Local Management

The student-oriented methodology aims to enhance reflection, critical spirit and debate of ideas, aiming to deepen and clarify a set of knowledge, practices and particularities that characterize municipal management. In this particular, and to achieve this objective, it is proposed that a set of diversified strategies be developed: interactive dialogue, PowerPoint presentation and oral and direct presentation of the matter on the board, analysis and discussion of texts on the themes under analysis, participation in the context of open class of social actors, (who, through their testimony and experience in the area of local authority management, can awaken students’ interest and curiosities regarding the realities experienced in the context of local authorities,) and which in this way can contribute to bringing teaching closer to theoretical, aligning it, as much as possible, with the experience of reality brought from the field.

The main objective of this curricular unit is the understanding, apprehension and application, by the student body, of the specificities of local authorities and their management. Along these lines, this curricular unit has the following specific objectives:

provide solid training in municipal management;

provide students with the ability to critically assess the evolution of reforms that have been developing in the local sector;

understand the functioning and evolution of municipal management in the Portuguese context;

understand the specific aspects of the management of local authorities and their responsibilities and their respective bodies;

learn about the dynamics of local authorities and provide students with theoretical-practical skills to analyze, evaluate and understand the current problems facing these institutions.

highlight the importance of strategic planning in local administration.

I – Introduction to Local Governance

Conceptualization: Government/local governance

Current management system

II – Characterization of Local Administration

Local Authorities: Municipalities and Parishes

Duties and Competencies.

Competencies and Legal Operating Regime

Decentralization of Skills

III – Public Management models and Local Administrative Reform and Modernization

Reforms and Modifications to Administrative Reform

Remnants of the Classic Paradigm of Public Administration

New Public Management: The transfer to local reality

Network Management at local level

IV – Local Finance Management

Local Government Budget Process

The Participatory Budget

Taxing power

Revenue Sources

Municipal debt

V – Planning: the importance of strategy in municipal management

Strategy, planning and evaluation in an autonomous context;

Implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a strategic plan in local authorities

The contribution of the balanced scorecard methodology as a tool to help manage and monitor the strategic plan in local authorities.

Performance assessment and management indicators in the municipal context.

Performance instruments for municipal management.

VI – Management and Organization of Local Public Services

Municipalized Services

Local Business Sector

Intermunicipal Partnerships