LEADERSHIP AND FISCAL IMBALANCES IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: THE MEDIATION ANALYSIS OF BUDGET INCREMENTALISM

Abstract

Policy, practice, and past research are largely inconclusive on what explains fiscal imbalances in local government. While leadership attributes; political functionality, managerial and technical capacity, and civic participation are often empirically-cited as dominant imbalances predictors, budget incrementalism also features as instrumental to leadership-fiscal imbalances linkages. This study employs situational, managerial, participative, and fiscal imbalances theoretical perspectives to examine budget incrementalism mediation on the leadership-fiscal imbalances relationship in local governments in Uganda, East Africa. Structural equation modeling results reveal that while political functionality and civic participation leadership explain the imbalances, managerial and technical capacity leadership does not. Besides, budget incrementalism mediates the leadership-fiscal imbalances relationship. Findings implications and future research direction bridging leadership-budget incrementalism-fiscal imbalances are discussed.

Keywords

• local government; leadership; fiscal imbalances