Local government training in England and Wales, Denmark and Israel
This article highlights an interesting and often unduly neglected aspect of comparative public policy and administration: local government training. The argument advanced is that local government training based on the centrally focused model may tend to be: (i) skill-oriented and competence-framed; (ii) comprehensive; and (iii) quality-controlled in a relatively rigorous manner. By contrast, local government training based on the locally focused model may tend to be: (i) skill-oriented and competence-framed alongside a focus on ‘people’ and organizational issues, conventional policy issues and broad local government issues; (ii) non-comprehensive, and (iii) weakly controlled for quality. The integrative model, which is the most innovative form of the three models presented here, may tend to manifest a varied mix of the aforementioned features. Based on an institutional analysis combined with interviews with senior training officials at national and local levels, this argument is illustrated in England and...