since one complements the other, they can be assessed in a comparative manner. Furthermore, it enables the performance of governance to go beyond the current standards of tradition in order to face future policy challenges. The challenges take on three general dimensions: authentic participation, transparent accountability and effective problem-solving. Formal local government reform, which has long been in practice, falls short in handling such challenges; therefore, a more flexible method of selecting and altering governance is called for. The PLUS project has developed a conceptual framework, which can assist in understanding the performance of urban governance and policy makers. Although different institutional performance goals exist, the common goal that drives them is sustainability. The project thus acts to buffer the tension between universalism and particularism in order to provide a common ground for effective evaluation within a particular setting. Three key factors foster this common ground. One is that institutional performance works to increase the governing capacity of a city. Another is that good governance can correlate with the analysis of various institutional practices. Lastly, a developed guide can be used to measure institutional performance. Thus, the PLUS performance model intends to serve as a means to handle changes created by policy initiatives and how those changes affect leaders and societal actors. In this way, it can accommodate the new challenges, which change brings forth.
