Public Administration Research Paper

1.0 Introduction

Review of teaching approaches, what is being taught, why it is taught and other nascent questions have been an important area of research in graduate education over the past decades. In like manner, the content and scope of courses taught in the field of Public Administration (PA) at graduate levels has been subjected to intense inquiry, especially in the USA and Europe. These research efforts aim at bringing to the fore the pedagogical foci and the theoretical foundation of the various courses taught in PA. The dominant focus of these researches on Master of Public Administration (MPA) curriculum are issues related to teaching of performance management (see, Fitzpatrick & Miller-Stevens, 2009), diversity (see, Hewins-Maroney

Mostly LG has been defined as governmental organs having jurisdiction over specific portion of a country with some delineated functions and powers. According to scholars (Jennings, 1947; Rao, 1965; Clarke, 1987; Pallot, 1998) LG is conceptualized as public institutions, mandated to decide and administer a limited range of public services within relatively small homogeneous territory as a sub division of a country. In a more expanded explanation of LG, Clarke (1985) opines that;

“Local Government is that part of the Government of a nation or state which deals mainly with such matters as concern the inhabitants of the particular district of places, together with those matters which parliament has deemed it desirable should be administered by local bodies, subordinate to the Central

A particular advantage of local government rests in its ability to ensure the provision of local needs that fit into local tastes and preferences. The rationale for the existence of local government is its solution to the problem of local public needs. The proximity of local governments to local citizens places it strategically than central government to offer the requisite services to its public as it works in close coordination with local NGOs and community-based institutions or volunteers. Local government creates institutional processes to make the political system comprehensive and complete in public decision making (Mawhood, 1993: 66, Wraith, 1964: 118). Again, whilst many public goods such as defense, are national in extent, other public goods such as local parks, street lighting and refuse collection, have a more limited geographical extent and very unique. This situation requires separate institutions with similar characters of central government to undertake the provision of such service.

Though local government in Ghana is relatively not dissimilar from local government in other parts of the world, its management appears to be a little different. Whiles in other parts of the world, like the United States, the crown is not officially part of local government, in the Ghanaian structure, traditional authorities have a place. The institution of local government has been part of