Cities play a special role in the process of sustainable development of the country. The city management plays a fundamental role in this challenge. The mayor should become a manager and manage the city based on a strategic marketing management model. Thanks to this, it can optimally use available financial instruments that give the opportunity to achieve strategic development goals of the city.

The problem of governments’ over-indebtedness is one of the most important challenges for today’s EMU governance. As numbers suggest, the problem of extensive deficits has appeared in the EMU long before the burst of the global financial crisis. We suspect that the membership in a currency area might be partially blamed for such progression of indebtedness. This paper examines the determinants of government risk premiums in the EU Member States to answer if the risk premium assigned by the market may give currency area Member States additional incentives for profligacy. Controlling other factors, we investigate the pattern in which fiscal deficits and GDP growth affect the yield of 10-year-maturity government bonds in the euro area and the non-euro area EU Member States. Our results are straightforward. The market penalizes EU countries that do not belong to the euro area for bad economic performance and extensive deficits from 4 to 7 times stronger. Our estimates confirm the strong impact of the common credibility problem in the EMU but also support the key role of financial stress in determining the cost of government debt.

The idea of using the Cloud of Things is becoming more critical for e-government, as it is considered to be a useful mechanism of facilitating the government’s work. The most important benefit of using the Cloud of Things concept is the increased productivity that the e-governments would achieve; which eventually would lead to significant cost savings; which in turn would have a highly anticipated future impact on egovernments. E-government’s diversity goals face many challenges; trust is one of the major challenges that it is facing when deploying the Cloud of Things. In this study, a new trust framework is proposed which supports trust with the Internet of Things devices interconnected to the cloud; to support the services that are provided by e-government to be delivered in a trusted manner. The proposed framework has been applied to a use case study to ensure its trustworthiness in a real mission. The results show that the proposed trust framework is useful to ensure achieving a trusted environment for the Cloud of Things for it to continue providing and gathering the data needed for the services that are offered by users through E-government.

Who owns the city? Do the inhabitants of modern cities have a reflection on their place of everyday life? Do they treat the city as commons? Do they feel co-responsible for the directions of development of their cities? Answers to the above questions have far-reaching consequences for urban development policy. They are the basis for assessing the ongoing democratization processes in the local government sphere. They also reveal important aspects of the condition of civil society. Although, on the basis of various indicators the trend is positive, it seems that the awareness of the role of the citizen versus the ordinary resident is poorly rooted in the attitudes of the Polish people. And the lesson of citizenship is still an undisrupted task for a large part of the inhabitants of our country. The greatest hopes lie in the generation of young and educated Poles who, through the development of participative management mechanisms, are becoming more aware of the possibilities of citizens’ influence on urban policy. The article is an attempt to answer the above questions based on literature review, current press articles and empirical studies conducted among a group of students.

Maternal mortality has posed a great problem in the health sector of most African countries. Nigeria’s maternal mortality ratio remains high despite efforts made to meet millennium development goal 5 (MDG5). This study used the Lagos state community health survey 2011 and the Lagos state health budget allocations 2011 to examine the effect of government expenditure on maternal mortality ratio. Factors like inadequate transportation facilities, lack of awareness, inadequate infrastructures, which contribute to high maternal mortality rate, can be traced back to revenue though under different ministries. The other ministries need to work and support the ministry of health in the fight against maternal, especially in Lagos state. Secondary data was compiled from the state budget, records of death in different local governments in the state and relevant reviewed literature. Regression analysis was used to analyze the hypothesis and it was discovered that government expenditure does not have a significant effect on maternal mortality based on the R-square coefficient. However, correlation coefficient gives a contrasting result. Hence, further research work, government expenditure from other local government areas need to be taken into consideration to arrive at a valid conclusion. It is difficult to ascertain how much of the revenue allocated was put to appropriate use, due to a high level of corruption.

