The Freeports strategy announced by the previous government attempted to address today's challenges with yesterday's recipes, lacked the necessary deregulatory framework and failed to address key issues such as the housing crisis. This paper proposes an alternative: a new generation of 'Hong...

In recent years, advanced democracies have witnessed a marked decline in candidates for local government office, undermining electoral competition and accountability and triggering a sheer political recruitment crisis. Although several factors may contribute to this trend — such as generalized...

The Local Development Councils (LDCs) feature a significant participatory governance function in local policy development, as local government units (LGUs) are mandated to constitute LDCs with members from civil society organizations (CSOs). While the Department of the Interior and Local...

In recent decades, decentralization reforms have surged across the Global South, aiming to bring governance closer to citizens. Despite extensive debate on their effectiveness, systematic methods to assess local government performance remain underexplored, particularly in data-constrained...

For years, federal politicians from all established parties have categorically ruled out any cooperation with the Alternative for Germany (AfD), erecting a so-called "firewall" ("Brandmauer") against the party. Nevertheless, reports increasingly document instances where this firewall is eroding,...