Competitive cities: implications for better public service

Abstract

The neo-liberal paradigm of competitive governments has been embraced by developing countries avowedly to improve public service. A “Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index” (CMCI) has in fact, been in place in the Philippines since 2012 as a measure of competitive government. It annually ranks cities and municipalities in terms of economic dynamism, government efficiency and infrastructure provision. Because of the index’s heavy focus on economic development, this study asks whether competition works for better public service and competitive governments are not remiss in addressing other material dimensions of development, e.g. social, cultural and human development. The study uses mixed methods, e.g. descriptive and qualitative as well as quantitative analysis to review the trends and patterns in the CMCI and infer the Index’s implications in delivering needed public service through a correlation analysis between the CMCI, and human development index (HDI) and poverty incidence (PI). The findings based on limited disaggregated data reveal that competition appears to drive better performance among inherently competitive highly urbanized cities, which are found to have high HDI, low poverty incidence and high internal revenue allotment (IRA) as well. Recognizing some theoretical and practical policy questions on the infirmities of the CI, it also suggests reexamining the reasons for the underperformance of low ‘competitive governments’ or cities, by among others looking at how the IRA may be modified.