There is a very high interest in international literature about the governance of common goods related to a redefinition of representative democracy. Scholars like Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione have proposed new models of governance enhancing the preservation and management of the commons in order to overcome problems and contradictions of complex contemporary cities, such as social exclusion and land privatisation. The aim of this paper is to verify, through a recognition of administrative documents, if in the example of Rome, the political actors, the municipal government, and the civil society, could be able to take part in a collaborative governance inspired reform. To answer this question, the relationship between the policy making process, the economic production model and the normative claims arising from social groups will be investigated. What is emerging is a difficulty of the administration in implementing collaborative principles. This is reflected in the issuance of discordant administrative measures, stemming from problems in relaying to civil society and active citizens the role that these principles assign. The reasons for this mismatching might be identified in the distinctive urban regime of Rome and the political and economic set that fosters social exclusion and does not consider the positive effects and the value of collaborative-oriented policy, enhancing sharing economy and social cohesion. The constant recall in the political discourse of concepts such as common goods, citizen’s participation and collaboration values takes the characteristics of a discursive resource, a ‘common washing’, which institutions and politics seem to re-propose and consolidate the traditional mode of public action, though apparently declaring its inadequacy and ineffectiveness.

Low cost manufacturing of quality products remains an essential part of present economy

and technological advances made it possible. Advances and amalgamation of information

technology bring the production systems at newer level. Industry 4.0, factory for future,

smart factory, digital manufacturing, and industrial automation are the new buzz words of

industry stalwarts and academicians. These new technological revolutions bound to change

not only the complete manufacturing scenarios but many other sectors of the society. In this

paper an attempt has been made to capture the essence of Industry 4.0 by redefining it in

simple words, further its complex, disruptive nature and inevitability along with technologies

backing it has been discussed. Its enabling role in manufacturing philosophies like Lean

Manufacturing, and Flexible Manufacturing are also

The Cracow districts have the status of auxiliary self-governing units within this city and, generally should be communities of residents living in particular parts of the city, close to them, in which they implement their daily practices. In theer article, the authors, by examining the sense of belonging to the district, undertook to identify its perception by residents and relations between the residents and their auxiliary units, on the example of two such districts this of VIII Dębniki and X Swoszowice. Attitudes of their residents towards self-governing districts were identified on the basis of 1141 questionnaires, obtaining during surveys conducted in 2017. The authors have found relatively weak relations of residents with their auxiliary units, as evidenced by small involvement in initiatives taken for the benefit of this districts. The analysis, however, showed also considerable differences in the detailed assessment of the attitudes of residents at the level of their division according to their age groups, period of the residence, as well as to the type of housing a single-family, multi-family or mixed ones.

The smart city concept is constantly evolving. More and researchers in Poland and also in the whole world deal with this issue. In practice, it is noted that in cities around the world you can find more and more implemented projects referred as smart, in particular in Barcelona, Vienna and Copenhagen and others. According to the classical definition, smart city means introducing solutions based on the latest information technologies to urban spaces in order to improve the quality of life of city residents. Smart city is a city concept in which solutions can solve the most important problems related to the functioning of cities, such as improvements in public transport and goods in cities, counteracting climate change through the use of energy-saving solutions of city lighting, social inclusion (access city) and others. The concept of smart city is based on IT solutions that are constantly modernized and adapted to specific needs of individual cities. By using real-time access to information, they help make more efficient decisions for city users. However, recent approaches highlight the relationship between modern network technologies and the urban community. One can notice the focus of the researchers on the relational approach, which means combining the smart city concept with the participation of residents in the city management process, and in particular making choices and implementing smart projects. In this sense, the smart city idea defines the way of managing a city in which relations between the self-government, IT providers and science as well as the inhabitants of the city are particularly important. Responding to the needs of residents is particularly important as counteracting the tendency to focus smart products and services in richer places and create socalled an innovation hub with the simultaneous periphery of the remaining districts. Criticism of the smart city concept focuses on the problem of the social polarization of cities, in which the technological revolution contributes more to the increase of socio-economic disparities rather than their decreasing. The aim of the article is to answer the question whether the implementation of the smart city concept polarizes the urban community and does it allow the inclusive development of cities?

