Corporatisation in Local Government: Context, Evidence and Perspectives from 19 Countries

Contents
List of Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Corporatisation in Local Government: An Introduction
1.1 The Changing Face of Local Government Service Provision
1.2 Aim of the Book
1.3 MOCs: A Definition
1.4 MOCs in Historical and Political Context
1.5 MOCs: Connection to Overarching Public Administration Themes
1.6 Contribution of the Book
1.7 Our Approach
1.7.1 General Methodology
1.7.2 Facets of MOCs
1.7.3 Local Government Typology
1.8 Outline of the Book
References
Part I: Anglo Saxon Countries
Chapter 2: Municipally Owned Corporations in Canada
2.1 Introduction and Context
2.2 Municipally Owned Corporations in Canada: Background and Trends
2.2.1 Background and Observations on Municipal Service Delivery
2.2.2 National-Level Trends
2.3 Municipally Owned Corporations in Ontario
2.3.1 Background and Observations on Service Delivery
2.3.2 Provincial-Level Trends in Ontario
2.4 Legal Status
2.5 Autonomy
2.6 Organisational Structure and the Role of the Executive Director
2.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Municipally Owned Corporations in England and Wales: A Tale of Two Countries
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Municipal Corporatisation in England and Wales
3.3 The Legal Status and Form of MOCs in England and Wales
3.3.1 The Legal Form of MOCs
3.3.2 Services Provided by MOCs
3.4 MOC Ownership Structure and Size
3.5 Corporate Governance of English and Welsh MOCs
3.5.1 Accountability of MOCs
3.5.2 Autonomy of MOCs
3.5.3 MOC Boards of Directors
3.6 Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Municipally Owned Corporations in Israel: Local Initiative and the Pursuit of Flexibility in a Centralised Context
4.1 Introduction
4.2 A Centralised Context
4.3 Trends in the Evolution of Municipal Corporations: Rapid Growth Followed by Increasing Regulatory Constraints
4.3.1 Growth in the Number of Companies
4.3.2 Stabilisation amid Regulatory Constraints
4.3.3 Ownership Structure, Revenues, and Representative Organisation
4.4 Legal Status: Duality (an ‘Androgynous’) In-Between Private and Municipal Laws
4.4.1 The Loyalty Contradiction in Municipal Companies
4.4.2 Legal Status of Non-profits
4.4.3 The Unique Status of Water and Sewage Corporations
4.5 Diverse Activities: A Flexible Arm with Project-Based Orientation
4.5.1 MOCs and Inter-municipal Cooperation
4.5.2 Public-Private Partnerships and Municipal Companies
4.5.3 Urban Foundations: An Unregulated Corner?
4.6 Internal Structure and Autonomy: Over-regulation?
4.6.1 The Management Hierarchy
4.6.2 Internal and External Monitoring
4.7 Conclusions
References
Part II: Central East European Countries
Chapter 5: Municipally Owned Corporations in Hungary
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Local Governments in Hungary
5.2.1 The ‘Heydays’ of Local Autonomy (1990–2010)
5.2.2 Orbán Era Reforms and the Radical Cutting Back of Local Autonomy (2010–2020)
5.3 The Role of MOCs in Local Public Service Provision
5.3.1 Historical Preliminaries
5.3.2 MOCs Between 2010 and 2020
5.4 The Governance of MOCs
5.4.1 Municipal Oversight
5.4.2 The Autonomy and Board Structure of MOCs
5.5 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 6: Municipally Owned Corporations in Poland: Delivery of Local Public Services
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Local Government System in Poland and the Origins of Municipal Corporatisation
