Hi Peter.
Regional planning processes in Australia, as Oliver would know, have been fairly accurately described as pragmatic incrementalism or muddling through. The findings on this basis are not too surprising.
Creating the favourable environment for regional sustainability is a critical issue here.
In Public Administration Today 2007 Issue 13. I, I created a compendium of best practice salient principles in which regional development in Tasmania could occur. Regional best practice models change the focus from top-down representative government to an inclusion of bottom-up governance; encourage participative democracy (instead of representative democracy) and shift power from single service delivery to collaborative policy communities.
The following is a summary of those principles…
1. Principle of Local Capacity and Ownership. Harness the capacity of local leaders and entrepreneurs by enhancing human capital. Each region’s most valuable assets are the one’s they already have.
2. Principle of Well-Integrated and Stable Governance. All levels of government, business, education and the community work together to create a vibrant local economy through a long-term investment strategy of vision and inclusion. This new role of governance overcomes policy silos and improves coordination among policies at different levels.
3. Principle of Wired Communities. Invest in technology that supports the ability of local business to succeed and provides open access to information and resources.
4. Principle of Enabling. Shifting from government in control of the directing of services to the role of enabling and facilitator of services.
5. Client-focused Principle. View the world through the eyes of the clients, be they ratepayers, individuals, families or communities. Target local economic development to promote jobs that match the skills of the residents, improve skills of low-income individuals, address the needs of families and insure affordable housing, transport and child-care.
6. Principle of Solidarity. Devolution of service planning and delivery to the local level.
7. Principle of Partnership. Using cross-sectoral approaches to address social opportunities and problems through building social capital.
8. Principle of Businesses as the Key Drivers of Economic Development. Instruments include small business incubators, entrepreneurial training, export promotion and capital access.
9. Principle of Endogenous Development Strategies, Industry Clusters and Innovation. Non-metropolitan regions can profit from the success of regions with large talent pools by offering a diversity of lifestyle and open space recreational opportunities.
10. Principle of Place. Developing a single-face of government at the local level and build on the comparative advantage of a particular region rather than competition within regions.
11. Principle of Living Communities. Regions should have multidimensional land use patterns that ensures a mix of uses, promotes walking, bicycling and transit access to employment, education, recreation, entertainment, shopping and services.
12. Principle of Sustainable Development. A unifying framework to attain inter-generational equity of social and environmental outcomes.
13. Principle of Evaluation and Evidence-based Policy. Develop a learning community through culture of ongoing evaluation
I note the research findings against industry clusters. I argued in 2007 that market forces usually drive the birth of clusters, however the sustainability of regional growth cannot be left to market forces alone.
cheers,
Rob Sveen
Download Rob Sveen’s full analysis: 3SveenarticlePATIssue133.pdf
