Local Government

PMR — pp. 1-28 2026-09-17 Original Unpacking local government responsiveness to social media: evidence from Mexico Guillermo M. Cejudo, Fernando Nieto-Morales Abstract Local governments worldwide increasingly adopt social media to engage citizens. What factors make governments more likely to respond to citizens on social media? We explore how Mexican municipal governments use Facebook to interact with citizens, with a mixed-methods approach analysing data from 635 municipalities. Using a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis, we distinguish between general responsiveness (channel setup) and interactive responsiveness (substantive engagement). Small municipalities are more likely to engage citizens when adaptive potential and formal participation policies are present. In contrast, larger cities show responsiveness when they have available resources, established participation rules and policies, and a propitious environment.

JPART — 2026-09-09 Original Institutional Conversion and Digital Transformation in Local Governments: A Longitudinal Analysis of Trajectories Adalmir de Oliveira Gomes Abstract Abstract This article asks a central question in digital government research: why do local governments operating under similar institutional conditions follow sharply different digital transformation trajectories over time? Drawing on theories of gradual institutional change, the study conceptualizes digital transformation not as a discrete adoption outcome, but as a process of institutional conversion through which technological capacity is translated into sustained digital service provision. Information governance is theorized as the key conditioning mechanism linking technological resources to durable organizational outcomes. The analysis combines longitudinal panel models, fixed-effects estimators, and trajectory-based clustering using a panel of all Brazilian municipalities (MUNIC/IBGE; N = 5,569) across seven waves between 2004 and 2024. Results show that increases in technological capacity are associated with subsequent gains in digital services, but these effects are gradual and conditional. Information governance significantly shapes how municipalities mobilize and stabilize technological resources over time, while interaction models reveal non-linear and diminishing returns consistent with institutional coordination limits. Trajectory analyses identify four distinct patterns of digital transformation, ranging from ‘institutionalized pioneers’ to ‘persistent stagnation’, demonstrating that digital development unfolds through path-dependent and institutionally anchored trajectories rather than through simple convergence. The article contributes to public administration research in three ways: provides rare longitudinal evidence on local digital transformation over two decades; integrates institutional change theory into digital government research by conceptualizing governance as a mechanism of institutional conversion; and advances a trajectory-based explanation of digital transformation that shifts attention from episodic technological adoption to cumulative institutional processes shaping long-run administrative performance.

CQ — pp. 1-20 2026-09-01 Original The Origins of Land Finance: Local Resistance and Top-Down Imposition Saul Kriger Wilson Abstract Abstract Land sales have been a significant source of revenue for Chinese local governments since the early 2000s. Contrary to popular belief, local governments did not turn to land finance to make up for lost tax revenues after the 1994 tax sharing reform. Rather, both before and after 1994, corrupt land sales were widespread, as officials sold land far below market prices in return for bribes. Even as the fiscal incentives for local governments to adopt land finance increased in the 1990s, state agents continued acting on their own personal interests rather than the institutional interests of local governments. Local governments only began to sell land at higher, market prices when an anti-corruption campaign launched by the central government made doing so a political imperative in the early 2000s. Local governments were much more responsive to political imperatives than to fiscal incentives.

PA — 2026-08-16 Original Organizational Capacity to Implement Social Equity in Emergency Management: A Local Government Perspective Jason D. Rivera, Claire Connolly Knox, Clinton McNair, Joseph Ripberger

PMR — pp. 1-25 2026-08-12 Original Should we stay or should we go? Implications of trust in the municipality for second-generation migrants’ behavioural intentions towards the municipality

PA — 2026-08-06 Original Institutional Pressures or Organizational Capacity? Antecedents of Digital Maturity in Local Governments Sarah Van Impe, Lieselot Danneels, Ben Suykens Abstract ABSTRACT Public administration research has identified institutional pressures and organizational capacity as digital maturity (DM) antecedents, yet these are typically considered in isolation. Taking the proverbial next step, this study draws on primary survey data to explain the variation of DM among local governments in Flanders (the northern region of Belgium) by juxtaposing the explanatory power of institutional pressures on the one hand, and political and administrative capacity on the other hand. Using multiple regression analyses, our findings highlight the critical role of administrative capacity in advancing DM among local governments. In contrast, and somewhat surprisingly, political capacity and institutional pressures appear to play a more limited role. These findings challenge conventional assumptions in existing literature, indicating that institutional pressures may catalyze the initial stages of DT, whereas organizational capacity seems to be more influential in sustaining and advancing DM.

CQ — pp. 1-23 2026-07-06 Original The Emergence of Local Digital Platform Vehicles in China Wenjia Song, Tianguang Meng Abstract Abstract As China’s land-financed development model faces increasing constraints, local governments have turned to public data as a new strategic resource. However, there is a governance puzzle with public data: how can the state mobilize a resource whose ownership remains legally and politically unresolved? This article examines Local Digital Platform Vehicles (LDPVs), hybrid corporations that have proliferated since the early 2010s. Drawing on data gathered from extensive interviews and an original nationwide dataset of LDPVs from 2014 to 2025, we argue that these entities enable local governments to exercise “control without ownership” by asserting authority over data flows rather than through formal property rights. Internally, control is achieved through co-shareholding, task approval, personnel and strategic partner selection, which bind market actors to local developmental objectives. Externally, LDPVs extract value by internalizing subcontractor profits, pursuing data financialization and shifting towards platform-based models. The article shows how China’s local developmental state is developing new organizational instruments for governance in the digital age.

PAR — 2026-06-30 Original The Diffusion of Local Administrative Innovation: Investigating Municipal Climate Managers in the State of Hessen in Central Germany Kai Schulze, Jonas J. Schoenefeld, Marco Nicolay

PMR — pp. 1-34 2026-06-27 Original When you make and buy: understanding service delivery portfolios in concurrent sourcing Ming Li, Jiahuan Lu, Jianzhi Zhao, Yongkang Wang, Yiying Chen

PAR — 2026-06-23 Original Does Size Matter for the Relationship Between Politics and Administration? Hilde Bjørnå, Troy Saghaug Broderstad