6.3 Legal Framework and Autonomy of MOCs
6.4 The Bodies of MOCs
6.5 Role of MOCs in Service Delivery in Chosen Service Sectors: Basic Characteristics and Trends
6.5.1 Popularity and Trends
6.5.2 The Most Affected Service Sectors
6.5.3 Management and Finances
6.6 Ownership of MOCs and MOCs in Inter-municipal Cooperation
6.7 Conclusions and Prospects for the Future
References
Chapter 7: Private Law, Public Control: Municipally Owned Corporations in Slovakia
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The Context of Local Self-Government and Legislative Framework in Slovakia
7.3 Legal Status of MOCs
7.4 Trends in the Use of MOCs: Preference for Flexibility and 100% Ownership
7.5 Size, Type, and Economic Sectors of MOCs
7.6 Autonomy of MOCs: The Essential Role of the Municipal Council
7.7 Accountability Regimes: Corporate Governance Codes Are Positive Deviations
7.8 The Selection of CEOs in MOCs: The Political Cycle Matters
7.9 Municipal Corporatisation as a Political Issue
7.10 Conclusions
References
Part III: Central Federal European Countries
Chapter 8: Municipally Owned Corporations in Austria: High Popularity, Low Transparency
8.1 Introduction
8.2 The Administrative Context for Municipal Economic Activity
8.2.1 Municipalities and Municipal Functions
8.2.2 The Legal Framework for Municipal Economic Activity
8.3 Trends in Municipal Economic Activity
8.3.1 MOCs in Public Discourse
8.4 Legal Status of MOCs
8.4.1 Trends in Legal Forms
8.5 Purpose, Sectors, and Types of MOCs
8.5.1 MOCs as a Vehicle for Cooperation
8.5.2 Size and Activities of MOCs
8.6 Managerial Autonomy in MOCs
8.6.1 Limitations of Managerial Autonomy
8.6.2 Steering and Monitoring
8.6.3 Accountability
8.7 Governance Structures in MOCs
8.8 Conclusion
References
Chapter 9: Corporatised Public Service Provision of Local Governments in Germany: A Key Topic for UN-SDGs and Promising Public Corporate Governance Developments
9.1 Context of Local Governance and Corporatised Public Service Provision
9.2 Relevance of MOCs and Trends
9.3 Legal Forms of MOCs
9.4 Policy Sectors of MOCs and Organisational Characteristics
9.5 Autonomy and Public Corporate Governance of MOCs
9.5.1 Public Corporate Governance
9.5.2 Legal Requirements Regarding Autonomy, Strategy Development, Goal Setting and Monitoring
9.5.3 Public Corporate Governance Codes for MOCs
9.5.4 German Public Corporate Governance-Model Code
9.5.5 Organisational Element Shareholdings Management in Administrations
9.6 Board Structure and Board Members
9.6.1 Supervisory Boards: Size, Composition, Pay and Representation of Women
9.6.2 Executive Directors and Executive Boards
9.7 Conclusions
References
Chapter 10: Corporatisation in Swiss Local Government
10.1 Introduction and Context
10.2 Forms of MOCs
10.2.1 MOCs Under Private Law
10.2.2 MOCs Under Public Law
10.2.3 Most Common Types of MOCs
10.2.4 Legal Provisions for Setting Up an MOCs
10.3 Trends of Municipal Corporatisation
10.3.1 The History of MOCs
10.3.2 Trend in the Use of MOCs
10.3.3 MOCs by Policy Sector
10.3.4 The Financial Volume of MOCs
10.3.5 MOCs and Inter-municipal Cooperation
10.4 Managerial Characteristics of Swiss MOCs
10.4.1 Autonomy of MOCs
10.4.2 Organisational Structure of MOCs
10.4.3 Oversight of MOCs
10.4.4 Decision-Making Concerning Human Resources, Finances, and Organisational Issues
10.5 Conclusions
References
Part IV: Napoleonic Countries
Chapter 11: Municipally Owned Corporations in France: An Emerging Tool of Public Engineering
