Evaluating political-administrative modernization in Flemish municipalities

Abstract

With the introduction of the Local Government Decree (LGD), started in 2007, the legislator aimed to introduce some management principles at the Flemish municipalities. By introducing inter alia management teams and delegation possibilities from the political to the administrative level, the regulatory framework aspired the administration’s empowerment in the policy cycle. However, the question how these new institutional structures and decision-making tools influence the municipality’s behavior and internal organization remains underexposed: empirical studies on this topic relate mainly to the decision-making process and the content of the innovations. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to scrutinize the LGD’s impact on the political-administrative relations in the Flemish municipalities.