result, the township administrative level is less autonomous and both township and
county managed services have suffered.
This paper proceeds as follows. The first section examines the general definition
and functions of local government. What is the difference between a local government
and non-autonomous administrative units dependent on higher authorities? The focus of
attention is on two aspects of local government: local autonomy and governing capacity.
The interaction between autonomy and governing capacity is associated with the ability
of local administrative units to efficiently implement policy and provide services. The
second section examines the direct influence the TFR has on the provision of local health
care personal and primary school education. The third section explores the problem of
increasing county deficits in poorer regions particularly after the year 2000. The final
section shows how the county governments are reducing the actual number of townships
through redistricting and streamlining the local bureaucracy in order to create more
efficient county administrative units at the township level.
What is a local government?
There are several characteristics that define a local government across different
regions and countries: (1) a budget, (2) a separate legal existence, (3) the authority
allocate local recourses including revenue collection and (4) a range of specific functions
(Mahwood 1983, Humes 1991, Kandeva 2000). First, a local governmental body has its
own budget with balanced estimates of revenues and expenditures. Employees of the
local government manage the budget office rather than civil servants from administrative
units above. Second, a country may have several levels of local government that are
defined by law. For example, a country may have three of four local government units.
9
Convention