11.1 Introduction
11.1.1 The Context of Decentralisation in France
11.1.2 Recent Development of MOCs
11.2 Trend in the Use of MOCs in France: A Recent Re-structuring of the Institutional System
11.2.1 Historical Approach
11.2.2 Since the 2010s: Three Different Types of Private Law-Based MOCs
11.2.3 Diverse Fields of Activity
11.3 Reasons for Municipal Authorities to Use MOCs
11.3.1 Escaping Public Procurement Rules: A Motivation for the Transformation of SEMs into “In-house” SPLs
11.3.2 Public Control of Monopolistic Services?
11.3.3 MOCs Enable Local Authorities to Explore New Organisational Strategies
11.4 Governance and Operation
11.4.1 Conditions of Control by Public Authorities
11.4.2 Predominance of the Public Reference Shareholder
11.4.3 The Double Control of the Municipal Owner
11.4.4 MOCs, Law and Ethics: Towards New Regulations?
11.5 Conclusion: MOCs a Source of Strategic Intensification for Local Authorities?
References
Chapter 12: Municipally Owned Corporations in Greece: Historical Evolution and the Current Situation
12.1 Local Government in Greece
12.2 Historical Trends Regarding Corporations in Greek Local Government
12.2.1 Water Supply and Sewerage Companies (DEYAs)
12.2.2 MOCs under the socialist government
12.2.3 Prefectural Corporations
12.2.4 “Special Purpose” Corporations
12.2.5 Local Government Corporations in Total
12.3 The Political Background
12.4 The Current Situation
12.4.1 Types of MOCs and Regional Corporations
12.4.2 Provisions for Existing MOCs Following the 2006 Legislation
12.5 The Evolvement of the Legal and Business Status of MOCs
12.5.1 Staff and Procurement
12.5.2 Planning, Budget and Supervision
12.5.3 Board of Directors and Director General
12.6 Concluding Remarks
References
Chapter 13: Municipal Corporatisation in Italy
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Local Government Context
13.3 Trends in Corporatisation
13.4 Legal Status
13.4.1 Private Legal Forms
13.4.2 Public Legal Forms
13.5 Organisational Characteristics
13.6 Managerial Autonomy
13.6.1 Decision-Making
13.6.2 Transparency
13.6.3 Human Resource
13.6.4 Finance
13.7 Board Structure and Composition
13.8 Conclusions
References
Chapter 14: Municipal Corporatisation in Portugal: From Mania to Depression
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Trends in Municipal Corporatisation in Portugal
14.3 Legal Status of Portuguese MOCs
14.4 Organisational Characteristics of Portuguese MOCs
14.5 The Governance of Portuguese MOCs
14.6 Board Structure and CEOs of Portuguese MOCs
14.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 15: Corporatisation in Spanish Local Government: Governing the Diversity
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Institutional and Regulatory Framework
15.3 Legal and Organisational Status of MOCs
15.4 The Dynamics of Local Corporatisation
15.5 The Current Structure of Local MOCs: A Radiography
15.5.1 MOCs and Population of Municipalities
15.5.2 MOC Across Regions
15.5.3 MOCs and Local Public Services
15.6 Organisational and Decision-Making Process in MOCs
15.6.1 Autonomous Organisations
15.6.2 Government-Owned Firms
15.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 16: Corporatisation in Local Government: The Case of Turkey
16.1 Context
16.2 Trends
16.3 Legal Status
16.4 Background Characteristics
16.5 Autonomy and Legislation
16.6 Board Structure
16.7 Executive Director
16.8 Conclusion
References
Part V: Nordic Countries
Chapter 17: Municipally Owned Corporations in Denmark: Historical Continuity and Contemporary Complexities in a Local State-Centred Reform Trajectory
17.1 Introduction
17.2 National Context and Reform Trajectories
17.3 MOCs in Denmark
17.3.1 Inter-municipal Companies (§60 Communalities)
17.3.2 Municipal Companies
17.3.3 Public Companies with Private Participation
17.3.4 Other Types of Public Ownership
17.4 Major Governance Challenges
17.4.1 Strategic Purpose
17.4.2 Corporate Governance
17.4.3 Performance
17.4.4 Public Accountability
17.4.5 Commercialisation and Export
17.5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 18: Municipal Corporatisation in the Netherlands: A Vehicle for Inter-municipal Cooperation
18.1 Introduction
18.2 Context
18.3 Trend
18.4 Legal Status
18.5 Organisational Characteristics
18.6 Autonomy
18.7 Internal Governance
18.7.1 Board Structure
18.7.2 Executive Director
18.8 Conclusion
References
Chapter 19: Corporatisation in Norwegian Local Government
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Context
19.3 A Brief Note on Data
19.4 Trends
19.5 Legal Status
19.6 Background Characteristics
19.7 Board Structure
19.8 Autonomy
19.9 Monitoring
19.10 Accountability
19.11 The MOC Executive Director
19.12 Conclusion
References
Chapter 20: Municipally Owned Corporations in Sweden
20.1 Introduction
20.2 Context
20.3 The Use of MOCs in Sweden
20.4 Legal Status
20.5 Organisational Characteristics
20.5.1 The Characteristics of MOCs
20.5.2 The Use of MOCs for Inter-municipal Collaborations and PPP
20.6 Autonomy
20.6.1 Accountability, Transparency and Monitoring
20.7 Board Structure
20.8 Executive Director
20.9 Current Issues Related to Municipal Corporate Governance in Sweden
References
Part VI: Conclusion
Chapter 21: Corporatised Local Public Service Provision: Comparative Evidence from 19 Countries and Research Agenda
21.1 Introduction
21.2 Trends Regarding Numbers of MOCs Across Countries
21.3 Overview of Legal Types
21.4 Organisational Characteristics of MOCs
21.4.1 Service Sectors
21.4.2 MOCs as Vehicle for Inter-municipal Cooperation and PPPs
21.4.3 Single-Purpose Versus Multi-purpose
21.4.4 Size of MOCs
21.5 Cross-country Comparison of Autonomy in MOCs
21.6 Board Structure and Corporate Governance Across Countries
21.7 Summary and Research Agenda
21.8 Final Words
References