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

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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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Miquel Salvador & David Sancho, 2021. "The Role of Local Government in the Drive for Sustainable Development Public Policies. An Analytical Framework Based on Institutional Capacities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:5978-:d:562300
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Muhammad Saifullah Khalid Malik & Zhanyong Qi & Mussarat Iqbal & Samina Zamir & Balqees Fatima Malik, 2023. "Education for sustainable development: Secondary school teacher's awareness and perception of integration," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1515-1525, June.
    3. Xingyu Qi & Songyan Han, 2022. "The Way toward Sustainability: Policy Attention Evolution of Chinese Local Governments to Promote Entrepreneurship of Returnees Based on Grounded Theory and Social Network Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-25, October.
    4. Anastasia Mortimer & Iftekhar Ahmed & Thomas Johnson & Liyaning Tang & Margaret Alston, 2023. "Localizing Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action to Build Local Resilience to Floods in the Hunter Valley: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, March.
    5. María-Carmen Ricoy & Cristina Sánchez-Martínez, 2022. "Raising Ecological Awareness and Digital Literacy in Primary School Children through Gamification," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-19, January.
    6. Borrás, Susana & Haakonsson, Stine & Taudal Poulsen, René & Pallesen, Trine & Hendriksen, Christian & Somavilla, Lucas & Kugelberg, Susanna & Larsen, Henrik & Gerli, Francesco, 2023. "The Transformative Capacity of Public Sector Organizations in Sustainability Transitions: A Conceptualization," Papers in Innovation Studies 2023/2, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.

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