Self-government districts in the minds of the city residents on the example of selected districts of Cracow, The article demonstrates the problem of perception of auxiliary units of the city by its residents. The history of the creation of self-government districts in Cracow was presented, the results of the survey conducted among the residents of three districts were shown (n=1433) and they were referred to the observations of other authors outlined in the subject literature. The study revealed that the self-government districts, which have been functioning for more than a quarter of a century, are poorly embedded in the consciousness of residents and do not play a significant role in their lives. Most of the respondents were not able to give the name of their own district correctly and did not know its spatial extent. The former administrative divisions and historical settlement units (former villages) were still deeply rooted in their consciousness. Most of the respondents did not take part in public life of the districts, nor did they participate in the initiatives taken at their level.

All local government units in Poland have been analysed regarding their consolidated debt. The consolidated debt was compared with the budget debt which is subject to monitoring and statutory restrictions. The scale of extra-budgetary debt has been revealed as recorded in the balance sheet of a local government unit, a parent entity. In practice, the consolidated balance sheet and debt presented in it are not subject to debates and analyses. Local governments refrain from auditing and publicising of the consolidated balance sheet. The article describes the risks related to unlimited local government debt.

Cities are changing before our eyes. Civilization trends should be accompanied by the appropriate management styles of local development. The crisis of civil policy and the power of representation undermines the essence of the current model of democracy and the effectiveness of local policy. Therefore, it evolves towards governance. The influence of civic activity is mostly visible at the local level. Its importance is multidimensional and it shapes the social, economic and environmental conditions of urban life. The article guides the reader through various meanders of research and public debate on engaging inhabitants in local policy. Its aim is to indicate the scope of resident’s influence on the current policy of Polish cities, in particular with regard to the investment policy. The paper is based on the extensive literature studies and the primary research carried out in all of the cities in Silesia voidvoship.

The author analyzes the relationship between the size of GDP generated in the region and its metropolitan capital city, and the level of budget revenues of local government units – including the metropolis. On the example of Małopolska and Cracow, it observes tendencies of the growing level of income of local governments in relation to GDP, but fi rst of all it points out that in the metropolitan city the ratio is much lower than in the whole region. This defi ciency is called the „metropolitan income gap” and looks for the reasons for its occurrence. He points to the dynamic suburbanization, which causes that more and more groups of people contributing to the production of GDP in a metropolitan city pay property taxes, personal income and a large part of VAT in the suburban area. What is more, the areas of this zone use various forms of development support – for example, development of rural areas. The author considers the phenomenon of the «metropolitan income gap» to be a negative phenomenon, limiting the ability to compete on a global scale and points to several possible ways leading to its reduction. The author considers the phenomenon of the «metropolitan income gap» to be a negative phenomenon, limiting the ability to compete on a global scale and points to several possible ways leading to its.

This article analyses the capacity of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance to counteract the democratic governance shortfall. It argues that the tangible impact of the treaty on the states’ practice has been limited by various endogenous and exogenous factors. The former are identified as directly linked to content of the document and refer to the accuracy of the drafting. The latter are rooted outside the text and beyond the character of the Charter and include issues relating to the states’ reluctance to ratify the document, certain constitutional constraints undermining implementation on the national level, and the weak international guarantees of enforcement.

The objective of this paper is to derive the characteristics of an effective governance framework ensuring incentives for conducting a prudent fiscal policy.We study this problem with the use of econometric tools and a sample of 28 European Union Member States between 2003 and 2017. By looking at specific reforms and measures, not only we verify the synthetic effectiveness of fiscal constraints but also we analyse specific elements of the governance framework.Our study shows that fiscal balances are affected not only by the economic cycle, but, among others, by the level of public debt and its cost. We find that the existence of numerical fiscal rules, in that specifically revenue and expenditures rules, their strong legal entrenchment, surveillance mechanisms, sanctions, and flexibility with respect to business cycle have a significant impact on curbing deficits.