The Role of Local Government in the Drive for Sustainable Development Public Policies. An Analytical Framework Based on Institutional Capacities

Miquel Salvador and David Sancho
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Miquel Salvador: Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
David Sancho: Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona, 08005 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: The role of local governments in promoting policies to combat climate change is critical. In order to play this role, local administrations must have different capacities that allow them to analyze, manage and transform their environment through public policies. This article aims to contribute to the academic debate on the role of local governments in the articulation of climate change policies and sustainable development. The proposal combines a conceptual and analytical contribution, which is illustrated by means of a case study analysis. At the conceptual and analytical level, the article proposes a review of the contributions from the perspective of public policies and organizational management models in order to introduce an analytical framework based on four capacities: strategic, analytical, managerial and collaborative. This framework is developed based on the design of a strategy to measure the existence of these capabilities in a given local government by means of specific indicators. This analytical framework is applied through a case study of Barcelona City Council and its policies to combat climate change and promote sustainable development. The results of the analysis highlight the importance of the combined action of the four management capacities mentioned as a precondition for the articulation of this type of policies at the local government level.

Keywords: climate change policies; sustainable development policies; institutional capacities; policy capacities; local government (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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